Monday, September 27, 2010

I'm Insane

I had no delusions about Israeli/Palestinian peace talks. I wrote several weeks ago that if the parties wanted peace they could have it in hours not days, weeks, or months. Nor did I expect Israel to extend the moratorium on settlements that expired on September 26. But against all that I knew, believed, and expected, I still hoped for a different outcome. By definition, then, I’m insane.

What I don’t understand is why Palestinian President Abbas didn’t immediately walk out of the talks. He may be a greater statesman than I gave him credit for; he may be jockeying for some other political reason. I have no idea. But I can tell you this, if I had been him, I would have walked.

If Israel won’t freeze settlements to promote peace talks, then what hope is there for peace? If they can’t wait out the year of negotiations, what hope is there that there will be any negotiation?

Israel has given the Palestinians clear moral authority in this instance (something they often lack), and they should have taken full advantage of it. I would have walked out, gone home, and announced the unilateral creation of a Palestinian State on January 1, 2011. Against all advice to the contrary, this is what Israel did in May of 1948. They declared themselves a nation and then took up arms to defend it. This is what I would do today if I were President of Palestine. I would tell my people that we have a right to a homeland and we are no longer going to cede that right to anyone. We will live or die as free Palestinians.

But that’s me. President Abbas seems to be waiting. But waiting for what? For Israel? For America? For Europe? For the Arab League? Nobody really cares about the fate of Palestine. Honestly, if not for Christian guilt over the near genocide of the Jewish people during the Holocaust and the ecstasy of tens of millions of Christians over End Times Prophecy and the successful conclusion of that genocide, no one would care about the fate of Israel either.

I hope against hope that something will change; that peace will break out all around the region and my own ignorance about politics and the Middle East will be proved so glaring that I will have to abandon this blog. I do hope to be so very wrong. But then again I’m insane.

4 comments:

eashtov said...

Shalom All,

Here's another point of view also written before the most recent talks began.

http://bit.ly/dfM5BD

Wholeness,
Jordan

Barry said...

I don't think Abbas is in a position to make demands of Israel. Nor is Netanyahu in a position,domestically, to give in to Abbas' demands. I don't see a solution that will be acceptable to both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, or at least one that can't be stopped by radical Jews and/or radical Arabs who gain politically from chaos.

So I guess I'm not insane.

Mano said...

We have met the enemy and he is us

http://manofestoyomi.blogspot.com/2010/09/for-from-zion-will-go-forth-felafel.html

andrea perez said...

Take out the word "Jewish" from the equation and you get the same kind of nationalistic fight that has been going on in Bosnia/Serbia for the last how many years. Maybe I missed something, but did Pakistan separate from India to form a Moslem state? Is India a Hindi state? Same garbage going on over there but I don't see them waving a religious flag and saying "god" made me do it.
Maybe the problem is that we (American Jews) should start minding our own business and let this play out? Israel is a country, just like the rest of the countries over there...We Jews have survived thousands of years of really poor treatment because at the heart of our religion there is a belief in One/Unity. We had the moral high ground. What ground do we stand on after the Gaza fiasco?
Never said I was a Zionist. Just a Jew who is sick to death of watching the ethical, moral fabric of my religion crapped upon.