My letter to the NYTimes RE ROOM FOR DEBATE Can Hamas-Fatah Unity Lead to Mideast Peace?

ATFP Springs Forward, Asks for Your Support

RE ROOM FOR DEBATE Can Hamas-Fatah Unity Lead to Mideast Peace?

Dear NYTimes,

Regarding the recent Room for Debate, the one that came out the day before Obama declared that a  'Pause' in Israeli-Palestinian talks was needed... the April 24 2014 Room for Debate exploring the question Can Hamas-Fatah Unity Lead to Mideast Peace?.

Reading a barrage of headlines and opinion stories about Obama backing away yesterday I could not help but wonder if he too explored the recent New York Times Room for Debate, which leaves the impression that Palestinians do not support negotiations- or statehood.

You presented two pro-Israel and two pro-Palestine perspectives, giving an appearance of balance... but it really was not at all balanced.

On the pro-Israel side, in support of a country that is already fully sovereign and secure, one pro-Israel writer is a former Israel security chief. The other pro-Israel writer is a former terrorism finance analyst at the Treasury Department and author of "State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State."

On the supposedly pro-Palestine side, both writers are Palestinian American activists featured and promoted by Mondoweiss blog whose editor, Adam Horowitz, most recently published  Five reasons the breakdown of peace talks is a good thing .  From what I can see Mondoweiss blog is an active online forum for anti-Israel Jewish Americans and their favorite Arab American and Palestinian writers. They are well meaning for sure, but they are not at all interested in promoting actual state building for Palestine. 

Both the Palestinian American writers ( Ali Abunimah  & Noura Erakat )  you featured in your Room for Debate are very likable people, and I am sure they have very good intentions, but their main interest is in advocating Boycott campaigns, not Palestinian statehood. Countering the "pro-Palestine" Palestinian American arguments advocating Boycott  you published a separate column by NYTimes columnist Roger Cohen: "Israel's Sustainable Success". 

Cohen, like  Ali Abunimah , promotes the idea that it is a myth that "the Palestinian Authority, as currently constituted, represents the Palestinian national movement."

Both the Palestinian American writers you featured in your Room for Debate are and have been very much against negotiations- and very much against a two state solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Your room for debate had no room for Palestinian American, or better yet actual Palestinian supporters of negotiations and a two state solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict based on full respect for international law.

For instance a rather obvious choice regarding informed opinions on negotiations and statehood would be from the PLO Delegation to the United States:  Israel’s Provocative Land Confiscations Further Threaten Peace Prospects
Or the American Task Force on Palestine: Arab-Americans must embrace success over victimhood ... with the indubitable well worth quoting Dr. Hussein Ibish: Ruling on Jerusalem   & Dr. Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace  "The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine."

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
PBS: Six takes on the Palestinian unity deal

That is real cultural and educational leadership and integrity. It is principled, brave, intelligent and unflinching. It deserves only support, applause and emulation...

American Task Force on Palestine Springs Forward

Choosing Sides ... a poem  

To a State ...a poem

Outreach: American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) "Our Israeli and Palestinian partners in the Middle East as well as our partners in the U.S. believe as we do that a lasting peace must begin with a commitment to shared security for all."

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"Read and remember, take a minute to recall the smell of your grandmother’s za’atar and the taste of balady labaneh, and imagine what would happen if we were to lose it all…" This Week in Palestine

Growing Gardens for Palestine: "And it's up to all of us together"... a Spring poem for Palestine & peace

Peace Building ... civic muscle

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace