No Negotiations Any Time Soon

There are some things in my life where the answer to a particular issue has always felt as if it was obvious. Some issues are just easier to see in terms of black and white. Israel and Palestine, for me, have not been one of those issues. My opinions have radically changed in the past 10 -15 years.

When I was younger I had an affection for Israel, or at least an affection for the myths surrounding its creation. My interest in its existence might of had something to do with the fact that Israel was born just a year earlier than I was, we sort of grew up together; part of it might have had to do with the sense of romance and adventure created as I read Exodus by Leon Uris - a novel about the Jewish underdog freedom fighters battled the British (we would now call them terrorists) who were stopping them from creating a safe haven for persecuted people.  Certainly there was a very strong sense that, especially after having read about the Holocaust, that the creation of a state for those of the Jewish faith, was the least the West could do. There was no place where I could read about the other side of the story.

I did not think seriously about what had really happened when the State of Israel was created until I read T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom.  It was then that I started to realize that for almost a hundred years the Europeans and initially to a slightly lesser extent, the Americans had lied, tricked, manipulated and just out and out bullied the peoples of the Middle East. After the WWII, it was not surprising that the "world powers" assumed that they could create a country when none had been there. They had been doing exactly the same thing for a century.

All of which gets the world to the point where this week Benjamin Netanyahu's re-election as the leader of Israel is causing some concern for many countries in the west (except of course for Canada who agree with his policies). Just a few days before the election it looked as if Netanyahu and his party would lose. He then made an announcement that if re-elected he would not support any negotiations with Palestine that involved the creation of a state for Palestinians nor would he discuss the building of homes for Jewish people on land claimed by the Palestinians. In other words, he was not prepared to negotiate anything. He appears to have gotten enough votes to remain the leader of the coalition that will rule Israel for the next few years.

It would take someone far smarter than me, or perhaps someone even more foolish than me to say that they have a solution as to what to do with the perennial conflict between Israel and Palestine. Israel, in existence for just over 65 years is not going away. Whether they have claim to the land because the Bible says so is a discussion for someone else at another time but it really does not matter. The Israelis  are not going to leave. Where the people who now live in the Palestinian refugee camps (some of whom are second or third generation refugees) should go is an incredibly difficult and complex question. It is however, inhumane to continue to refuse to find a permanent solution. Regardless of what solution is found, I would suspect that no one will ever be happy with all of its components. But I do know that no solution will get be negotiated if one party to those negations  refuses to even consider the demands/requests of the other party.  

The West for far too long, perhaps because of the residue guilt of not dealing with centuries of pogroms  and the continuing anti-Semitic attitude that seems impossible to eradicate, appears to lack the courage to tell Israel what to do. Failing that they must withdraw the financial and military support that allows Israel's leaders to refuse to negotiate a solution to a problem that they and the Palestinians did not create, but that they must jointly solve.

Addendum

The Globe and Mail has reported that newly re-elected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is changing his stance. He is now saying that he supports Palestinian statehood - when things in that region improve. Which is great although it is hard to conceive of the Palestinians becoming less restless as long as Israel continues to build settlements on lands that the Palestinians think need to be part of the negotiations. Sort of like the when the provincial or federal governments allow logging or resource development on land that is part of an ongoing treaty negotiation with a First Nation.