Olmert's Nightmare - The Growing Belief in a One-State Solution in Palestine »
Posted By hyperbola 7 months, 3 weeks ago in ReligionEhud Olmert's nightmare is at hand. Not only does the former Israeli prime minister now really have to fight those corruption charges. He also faces the realization of his fears that the Palestinians might give up on a two-state solution in favor of a struggle for equal rights that would mean, as he put it, the "end of the Jewish state."
Yo, Ehud, that struggle is a growing movement, and it isn't a threat to Jews -- on the contrary, Jews are very much a part of it.
Just last weekend in Boston, American and/or Israeli Jews accounted for nearly a third of the 29 speakers at a conference organized by TARI (Trans Arab Research Institute) with the William Joiner Center at the University of Massachusetts.
This is the second major public conference on how to achieve a single democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis. The first was held in London in November, and a third is slated for Toronto in June.
In a sign of the one-state movement's persistence, the conference was over-subscribed weeks before it was held; dozens were turned away because the hall only seated 500 people. Those who got in remained glued to their seats as one intense presenter followed another, in spite of limited time for questions and, on day two, no lunch.
... There is no "monolithic Jewish voice," Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti reminded, adding that it is anti-Semitic to claim otherwise. He pointed to the "disproportionate number of Jews" in the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel until Palestinian human rights are achieved.
As for the Jews, several referred to the way that Zionism had subverted the values of Judaism, and highlighted alternative discourses. As law philosopher Ori Ben-Dor put it, "Zionism abuses the Jewish memory and the humanist message of the holocaust." Historian Norton Mezvinsky said Palestinians and other Arabs have not been the only victims of Zionism.
Historian Gabriel Piterberg held up the poetry of the late Avot Yeshurun as a model of blending narratives and identities by mixing Arabic and Yiddish idiom into Hebrew poetry. Anthropologist Smadar Lavie said a common struggle against the oppression of Jews of Arab descent and Palestinian Arabs offered a way out of Zionism towards co-existence. Historian Ilan Pappe pointed to many concrete "de-Zionising" projects on the ground, including shared kindergartens.
A remarkable aspect of the conference was the way nearly all speakers highlighted the Zionist project -- creating an exclusivist state -- as the root of the problem, and discussed ways to challenge it.
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hyperbola
Military brat (14th generation American) with unassuaged wanderlust. By age 11, schools in four states and three foreign countries (in 3 languages). Left home at ...
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Candida7 months, 3 weeks ago
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I can't understand why this is a big surprise to anybody. Jewish leaders have been talking about a two-state solution as if a sovereign state could be created on bits and pieces of land criss-crossed by land belonging to another state. I could never understand how they imagined that sovereign Palestinian state as they continued to build Jewish settlements in it.
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Thinker227 months, 3 weeks ago
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You should read something about the sublect and then (hopefully) you'll understand it better, Candida.
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You see, in 1948 it was Israel that WAS created from bits and pieces proving that it COULD be done. Palestinian Arabs were offered a sovereign state then as well but preferred to start a war instead and lost.
Since 1948 Israel offered the Arabs to NEGOTIATE a peace agreement. You're familiar with the concept of negotiations, aren't you? Basically, it's talks where the two sides exchange offers and opinions until a mutually acceptable agreement results. A necessary condition for success in neagotiations is the willingness of BOTH sides to arrive to a successful agreement.
> I could never understand how they imagined that sovereign Palestinian state as they continued to build Jewish settlements in it.
As I've said you should try to educate yourself on the subject, Candida, and then, hopefully, you'll understand it better. For example, you'll be surprised to discover that there were Jewish settlements in Sinai until 1978 when a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt was signed. There are no settlements there anymore.
You will be surprised even more if you'll recall that there were Jewish settlements in Gaza until three years ago. There are no Jewish settlements in Gaza as well.
You see, Candida, settlements can be removed. I can assure you that if and when the Palestinians will produce leadership ABLE AND WILLING to make peace with Israel a sovereign Palestinian state will be established with not a single Jew living within its borders. -
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hyperbola7 months, 2 weeks ago
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Candida, don't be distracted by thinker. He has a long history here of telling whopping lies to try to cover up zionist crimes against humanity. The positive development is that the majority of the world's jews now reject the racist, totalitarian zionism that thinker tries to justify.
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Why the Only Solution for Jews and Palestinians is a One State Solution
...For a durable solution to the Arab Israeli conflict, a single democratic and secular state for Jews and Palestinians needs to evolve. A single state promises a more durable long-term solution than the two-state solution, currently in vogue. The two-state solution is inherently unstable for four reasons:
1. First, demographically, a purely Jewish state is impossible to attain.... The Zionist dream of creating an exclusive state for the Jewish people in Palestine is unsustainable in the long-term...
2. Secondly, intractable issues stand in the way of a two-state solution: Jerusalem, borders, security for Israel and for Palestine, water rights, settlements, and the refugees’ right-of-return. Since the signing of the Oslo Agreement on September 13, 1993, none of the thorny issues has been resolved....
3. Thirdly, even if a miracle patches up a two-state agreement the extremists on both sides would undermine the agreement. The extremists believe that they are divinely ordained to keep-up the struggle until they control the entirety of the land....
4. Fourthly, the Arab masses w ill shun a Zionist state. Judging from Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt (March 26, 1979) and Jordan (October 26, 1994), relations among the Egyptian and Jordanian masses and Israelis failed to develop beyond small diplomatic missions.
