Is There A Path To Middle East Peace?
By
Allan C.Brownfeld
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At
this time the Middle East is in chaos. On October 7, Hamas brutally
slaughtered more than a thousand Israelis. In response, Israel has been
attempting to eliminate Hamas in Gaza but, in the process, by
mid-November already more than 11,000 civilians have been killed. When
this finally comes to an end, the larger question before us is whether
or not there is a path to peace in the Middle East.
Before
Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra right-wing government was elected in
November 2022, the Middle East seemed to be moving in the direction of
peace. Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Morocco established
diplomatic relations. At the same time, Israel and Saudi Arabia were
engaged in talks. Saudi Arabia was apparently moving in the direction
of diplomatic relations if Israel would move toward establishing a
Palestinian state.
Previous
Israeli governments were committed to establishing a Palestinian state
on the West Bank, which Israel has now occupied in violation of
international law for more than 50 years. In 1995, Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Jerusalem because he was moving toward
establishing a Palestinian state. His assassin was Yigal Amir, a
right-wing, ultra-Orthodox extremist who opposed any movement toward
what has been called the “two-state solution.” Amir is a hero to
several members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet. Netanyahu opposes the
creation of a Palestinian state and speaks of “annexing” the West Bank.
His Cabinet members speak of expelling the indigenous Palestinian
population.
At the
present time, it is not only Gaza which is under attack, but Palestinian
residents of the West Bank as well. Between Oct. 7 and Nov. 11, nearly
200 Palestinians have been killed in bloody clashes in the West Bank.
Jewish settlers in recent weeks have, the Washington Post reports,
“killed Palestinians without provocation…in an effort to drive them out
of their communities through such tactics as burning property, tearing
up land and destroying olive trees, which are a primary source of income
for many Palestinians.”
Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights group
B’Tselem characterize Israeli treatment of Palestinians as “apartheid.”
In the view of Prof. Noam Chomsky, “In the occupied territories, what
Israel is doing is much worse than apartheid. To call it apartheid is a
gift to Israel, at least if by ‘apartheid’ you mean South African-style
apartheid. What is happening in the Occupied Territories is much
worse. There is a crucial difference. The South African Nationalists
needed the black population. That was their workforce. The Israeli
relationship to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is totally
different. They just do not want them. They want them out, or at
least in prison.”
Mairav
Zonstein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine with the International
Crisis Group, notes that, “The American response has been that Israel
should hold settlers accountable because this is a government of, by and
for settlers…Biden does talk about a two-state solution. He does talk
about settlements not being able to expand. But those have become empty
statements because in practice, Israel gets all the support it wants
from the U.S….Israel knows it can act with impunity because it’s done so
over and over again.”
Khaled
Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and director of
its program on Palestine,says that, “The U.S. could take a much harder
line on settlements in general, not to mention settler violence.” And a
group of senators, led by Sen. Jon Ossof (D-GA) called on the Biden
administration to do more to enhance security in the West Bank by
halting settler violence and the displacement of Palestinians.”
Israeli
historian Ilan Pappe argues that, “The cultural and intellectual
Zionist project transformed into a settler-colonial one—-which aimed at
Judaizing historical Palestine, disregarding the fact that it was
inhabited by an indigenous population…The 1948 ethnic cleansing of
Palestine that included the forceful expulsion of Palestinians…750,000
lost their homes and became refugees.”
Pappe
points out that, “In the West Bank over the past 50 years, the
occupation forces have inflicted persistent collective punishment on the
Palestinians in these territories, exposing them to constant harassment
by Israeli settlers and security forces…Since the election of the
present fundamentalist messianic Israeli government in November 2022,
all these harsh policies reached unprecedented levels. The numbers of
Palestinians killed, wounded and arrested in the occupied West Bank
skyrocketed…The way out remains the same: a change of regime in Israel
that brings equality for everyone from the river to the sea…Otherwise
the cycle of bloodshed will not end.”
