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- Time to Negotiate the Northern and Southern Sectors of the Israeli-West Bank Border
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- Playing the Victim Card Will Not Bring Peace
- Negotiations By the Parties
- The World Should Help the Palestinian Hunger Striker
- ...and only afterwards move to discuss the topic of Jerusalem
- A Question of Accountability
- Israel Twisting in the Wind
- Netanyahu: Too Big for His Britches
- Netanyahu's "Israeli Comfort"
- How Shaul Mofaz Can Jump-Start the Peace Process
- Netanyahu on the Brink
- Time for Taking Stock
- Israel in Wonderland
- Whatever Happened to the Quartet?
- The Palestinians Want to Negotiate
- A Time for Hope and a Call for Restraint
- Israel Can Win in Gaza, But Not Now
- Congratulations to the New State of Palestine!
- Security and Borders: Both Required for Peace
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2013
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- It Is Up to Israel to Restart Peace Negotiations
- Israel and Palestine: Changing the Terms of Agreement
- The Knesset Bill to Increase the Number of Women that Elect the Chief Rabbis Is Important for Jewish Women
- Proposal on Governance of the Holy Basin
- Time for Netanyahu to Reach Across the Aisle
- Tzipi Livni's Challenge
- Women Should Be Free to Pray at the Wailing Wall
- Proposed Highway through the Jordan Valley Will Backfire on Israel
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2015
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- We Should Applaud Herzog and Livni for Reclaiming Zionism
- The Next Israeli Government
- West Bank Citizenry and Receipt of Individuals of Palestinian Origin
- What Next for Israel?
- Palestinian statehood
- Mischief in the Trade Legislation would Hinder Progress
- What Next for America?
- Could American Firms Choose to Gradually Disinvest from Israel?
- Boycotting Israel is not anti-Semitism
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Our View of Palestinian Statehood
Louise Strait and Alison Wakelin
May 4, 2015
Many Israelis and many Jews of the Diaspora want to see a Palestinian State. So does the international community, and so does this website. We applaud the UN’s 2012 designation of Palestine as a nonmember observer state and are in optimistic anticipation of France’s proposal for a draft UN Security Council resolution to provide a framework for creating a Palestinian State.
It is time for Palestinian statehood, because it represents a more just, more stable, and less incendiary reality on the ground than does the present situation. Arabs and Jews have many times throughout history managed to live side by side without major friction, and with the end of the current occupation we can expect this to eventually come about between Israel and the Palestinians.
Even though we inherit the consequences of the actions of our grandparents in many aspects of our lives, to the extent that our genes may be modified as a result of the negative experiences we went through, we cannot restrict each other forever on the basis of actions that were taken many years ago. Yet, this seems to be the primary basis for the continuation of Israel’s policy of occupation of lands captured in 1967, a policy that is causing so much devastation and distress for their residents.
What does Israel have to fear from allowing the Palestinians to have their state? America assures Israel that it will have whatever sophisticated weaponry it may desire. Israel cannot feel militarily inferior to any country in the region. No country bordering Israel is making any serious attempts to try to eradicate it, as was the case in the early days of Israel’s existence. Israel has peace treaties with Egypt on its southern border and with Jordan on its eastern border. Meanwhile, given the poverty and joblessness endemic to Arab countries, they have too much to handle simply preventing incipient revolutions within their ranks to worry about Israel.
Women know that today is their time, and that the future offers a much empowered version of womanhood. An empowered female population in the Middle East would guarantee a more peaceful reality. We wish to see equality between men and women, which of course will require drastic changes in various sectors of Palestinian and Jewish societies. And we wish to see the acceptance of each other as descendants from the same original ancestor, rendering them family on some level at least.
Talk to Israel’s sons and ask them what they did in Gaza, about the trauma visited on the next generation that will be there for Israel’s children and grandchildren to deal with. Conflict takes time to heal, and a Palestinian state will enable that healing to begin. Most important of all, we do not want to see this pain transmitted to the hearts of the children, giving them cause to perpetuate the conflict in their lives.
If it were not for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s desire to continue his control of the Israeli government, there would be a realistic chance that this reality could come about very soon. It is not a wild, crazy idea; it is a realistic, and in many quarters desirable, plan. It will set the foundation for a future that most would embrace, and it would set the relationship between Israel and both Europe and the United States back onto an even keel. Instead, continuing the policy of visiting injustice upon an occupied people only drives the rest of the world to turn its back on a country that it would much prefer to befriend.
