Fiction and Reality

In the Land of Israel/Palestine (the land situated between Egypt and Jordan), fiction seems to trump reality on all sides. The fiction of Hamas is that they can defeat Israel militarily. The fiction of Abbas and the leadership of the West Bank (at least publicly although I don't know what they think privately) is that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are one country called Palestine, and that Palestine can become one state if the UN wills it. The fiction of the Radical Right in Israel is that the Arabs don't exist. Netanyahu promotes that fiction when he expands settlements in the West Bank. And of course there are many Arabs who think that the Jews don't exist. There are anti-semites in the world who also hold a similar idea, that Jews should not exist in Israel or anywhere. The reality is that Israel exists and is inhabited by the Israeli people who consist of 75% Jews, 20% Arabs, and 5% others. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are inhabited by mostly Arabs but also pockets of settlement Jews. East Jerusalem has Jewish neighborhoods which exist on land which Israel acquired after 1967. The Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem exists and the inhabitants have not been made into Israeli citizens and therefore are Palestinians.
So the reality is that both Jews and Arabs inhabit the land of Israel/Palestine, and neither are leaving because neither has anywhere else to go. They can kick the can down the road, but the present situation can not last forever. The resolution can not occur immediately, but it has to start somewhere. Palestine might never be one country or maybe it will some day. Maybe the ultimate solution will be 2 or more completely separate states, or maybe one bi-national state, or maybe some kind of confederation. But there has to be some movement to show that there is hope. Expansion of settlements is contrary to the interests of everyone, least of all Israel. Realism is a necessity.

J Street, I Can't Follow You

After Netanyahu opened his big mouth to speak to his base in the recent Israeli elections, I was ready to switch some of my contributions this year to J Street. Then I read in the Forward that J Street is now moving to the left of where I stand and going to the UN to force Israel to change. There is enough anti-Semitism in the UN already, they don't need me to help them..

Palestinian State or No Palestinian State?

Bibi,
So during the election you told your base among the Settlers and Radical Right that you won't see a Palestinian state on your watch with no qualifications. Now when you speak to us in the World, you say that's not what you meant, a Palestinian state is OK, but a demilitarized one. Now, I agree with you on that, for now. It's true that a completely militarized Palestine so close to Israel is not acceptable today given what's going on surrounding you in the Arab world. But what are your thoughts about the future? It's true that the Palestinians have made impossible demands on Israel to kill any agreement, like demanding the return of descendants of Palestinian Arab refugees to Israel proper. Also they haven't gotten their act together to make peace. And its true, there are 2 Palestine's on the West Bank and Gaza, and Abbas can't speak for Gaza when he can't control Hamas. It's also true that compared to the neighborhood there is a de facto relative peace in Israel and in the West Bank and maybe for the moment even in  Gaza. But this kind of peace is temporary. Perhaps Abbas and the Palestinian leaders are not so anxious to move forward toward statehood themselves and prefer playing the role of victim. But why must you throw the ball back into Israel's court, making the Palestinians look like the good guy victims they want to be, justifying the mullahs in Iran who pretend to be the defenders of the Palestinians, helping them to justify their nuclear ambitions, and putting Israel in greater danger. Also, Bibi, you even alienated your own Arab Israeli citizens, questioning their right to vote, dividing Israel and weakening it. 
The future Palestinian state can not happen overnight and must start demilitarized. But when you expand settlements, you are saying the occupation will never end. Israel needs creativity in dealing with it's existential problem. I think creativity is a quality that you, Bibi, lack.

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Bibi Netanyahu speaks loudly with a little shvantz. To be even handed, it is true that the leaders of the Palestinians also have little shventzlach. That's why Bibi and Abbas can't come to an agreement. Bibi, you can't expect the US government, whether run by President Obama or your Republican handlers, to spoon feed you. In regard to Iran, your blustering won't force President Obama to do whatever you say because you are asking the impossible. Even if the US made stronger sanctions on Iran as you so loudly demanded, the US would turn off our partners in the international community leaving big holes, and the sanctions would then not do bobkes. The same can be said for the Republican congressmen who also spoke loudly with little shventzlach. It's easy to talk when you are not able to deliver.

Bibi, What Do You Want?

So Bibi, you say you won't see a 2 state solution while you are prime minister. So what is your alternative? It must be a binational state. What else is there if you want to Israel to stay democratic?
So Bibi, you oppose the international community's negotiating with Iran to control their nuclear development? So what's your alternative? I haven't heard it?
So Bibi, you don't want your Israeli Arab citizens to vote in the election? Do you want to further divide your country?
So Bibi, you don't want to listen to your own intelligence community and military leaders? Is your election more important than Israel's security?
So Bibi, you want us American Jews to vote Republican? Sorry, Bibi you don't own me, and you don't speak for me.

Israeli Election

Israel will have an election in a few days. The news reports tell us that at this moment the center-left Zionist Union Party of Herzog and Livni seems to have lined up more votes than Netanyahu's Likud or any other party. That should give them the opportunity to try to form a coalition government. Netanyahu as always stands for doing as little as possible towards finding an agreement with the Palestinians and appeasing the extremists on the right including support for West Bank settlement expansion and giving the impression of looking tough. A potential coalition of parties that are amenable to moving forward on coming to terms with the Palestinians actually represents the majority in Israel. The problem is that a number of those smaller parties have interests other than the security needs of Israel that conflict with each other. But at this point in time, those parties need to at least temporarily reach compromises on those issues for the sake of the larger issue on which they agree, namely the time is ripe to move forward on offering the Palestinians a path to a fair arrangement. The surrounding Arab countries that invaded Israel in 1948 because they saw it in their interests to do so at that time, now see that cooperation with Israel is in their greater interest at this time. But the problem between Israel and the Palestinians keeps this new cooperation under the table. Movement toward accommodation will give the Arab nations the opportunity to move cooperation to the top of the table and would also take the wind out of Iran's sails in regard to Israel. A Zionist Union victory would immediately repair the difficulties between Israel and the USA created by Netanyahu. It would also repair Israel's relations with the American Jewish community. Netanyahu's speech in the US Congress put us in an awkward position by intruding in our politics. We will not abandon our support of our fellow Jews in Israel because of Netanyahu, but we might do it with less enthusiasm. So let us hope that the politicians in Israel will put things into perspective and make the painful compromises needed to promote the security of their constituents.

Isaac Herzog

Isaac Herzog was interviewed by Farid Zakaria on CNN this morning. If I were an Israeli, I would vote for Herzog. He seems to have a reasonable approach to Israel's relations with the world around it. It is safer for Israel to be part of the coalition of sane nations. It is not in Israel's interest to side with one US party over another. It is foolhardy for Netanyahu to put Israel's security at risk for his political ends before the upcoming Israeli elections. Herzog, Netanyahu, and Obama (also most Arab leaders) agree that Iran should not develop a nuclear bomb. It could lead to a nuclear arms race that would threaten all the countries in the region. But Netanyahu makes off like he is the only one who cares and has the right path to make it happen. It's not true. Israel needs to continue negotiating with the Palestinians toward resolving their problems, and Israel needs to be as inclusive as possible toward the 25% of its population that is not Jewish. But the Arabs also need to discourage hatred toward Jews among their population to give the Israeli people the confidence to make concessions. It has to start in schools, both Jewish and Moslem, in Israel, the West Bank, and the surrounding Arab countries, to teach the advantages of friendship and discourage hatred toward each other. Israel and its neighbors have common interests that potentially are greater than their differences.