Western democratic and secular ideals should inspire the development of a single, democratic, and secular state for Palestinians and Jews. There are three reasons in support of such a development:
1. First, the intractable obstacles that have bedeviled the two-state solution would disappear.
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Thinker227 months, 2 weeks ago
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> ...the Palestinians might give up on a two-state solution in favor of a struggle for equal rights that would mean, as he put it, the "end of the Jewish state."
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There is no need to "struggle" as ALL Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs, already have equal rights guaranteed by Israeli laws.
Israel, however, will remain a Jewish state for as long as the majority of population there is Jewish. If and when this will change and the majority of population in Israel will become Arab then the state formerly known as Israel will become another Arab state where "equal rights" is a foreign concept.
Changing the majority in Israel from Jewish to Arab can be done in two ways. One is to reduce the number of Jews in Israel, the other is to increase the number of Arabs.
The first way is to murder and terrorize the Jews in Israel hoping that most of them will be either killed or forced to leave. This is the way preferred by Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
The other way is to create "one state" in Palestine. As of now the total number of Jews in Palestine is only slightly higher than the total number of Arabs. "One state", however, will result in massive exodus of Jews fearing for their lives and to no less massive immigration of Arabs to Palestine. This will quickly create an Arab majority there and expulsion of the remaining Jews. The "one state" way to eliminate Israel is promoted by some Israelis as well as more intelligent Palestinians seeking support of the West. Curiously, right-wing Israeli extremists who reject a possibility of an Arab Palestinian state are calling for the very same process, creatng of an Arab majority in Israel and tranformation of the Jewish state into an Arab state.-
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Candida7 months, 2 weeks ago
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Thinker22: "There is no need to "struggle" as ALL Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs, already have equal rights guaranteed by Israeli laws. "
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This is BS and you know it. Can the relatives of Jewish citizens immigrate into Israel? Can the relatives of Arab citizens? -
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hyperbola7 months, 2 weeks ago
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Stop lying to americans thinker. Do you imagine that by lying here you can keep Americans ignorant of the zionist crimes against humanity in Palestine? Even the penultimate israeli prime minister calls you a liar thinker.
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Olmert: Israeli Arabs have long suffered discrimination
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday said that Israel's Arab population has long faced discrimination ....
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1028375.html
Olmert: Discrimination against Arabs deliberate
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3622276,...
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Edmar147 months, 2 weeks ago
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The fact is that there is already a two state solution. Jordan was created in 1922 as a Palestinian homeland. The problem is that Jordan doesn't recognize itself as a Palestinian state. It sits on 2/3 of post Ottoman Palestine and yet is ruled by members of the Saudi Royal family. Not a single Palestinian has ever sat on the Jordanian throne, and Jordan does not allow citizenship to any Palestinian that comes from west of the Jordan river (what is today Israel). The concept of a two state solution has been given to the Palestinians twice- Once by the British in 1922, with the creation of Jordan, and the second time, by the UN in 1947 by way of the partition. In both cases, it was the Arabs which refused to accept a two state solution. If the West Bank and Gaza ever become another Palestinian state, that will make it a three state solution. Two Palestinian states and one Jewish state. That will make the 24th Arab country in the region surrounding Israel. Who wants to talk about injustice?
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hyperbola7 months, 2 weeks ago
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Where is your house Edmar? you won't mind if I steal it and claim the neighbors have to look after you will you? After all, that is your silly argument to try to excuse the ethnic cleansing of over seven million christians and moslems by racist zionist ethnic cleansers. Face it edmar, the racist, totalitarian zionism project shares many features with nazism ("master race", "subhumans", "living space for the master race", and "ethnic cleansing / genocide for the subhumans") and has no place in the modern world.
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Forced Migration Review
Department of International Development
University of Oxford
Palestinian displacement: a case apart?
This issue of FMR was planned long before the humanitarian crisis which has displaced 20% of the Lebanese population. Articles look beyond the current events to what most international observers regard as the root causes of conflict and displacement in the Middle East. The protracted nature of the displacement, the complexity of the means used to dispossess Palestinians and the apparent double standards of the international community do indeed make this a case apart.
From high points in the West Bank it is possible to see across Israel/Palestine – from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean. The articles in this issue discuss how displacement from this tiny sliver of land has had and continues to have far-reaching global consequences.
The great majority of the seven million Palestinian refugees still live within 100km of the borders of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip where their homes of origin are located. They are refugees because Israel – committed to a permanent Jewish majority and granting citizenship to any member of the Jewish diaspora – denies Palestinians their basic human right to return to their homes of origin. Palestinians may be the world’s largest refugee population, yet....
http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR26/FMR26full.pd... -
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Thinker227 months, 2 weeks ago
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> The problem is that Jordan doesn't recognize itself as a Palestinian state. It sits on 2/3 of post Ottoman Palestine and yet is ruled by members of the Saudi Royal family. Not a single Palestinian has ever sat on the Jordanian throne...
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As a matter of fact, Jordan sits on 80% of the post Ottoman Palestine, Edmar. In addition, you forgot to mention that 80% of Jordanian citizens ARE Palestinian Arabs making Jordan a de facto Palestinian state no matter how Jordanian rulers call it.
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SLynn3166 months, 1 week ago
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I like Terry Hirchberg's idea on Israel/Palestine being two states in one country. Federalism may solve the problem.
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Jerusalem would be a shared capital under joint control instead of split. This is a way Israel can keep it's identity as a Jewish state and end the occupation.
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