Palestinian/Israeli Conflict
Yesterday, I heard a talk given by Dr. Gershon Baskin at the Washington D.C. Conference of J Street, a non-profit liberal advocacy group, the aim of which is to promote a “two-state-for-two-peoples” resolution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict. Baskin is the Co-founder and former Co-Chair of the Board of the IPCRI, a joint, internationally funded Palestinian-Israeli public policy organization, also devoted to developing practical solutions for putting a two-state solution into place.
Baskin is also a grassroots Israeli peace activist who has developed close personal contacts within the higher echelon of Hamas, and who is, perhaps, the person most directly responsible for negotiating the release of Gilad Shalit, the young Israeli soldier, who was captured on June 25th 2006 and returned home after more than five years in captivity.
What I didn't know, but learned about during Baskin’s talk, was the back-story explaining why he had become involved in this struggle. He explained:
"In September 2005, I received a phone call from one of my wife’s cousins. Her brother Sasson Nuriel was missing and they thought he might have been kidnapped in Ramallah. Sasson worked with many Palestinians, buying and selling factory equipment. As a first generation Iraqi Jew born in Israel, he spoke fluent Arabic and had many Palestinian friends."
Nuriel had indeed been kidnapped by members of Hamas. Several days later Hamas issued a video of him. His hands were tied and his eyes covered, obviously after being badly tortured. He was reciting a text that was given to him calling for Israel to release Palestinian prisoners. Several days after that, his body was found. It had been sliced up with a butcher knife.
When Gilad Shalit was kidnapped, Gershon Baskin decided that he would do everything in his power to try to save Shalit's life. And he did. By establishing daily contact with, and building friendships with, people in Hamas.
What do I think we can learn from this? I think that we can learn that grassroots activism can change the course of history. Baskin believes that we can also learn about the power of trust. He believes from his own experience that enough trust can indeed be built between Palestinians and Israelis to bring about a lasting peace.
Ironically: Nuriel’s murderer was one of the terrorists released in the deal to win Shalit's release. Nuriel's own family was horrified. They had been lobbying the Israeli government not to accept the deal. Baskin said at the end of his talk: "There was nothing I could do for Sasson Nuriel. He was dead. But I could save Gilad Shalit."
Is there a reason you started this in the "Atlantic" section of Babble? Normally, this part of the forum is intended for discussion of political issues in Atlantic Canada(Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland).
Normally, a thread like this would go in the "International Politics" forum.
Also, you've started three duplicate versions of this thread. You're going to need to ask the mods to delete the other two.
Sorry for all the confusion, Ken Burch. I am a newbie here. I am still completely unsure about how to post a blog like this.
In this case, you could just ask the mods to move your thread(at this point, I think the mods are "Catchfire" and "Oldgoat", and you could send either a private message asking them to move the thread and to delete the duplicates. People do that all the time, it's no biggie).
Next time you have a thread to start dealing with this issue or something else global, the only difference is that you'd post it in the "International Politics" forum.
I hope my posts hear don't come off like I'm attacking you or anything...just trying to point you in the right direction. Have a nice day.
Hi Karen, welcome to babble (if I haven't had the opportunity yet)! And thanks for this post. Since it's your original work, I've moved it to the "news by the rest of us" forum.
The Vanishing Two-State Solution to the Israel-Palestine Conflict - by Gwynne Dyer
http://www.straight.com/article-366900/vancouver/gwynne-dyer-vanishing-t...
"...What is the point, Palestinian critics ask, of a truncated Palestinian state that is riddled with Jewish settlements and utterly dominated by Israel? What do Palestinians have to lose if they forget about a state for now and just wait until a higher Palestinian birth rate makes them a majority across all of former colonial Palestine (i.e. Israel and the Occupied Territories)?
They would have to live through another 10 or 15 years of mililtary occupation and occasional Israeli punishment campaigns like the 2008 operations in Gaza. They would have to accept that there will never be an exclusively Palestinian state. But once they became the majority, they could launch a nonviolent civil rights movement demanding one person, one vote in all the lands between Jordan and the sea.
That demand - One Big State with equal rights for all - is what Israelis fear most, because it would put Israel in the same position as Apartheid South Africa. All these people, both Arabs and Jews, live on lands that are under your permanent control, the rest of the world would say. Why don't you let the Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank vote? Israel would survive, but it would become a pariah.
That is why Netanyahu has suddenly demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a specifically Jewish state: if they agree to that, they could never credibly demand One Big State. It is also why various non-Israelis have begun to advocate the early creation of a Palestinian state: they are happy to keep the two-state solution alive. But it is already on life support and the oxygen is running out."
I would disagree - the two-state solution is already a dead mackerel in the moonlight. It may still shine occasionally, but it's dead and it stinks.
My bad. No disrespect to Rebecca intended. Sorry.
Hi CatchFire. Thank you for helping me to place my little blog in the appropriate spot. I want to do some more reporting from what I heard at the conference. I hope I can figure out how to place it. If not, I will just request that the mods help move it to the right spot.
Dear NDPP: Thanks for posting. In fact, my political position differs from the official J Street party line. It also differs somewhat from the position outlined in your post. I am working with a number of Israelis and Palestinians who advocate a federation. I will outline what that federation would look like in a blog in the next few weeks.
Nice hearing from everyone!
Well, it seems to me like the two-state solution is a pipe dream at this point.
Just because of the ongoing bantustanization of the West Bank, there doesn't seem to be anything left for a Palestinian state which isn't a bantustan.
All it serves to do is drag out the conflict. Israel pretends to be for peace and a two-state solution, but will only accept two states if one of them is a bantustan. For example, just look at the absurd reaction of the Israeli state to the Palestinian UN bid - if Israel supports a Palestinian state as it claims to do, why was it obstructing the Palestinian UN bid?
We already have a series of threads about this, which has pretty well demolished the two-state solution:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
As one Palestinian negotiator put it - it's as if someone stole your pizza and while you try to negotiate some of it back he continues eating your pizza.
Sadly there's not much but a few crusts remaining...
US Tries to Make Jordan Alternative State for Palestinians: Analyst (and vid)
http://presstv.com/detail/238877.html
"An analyst says the US is planning to make Jordan an alternative country for Palestinians by sending them to this country, Press TV reports. An analyst said the US envisages a certain solution for the Palestinians in Jordan at the expense of creating a state in Jordan that would host West Bank Palestinians.."