Wendy
Pearlman, director of the Middle East and North Africa Studies Program
at Northwestern University, states that, “Bombardment, siege, forced
displacement and the denial of humanitarian access might satisfy the
desire for revenge, but these actions cannot bring Israel security. As
long as self-determination is denied, Palestinian resistance will
continue. There is no military solution to the…political problem of two
peoples seeking to live with freedom and dignity on the same small
piece of land. Security requires peace, which can only be achieved
through a negotiations process grounded in respect for international law
and the human rights of all people.”
Israel,
a prosperous country, is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in
history. It has received approximately $150 billion in taxpayer
assistance as of 2022, according to a report by the Congressional
Research Service. President Biden now proposes to provide Israel with
an additional $14 billion.
Unfortunately,
we are financing policies with which we disagree and which threaten our
interests and regional peace. President Biden and Secretary of State
Blinken repeatedly speak of a “two-state solution.” But Israeli Prime
Minister Netanyahu rejects this. He continues to violate international
law by maintaining the occupation of the West Bank and by expanding its
Jewish settlements. In the view of Amnesty International, Human Rights
Watch and the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Israel’s treatment
of Palestinians amounts to apartheid. Recently, Israel’s Military Rabbi
Amichai Friedman, addressing cheering Israeli soldiers, declared, “This
is the happiest month of my life. We’re finally realizing who we are.
All of this land is ours. The entire land, including Gaza and Lebanon.
We will destroy everyone.”
President
Biden’s steadfast support for Israel’s right-wing government, which
rejects a Palestinian state, risks lasting damage to America’s standing
in the region. People in the region say that U.S. acceptance of attacks
on refugee camps, hospitals and apartment buildings could shatter
American influence for years to come.
“The
whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations
to come,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safari,” speaking
alongside Secretary of State Blinken when he visited Amman. He called
upon Washington to end Israeli attacks on civilians. Suzanne Maloney,
director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution,
says that, “There’s something happening in terms of the reaction to
this crisis that is unlike anything I can remember in recent years,
maybe even dating back to the Gulf War.”
The
path to Middle East peace after the conflict in Gaza ends, most U.S.
policy makers believe, is the creation of a viable Palestinian state on
the West Bank. Once this is done,Israel would achieve diplomatic
relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. The problem is
that Israel’s current government, which U.S.taxpayers are helping to
finance, rejects this approach and, instead, wants to annex the West
Bank.
Consider Finance
Minister Bezalel Smotrich who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry
with authority over all civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.
The Jerusalem Report (Nov. 6, 2023) provided this description of
Smotrich: “Smotrich advocates the segregation of Arabs in public
institutions and their prohibition from living in Jewish communities…As
regards Jewish extremism and aggressive acts against Palestinians,even
when the homes and lives of Palestinians are threatened and victimized,
Smotrich contends that there ‘is no such thing as Jewish terrorism.’…His
articulated objective is to impose Israeli sovereignty throughout the
entirety of the West Bank…Smotrich’s aspiration, of course, is to
prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Smotrich’s
goal, embraced by the Netanyahu government, is described in his
“Decisive Plan,” written in 2017, which called for “winning and ending”
the Israel-Palestinian conflict. His vision was what he called “victory
through settlement.” His objective is to double the current Jewish
population on the West Bank of some 500,000 settlers to one million.”
The principles of the Netanyahu coalition is that Jews have “exclusive
and indisputable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.”
There
is a path to peace, but if the Netanyahu government remains in power
with the goal of annexing the West Bank, Palestinians will be left with
nothing to look forward to. If the U.S.continues to provide massive
financial aid to an Israeli government which rejects the creation of a
Palestinian state, we will antagonize the Middle East countries which
want to be our friends and resist the negative influence of Iran. These
countries—-Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar
and Bahrain are ready to make peace with Israel. But if Israel seeks
to annex the West Bank, none of this will happen. And if the U.S.
continues to support such policies, we will be isolated in this vital
region.
What is morally
right as well as what is in our own best interest seems clear.
Hopefully, we will change course and make the Middle East a peaceful and
pro-Western region of the world.
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Allan
C. Brownfeld is a nationally syndicated columnist and is editor of
ISSUES, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism (
www.ACJNA.org) .