Roi Ben-Yehuda, an Israeli Jew, wrote an open letter to his country. It’s basically a self-critique which he received support and criticism for.
Apparently Roi is also a friend of Raquel Evita Saraswati, Irshad Manji’s assistant and coordinator of Project Ijtihad. Raquel blogged about a relevant conversation she had with him last year.
Thoughts?
On a related note, there is also a discussion started here by Raquel about the same topic.
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
In the spirit of your theory that the problems of the Arab world are not contingent on successful solution of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, I would reformulate it as that neither Israelis should have unreasonable expectations from such a possibility. Let alone that we gave Palestinians more than enough opportunities to start working on establishing their statehood.
There was no reason why the Palestinians should have voted Hamas into power after Israel pulled out of Gaza. Neither there exists any reason for Hamas to try to transform Gaza into another South Lebanon as they promise to everybody. Even if they are so bent on armed struggle they could have moved it completely to the West Bank concentrating instead on transforming Gaza into another Singapore. There is only that much as we can do for the Palestinians. We cannot establish their state for them
I don’t think Israel is blameless (so let’s not act like it is) but as far as Palestinians are concerned with getting their act together, then let me say that they’re unfortunately cursed by some very shitty so-called leadership.
Israeli Arabs are little different in this aspect, I’m afraid. A little yelling and screaming and they elect the same bag of idiots time and time again - the Arab Nationalists (the ones who still live forty years ago, in the Glorious pan-Arab Nation), the Communists, and just those who lead by showing how big their Arab Pride is.
There’s some worthwhile representatives in the Avoda (Israeli Labor Party), but the active public face (thanks to how loud they are) are the idiots.
Heck, MK Ahmad Tibi is the former personal adviser of Yasser Arafat. Former MK Azmi Bishara is on the run somewhere in the Great Pan-Arab Nation after getting one shifty foreign bribe too many, and certain people started asking just what he was giving in return… He was last seen shaking Nasrallah’s hand and being offered refuge in Lebanon.
Oh yes, vote for the old leaders. They sure put in the extra hours. And then you have the new ones… In the Palestinian Authority, it’s Hamas. In Israel, it’s Sheikh Raed Salah and the Islamic Movement… it’s not in Israeli politics at all, but the influence seems to be growing…
Oh yes, we have one hell of a bright future, folks.
# Drima on May 25th, 2008 10:37 am
I don’t think Israel is blameless (so let’s not act like it is) but as far as Palestinians are concerned with getting their act together, then let me say that they’re unfortunately cursed by some very shitty so-called leadership.
Israel is not blameless of course. And there can be no denying that if it were possible to easily and bloodlessly annex the West Bank Israel would have done just this. Never mind that we’ll probably do it anyway. The Palis will force it on us and we’ll do it in a hard and bloody way.
Nevertheless I think it’s obvious that in the last 15 years Israel was massively into trading land for peace. It signed a peace deal with Jordan which included territorial concessions on the Israeli part. It negotiated about Golan with Syria. It withdrew from South Lebanon and offered the Lebanese government to negotiate too. We withdrew from Gaza.
And even the convergence plan with its unilateral annexations of chunks of the West Bank was not about expansion. It came out of desperation to find a partner. It was basically how we give up on land if we don’t have a partner to negotiate.
What we got instead was rockets, rockets and more rockets. And more terror. And Israeli Arabs have plainly decided that we are one step away from dismantling our state by our own hands.
In this sense Roi Ben Yehuda’s point is no point. Israel may be not a perfect partner for negotiations and Jews in general have reputation for tough bargaining, playing dirty tricks and trying to jew anybody who comes in contact with them. Nevertheless If the other side was really interested in something beyond seeing us away from here it would have jumped on these opportunities long time ago.
Never in history people negotiated perfectly. Everybody always tried to outsmart his partner for negotiations and get a better deal at his expense. If peace and other deals were signed despite all this it was usually because both sides were really more interested in peace than in continuing the conflict. But right now we don’t have a partner to negotiate anything worth of time and effort. It’s as simple as that.
“I don’t think Israel is blameless”
I am still curious what exactly Israel has done that makes her “not blameless”.
Whenever I ask you, you mention the settlements. However, those settlements are a recent phenomenon and certainly didn’t stand in the way of the peace treaty with Egypt. (Israel did expand settlements before the peace treaty and removed the settlements after the treaty was signed.)
Is there _any_ willingness at all on the Arab side for an eventual peace treaty to address the issue of reparations for constant attacks by Arab states and militias (let alone terrorists) and the Jewish refugee question?
I’ll bring up again my idea for a solution of the refugee problem.
Step 1. We let the Arab League decide how much each refugee should be paid.
2. Israel must pay that amount per original refugee to whomever legally represents the Palestinian Arabs (i.e. the PLO).
3. Even though there were more Jewish refugees than Arab refugees, this compromise will be applied as if they numbered the same.
4. The Arab League pays the same amount of money to the legal representative of the Jews (i.e. Israel). The Arab League should charge each Arab League member according to how many Jews left each country.
“Have you ever wondered why there were never any Palestinian demonstrations against the building of the Israeli settlements? Can you imagine the PR value of a hundred little blue eyed school girls, sitting in the road, shaking in feigned terror as they blocked bulldozers?
The reason those images never materialized is because PA ministers own the construction companies that build the apartments. Israeli settlements are being built by Palestinian companies, owned by PA ministers and big wigs- including Hamas big shots. They are in no rush for a peace deal- the Israelis always pay, other Arabs don’t. It’s been going on for years and the matter has barely been discussed in the Arab press. ‘Cementgate,’ as the scandal was referred to, is no longer on the Arab media agenda. Settlements are built because Arab construction companies promise they will be built on time and on schedule- and they get paid a pretty penny to do just that.
The ‘peace process’ has never been about negotiating for peace. It has been about negotiating and legitimizing the pervasive corruption and bigotry. If the Palestinians ‘negotiate’ away Israel, they are negotiating their way to perpetual poverty- a disaster for the corrupt Palestinian ‘leadership.’”
No, the Israelis are not blamesless- but they are only responding to a reality created by the Palestinians.
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