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ADC Update:
ADC President: “Time for better decisions to be made on
Palestine-Israel”
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The following op-ed, “Time for better decisions to be made on
Palestine-Israel,” is printed in today’s issue of the Daily
Star. The article is based on remarks he made at a recent
national conference of Churches for Middle East Peace.
It can be viewed online at:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/24_03_03_c.htm.
Time for better decisions to be made on Palestine-Israel
By Ziad J. Asali, MD
The Palestine-Israel conflict has become a hostage to
fundamentalists and ideologues of every description, to people
who advocate a clash of civilizations and religions in pursuit
of their own warped visions of history and mythology. These
fanatics, whether Jews, Christians or Muslims, can best be
called “clashists” (to rhyme with fascists.) The sad fact is
that the issue of Palestine has become the latest “last refuge
of scoundrels.” The rest of us, unencumbered by divine
certitude about the future and open to reason and compromise,
have found it harder to have a public voice and space. It is our
task to reclaim both.
The outlines of historic compromise are evident to everyone, but
no closer to realization than ever. The contours are, of course:
1. Palestine alongside Israel, with borders defined by UN
Resolutions 242 and 338; 2. Shared Jerusalem that fulfills the
political aspirations of two peoples and the three monotheistic
religions; 3. A fair and lasting solution of the refugee problem
that is in accordance with international legality; 4. An end to
occupation and settlements; 5. Peace with the Arab world based
on exchange of land for peace and open borders for all; 6. A
Marshal Plan to rebuild Palestine and peace.
This vision of a lasting peace has the support of majority of
people all over the world. It has received public support in one
form or another of the United States, the Arab League, the
“Quartet” and the majority of the Palestinian and Israeli
peoples.
However, no progress has been made toward this vision because
the clashist forces have had enough passion and clout to
frustrate the will of the majority by playing on primal fears.
The great fear for the Palestinians is to be uprooted and end up
without a state, a fear that deepens with every grinding day of
occupation; the great fear for the Israelis is also to be
destroyed, uprooted and to end up without a state.
The ultimate suspicion of the Palestinians is that Israel plans
to steal all the land from underneath them and that it will use
any means to block their historic quest for a state, in spite of
their tenacious will and unending sacrifices. After all these
decades of struggle for independence, the Palestinians will
simply never concede defeat.
The Israelis see their security threatened by all things
Palestinian, and have yielded to illusory promises of military
victory through brute force by electing Ariel Sharon. This is a
mirage of security achieved by an unachievable eradication of
the adversary. As a massive land grab seems more within reach,
it has encouraged extremists while the voices of peace grow
increasingly faint and dispirited.
There is no military solution to this political conflict for
either side. It is tragic that the present mix of leadership and
theatrics can only lead to more death and destruction before
saner voices prevail and make the inevitable historic
compromise.
Israel’s F16s, tanks, bulldozers, and the relentless
confiscation of land and the building of settlements are
measures that appease the Jewish “clashists,” but threaten
not just Palestinian bodies but also the core of the
Palestinian psyche and provide a steady stream of would-be
suicide bombers.
Palestinian “clashists” use cruder forms of indiscriminate
violence to create panic and fear and to exact vengeance from
Israel. Their violent tactics have hardly softened Israeli
attitudes. On the contrary, it has united Israelis and created a
right wing shift has played into the hands of the Israeli
“clashists” and Likudniks who have escalated their policy of
the iron fist and land expropriation.
Not much good can be said about the decision makers for the
Palestinians, the Israelis, the Arabs, or the US about this
conflict in the past few decades. It is time for better
decisions to be made.
Only external intervention can break this Gordian knot. For
better or worse, the United States stands as the one power that
can nudge the parties to bring this project to fruition. It
takes courage, as well as vision, to do that. Electoral politics
and other political considerations can be far outweighed by the
benefits of peace signed, sealed and delivered.
The United States has yet to implement its publicly stated
outline for peace, involving the creation of a Palestinian state
alongside Israel. It is hard to see how that vision could
possibly be implemented without the use of external forces,
employed on an interim basis, to guarantee security for
both Israelis and Palestinians from each other. This can be done
either by the UN or any other body sanctioned and supervised by
the US.
Such a temporary measure will halt the pain and humiliation of
the occupation and the daily shootings of unarmed Palestinians,
as it puts an end to suicide bombings and other acts that
engender fear and yet more violence. This measure will create
the circumstances needed for strategic steps for a lasting peace
to be undertaken. It will suck the oxygen away from all those
conspiracy-minded “clashists” who depend on a protracted and
insoluble conflict.
A constitutional and democratic Palestinian state, next to a
secure Israel, is the ultimate weapon against the terror of
zealots of all creeds.
It can be the keystone for constitutional democracies all over
the region.
The US must use the awesome tools of persuasion and clout
available to the only superpower in the world to create the
atmospherics and mechanisms in Palestine and Israel to realize
the universal vision of peace.
To fail to do so would be political malpractice. To shy away is
moral cowardice.
Ziad Asali, M.D., is president of the Washington,DC-based
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. This text is based
on remarks he made at a recent national conference of Churches
for Middle East Peace. ================================
ADC
4201 Connecticut Ave, Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20008, U.S.A.
Tel: (202) 244-2990
Fax: (202) 244-3196
Web: http://www.adc.org
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