It may require strong international pressure, but eventually we foresee a clear division of the land as outlined here in the Citizens Proposal, with Israelis remaining in most major settlements in return for land swaps or lease arrangements, and with access between Gaza and the West Bank as well as between Israel and its remaining settlements.
Once this resolution occurs, we foresee more opportunities for Palestinians to enjoy the benefits of living in the 21st century. We foresee cooperative ventures between Jews and Arabs with strong international backing, including enterprise zones with tax advantages where both Jews and Arabs have access and are willing to work together. If these zones are attractive to women, all the better. How better to strengthen the women’s role than by offering them enterprise opportunities?
We foresee high-tech successes spreading within both communities, as cooperative ventures easily transcend the differences between peoples, just as in America progress usually makes ethnic differences invisible and irrelevant. Poverty and lack of opportunity are major reasons for conflict and resentment, and it is time for this to end.
The best way to make the foreseen real is to grant statehood to Palestine.
May 4, 2015
Many Israelis and many Jews of the Diaspora want to see a Palestinian State. So does the international community, and so does this website. We applaud the UN’s 2012 designation of Palestine as a nonmember observer state and are in optimistic anticipation of France’s proposal for a draft UN Security Council resolution to provide a framework for creating a Palestinian State.
It is time for Palestinian statehood, because it represents a more just, more stable, and less incendiary reality on the ground than does the present situation. Arabs and Jews have many times throughout history managed to live side by side without major friction, and with the end of the current occupation we can expect this to eventually come about between Israel and the Palestinians.
Even though we inherit the consequences of the actions of our grandparents in many aspects of our lives, to the extent that our genes may be modified as a result of the negative experiences we went through, we cannot restrict each other forever on the basis of actions that were taken many years ago. Yet, this seems to be the primary basis for the continuation of Israel’s policy of occupation of lands captured in 1967, a policy that is causing so much devastation and distress for their residents.
What does Israel have to fear from allowing the Palestinians to have their state? America assures Israel that it will have whatever sophisticated weaponry it may desire. Israel cannot feel militarily inferior to any country in the region. No country bordering Israel is making any serious attempts to try to eradicate it, as was the case in the early days of Israel’s existence. Israel has peace treaties with Egypt on its southern border and with Jordan on its eastern border. Meanwhile, given the poverty and joblessness endemic to Arab countries, they have too much to handle simply preventing incipient revolutions within their ranks to worry about Israel.
Women know that today is their time, and that the future offers a much empowered version of womanhood. An empowered female population in the Middle East would guarantee a more peaceful reality. We wish to see equality between men and women, which of course will require drastic changes in various sectors of Palestinian and Jewish societies. And we wish to see the acceptance of each other as descendants from the same original ancestor, rendering them family on some level at least.
Talk to Israel’s sons and ask them what they did in Gaza, about the trauma visited on the next generation that will be there for Israel’s children and grandchildren to deal with. Conflict takes time to heal, and a Palestinian state will enable that healing to begin. Most important of all, we do not want to see this pain transmitted to the hearts of the children, giving them cause to perpetuate the conflict in their lives.
If it were not for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s desire to continue his control of the Israeli government, there would be a realistic chance that this reality could come about very soon. It is not a wild, crazy idea; it is a realistic, and in many quarters desirable, plan. It will set the foundation for a future that most would embrace, and it would set the relationship between Israel and both Europe and the United States back onto an even keel. Instead, continuing the policy of visiting injustice upon an occupied people only drives the rest of the world to turn its back on a country that it would much prefer to befriend.
It may require strong international pressure, but eventually we foresee a clear division of the land as outlined here in the Citizens Proposal, with Israelis remaining in most major settlements in return for land swaps or lease arrangements, and with access between Gaza and the West Bank as well as between Israel and its remaining settlements.
Once this resolution occurs, we foresee more opportunities for Palestinians to enjoy the benefits of living in the 21st century. We foresee cooperative ventures between Jews and Arabs with strong international backing, including enterprise zones with tax advantages where both Jews and Arabs have access and are willing to work together. If these zones are attractive to women, all the better. How better to strengthen the women’s role than by offering them enterprise opportunities?
We foresee high-tech successes spreading within both communities, as cooperative ventures easily transcend the differences between peoples, just as in America progress usually makes ethnic differences invisible and irrelevant. Poverty and lack of opportunity are major reasons for conflict and resentment, and it is time for this to end.
The best way to make the foreseen real is to grant statehood to Palestine.
