Palestine: Democracy not Zionism

[psychoteddybear]

From the September 14, 2007 edition of the Christian Scientist Monitor


Palestine: Democracy not Zionism

A decent two-state solution to the 'Palestinian problem' has become impossible.


By John V. Whitbeck

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Palestine: democracy not Zionism | csmonitor.com



With some sort of "meeting" or "conference" to kick start the peace process now being touted by the Bush administration, there is at least the appearance of an understanding in Washington of the importance for the region and the world of solving the "Palestinian problem."


However, if this problem is ever to be solved, it must be redefined. Those who truly seek justice and peace in the Middle East must dare to speak openly and honestly of the "Zionism problem" – and then to draw the moral, ethical, and practical conclusions that follow.


When South Africa was under a racial-supremacist, settler-colonial regime, the world recognized that the problem was the ideology and political system of the state. Anyone outside the country who referred to the "black problem" or the "native problem" (or, for that matter, to the "white problem") would instantly have been branded a racist.


The world also recognized that the solution to that problem could not be found either in "separation" (apartheid in Afrikaans) and scattered native reservations (called "independent states" by the South African regime and Bantustans by the rest of the world) or in driving the settler-colonial group in power into the sea. Rather, the solution had to be found – and to almost universal satisfaction was found – in democracy, in white South Africans growing out of their racial-supremacist ideology and political system and accepting that their interests and their children's futures would be best served in a democratic, non-racist state with equal rights for all who live there.


The solution for the land which, until it was literally wiped off the map in 1948, was called Palestine is the same. It can only be democracy.


The ever-receding "political horizon" for a decent two-state solution, which, on the ground, becomes less practical with each passing year of expanding settlements, bypass roads, and walls, is weighed down by a multitude of excruciatingly difficult "final status" issues. Israeli governments have consistently refused to discuss these final-status issues seriously, preferring to postpone them to the end of a road which is never reached – and which, almost certainly, is intended never to be reached.


Just as marriage is vastly less complicated than divorce, democracy is vastly less complicated than partition. A democratic post-Zionist solution would not require any borders to be agreed, any division of Jerusalem, anyone to move from his current home, or any assets to be evaluated and apportioned. Full rights of citizenship would simply be extended to all the surviving natives still living in the country, as happened in the United States in the early 20th century and in South Africa in the late 20th century.


The obstacle to such a simple – and morally unimpeachable – solution is, of course, intellectual and psychological. Traumatized by the Holocaust and perceived insecurity as a Jewish island in an Arab sea, Israelis have immense psychological problems in coming to grips with the practical impossibility of sustaining forever what most of mankind views as a racial-supremacist, settler-colonial regime founded upon the ethnic cleansing of an indigenous population.


Indeed, Israelis have placed themselves in a virtually impossible situation. To taste its bitter essence, Americans might try to imagine what life in their country would be like if the European settlers had not virtually exterminated the indigenous population and if almost half of today's American population were Indians, without basic human rights, impoverished, smoldering with resentment, and visible every day as the inescapable living evidence of the injustice inflicted on their ancestors.


This would not be a pleasant society in which to live. Both colonizers and colonized would be progressively degraded and dehumanized. The colonizers could, rationally, conclude that they could never be forgiven by those they had dispossessed and that no "solution" was imaginable. So it has been, and continues to be, in the lands under Israeli rule.


Perhaps the coming "meeting" or "conference" will be the last gasp of the fruitless pursuit of a separation-based solution. Perhaps those who care about justice and peace and believe in democracy can then find ways to stimulate Israelis to move beyond Zionist ideology toward a more humane, hopeful, and democratic view of present realities and future possibilities.


No one would suggest that the moral, ethical, and intellectual transformation necessary to achieve a decent one-state solution will be easy. However, more and more people now recognize that a decent two-state solution has become impossible.

It is surely time for concerned people everywhere – and particularly for Americans – to imagine a better way, to encourage Israelis to imagine a better way and to help both Israelis and Palestinians to achieve it. It is surely time to seriously consider democracy and to give it a chance.
• John V. Whitbeck, an international lawyer who has advised the Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel, is author of "The World According to Whitbeck."

[WarriorAndWiseman]

The author has given an argument against a one state solution himself. Jewish fear that they will be devoured in a sea of Arabs. I wonder if they should be given promisses of a fair judgement in the final-status of the project? Perhaps a truth and reconciliation movement like in South Africa at the end of the apparthied. Hah. Hardly likely.

[Foxhole]

psychoteddybear said

From the September 14, 2007 edition of the Christian Scientist Monitor


Palestine: Democracy not Zionism

A decent two-state solution to the 'Palestinian problem' has become impossible.


By John V. Whitbeck

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Palestine: democracy not Zionism | csmonitor.com



...

It is surely time for concerned people everywhere – and particularly for Americans – to imagine a better way, to encourage Israelis to imagine a better way and to help both Israelis and Palestinians to achieve it. It is surely time to seriously consider democracy and to give it a chance.
• John V. Whitbeck, an international lawyer who has advised the Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel, is author of "The World According to Whitbeck."

And what will this democratic country be called, Mr. Whitebeck?

And what type of legal system will this country have, Mr. Whitebeck?

These are the first two issues on the table.

[Aryan_]

WarriorAndWiseman said

Jewish fear that they will be devoured in a sea of Arabs.

How can you be flooded by a bunch of people who look and act the same as you? I could understand if the Arabs were Chinese looking or something. But both are penny counting, fuzzy haired, brown skinned, religious minded, hook-nosed Semitic people.

It's like water drowning water

[WarriorAndWiseman]

Aryan_ said

How can you be flooded by a bunch of people who look and act the same as you? I could understand if the Arabs were Chinese looking or something. But both are penny counting, fuzzy haired, brown skinned, religious minded, hook-nosed Semitic people.

It's like water drowning water

Are you saying Pakistanis and Indians don't look like each other? It's not the same case obviously but it's a good example of people with the same features and similar language and culture fearing each other.

How about the shias and sunnis in Iraq? They all look like Iraqis to us.

[Kaminyu]

Foxhole said

And what will this democratic country be called, Mr. Whitebeck?

And what type of legal system will this country have, Mr. Whitebeck?

These are the first two issues on the table.

You call it Palestine, as it has been called for quite some time.

If the legal system is based on a democracy, then obviously it would be one without the racism and apartheid that Israel practices there today.

[Aryan_]

WarriorAndWiseman said

Are you saying Pakistanis and Indians don't look like each other? It's not the same case obviously but it's a good example of people with the same features and similar language and culture fearing each other.

How about the shias and sunnis in Iraq? They all look like Iraqis to us.

Pakistan and India are nationalities, with lots of races and tribes in each. But within a particular group, yes, you're right.

Shias and sunnis killing each other in Iraq is as stupid as the Israeli-Arab conflict.