From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Sat Jan 03 2009 - 23:52:01 EST
A Memo to Obama on Israel
December 29, 2008
Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
Uri Avnery: The following humble suggestions are based on my 70 years
of experience as an underground fighter, member of the Knesset and founding
member of a peace movement in Israel.
1) As far as Israeli-Arab peace is concerned, you should act from Day One.
2) Israeli elections are due to take place in February 2009. You can have
an indirect but important and constructive impact on the outcome, by
announcing your unequivocal determination to achieve Israeli-Palestinian,
Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-all-Arab peace in 2009.
3) Unfortunately, all your predecessors since 1967 have played a double
game. While paying lip service to peace, and sometimes going through the
motions of making some effort for peace, they have in practice supported
our governments in moving in the very opposite direction. In particular,
they have given tacit approval to the building and enlargement of Israeli
settlements in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, each of
which is a land mine on the road to peace.
4) All the settlements are illegal in international law. The distinction
sometimes made between "illegal" outposts and the other settlements is a
propaganda ploy designed to obscure this simple truth.
5) All the settlements since 1967 have been built with the express purpose
of making a Palestinian state--and hence peace--impossible, by cutting the
territory of the prospective State of Palestine into ribbons. Practically
all our government departments and the army have openly or secretly helped
to build, consolidate and enlarge the settlements--as confirmed by the 2005
report prepared for the government by lawyer Talia Sasson.
6) By now, the number of settlers in the West Bank has reached some 250,000
(apart from the 200,000 settlers in the Greater Jerusalem area, whose
status is somewhat different). They are politically isolated, and sometimes
detested by the majority of the Israel public, but enjoy significant
support in the army and government ministries.
7) No Israeli government would dare to confront the concentrated political
and material might of the settlers. Such a confrontation would need very
strong leadership and the unstinting support of the President of the United
States to have any chance of success.
8) Lacking these, all "peace negotiations" are a sham. The Israeli
government and its US backers have done everything possible to prevent the
negotiations with both the Palestinians and the Syrians from reaching any
conclusion, for fear of provoking a confrontation with the settlers and
their supporters. The present "Annapolis" negotiations are as hollow as all
the preceding ones, each side keeping up the pretense for its own political
interests.
9) The Clinton administration, and even more so the Bush administration,
allowed the Israeli government to keep up this pretense. It is therefore
imperative to prevent members of these administrations from diverting your
Middle Eastern policy into the old channels.
10) It is important for you to make a complete new start, and to state this
publicly. Discredited ideas and failed initiatives--such as the Bush
"vision," the Road Map, Annapolis and the like--should be thrown into the
junkyard of history.
11) To make a new start, the aim of American policy should be stated
clearly and succinctly. This should be: to achieve a peace based on the
two-state solution within a defined time span (say, by the end of 2009).
12) It should be pointed out that this aim is based on a reassessment of
the American national interest, in order to extract the poison from
American-Arab and American-Muslim relations, strengthen peace-oriented
regimes, defeat Al Qaeda-type terrorism, end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
and achieve a viable accommodation with Iran.
13) The terms of Israeli-Palestinian peace are clear. They have been
crystallized in thousands of hours of negotiations, conferences, meetings
and conversations. They are:
13.1) A sovereign and viable State of Palestine will be established
side by side with the State of Israel.
13.2) The border between the two states will be based on the pre-1967
Armistice Line (the "Green Line"). Insubstantial alterations can be arrived
at by mutual agreement on an exchange of territories on a 1:1 basis.
13.3) East Jerusalem, including the Haram-al-Sharif ("Temple Mount")
and all Arab neighborhoods will serve as the capital of Palestine. West
Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and all Jewish neighborhoods, will
serve as the capital of Israel. A joint municipal authority, based on
equality, may be established by mutual consent to administer the city as
one territorial unit.
13.4) All Israeli settlements--except any which might be joined to
Israel in the framework of a mutually agreed exchange of territories-- will
be evacuated (see 15 below).
13.5) Israel will recognize in principle the right of the refugees to
return. A Joint Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, composed of
Palestinian, Israeli and international historians, will examine the events
of 1948 and 1967 and determine who was responsible for what. Each
individual refugee will be given the choice between (1) repatriation to the
State of Palestine, (2) remaining where he/she is living now and receiving
generous compensation, (3) returning to Israel and being resettled, (4)
emigrating to any other country, with generous compensation. The number of
refugees who will return to Israeli territory will be fixed by mutual
agreement, it being understood that nothing will be done that materially
alters the demographic composition of the Israeli population. The large
funds needed for the implementation of this solution must be provided by
the international community in the interest of world peace. This will save
much of the money spent today on military expenditure and direct grants
from the United States.
13.6) The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip constitute one
national unit. An extraterritorial connection (road, railway, tunnel or
bridge) will connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip.
13.7) Israel and Syria will sign a peace agreement. Israel will
withdraw to the pre-1967 line and all settlements on the Golan Heights will
be dismantled. Syria will cease all anti-Israeli activities conducted
directly or by proxy. The two parties will establish normal relations
between them.
13.8) In accordance with the Saudi Peace Initiative, all member states
of the Arab League will recognize Israel and establish normal relations
with it. Talks about a future Middle Eastern Union, on the model of the EU,
possibly to include Turkey and Iran, may be considered.
14) Palestinian unity is essential for peace. Peace made with only one
section of the people is worthless. The US will facilitate Palestinian
reconciliation and the unification of Palestinian structures. To this end,
the US will end its boycott of Hamas, which won the last elections, start a
political dialogue with the movement and encourage Israel to do the same.
The US will respect any result of democratic Palestinian elections.
15) The US will aid the government of Israel in confronting the settlement
problem. As from now, settlers will be given one year to leave the occupied
territories voluntarily in return for compensation that will allow them to
build their homes in Israel proper. After that, all settlements--except
those within any areas to be joined to Israel under the peace
agreement--will be evacuated.
16) I suggest that you, as president of the United States, come to Israel
and address the Israeli people personally, not only from the rostrum of the
Knesset but also at a mass rally in Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square. President
Anwar Sadat of Egypt came to Israel in 1977, and, by addressing the Israeli
people directly, completely changed their attitude towards peace with
Egypt. At present, most Israelis feel insecure, uncertain and afraid of any
daring peace initiative, partly because of a deep distrust of anything
coming from the Arab side. Your personal intervention, at the critical
moment, could literally do wonders in creating the psychological basis for
peace.
About Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery is a veteran of Israel's 1948 war, a former Member of the
Knesset, founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement and winner of the 2001
Right Livelihood Award, often called the "alternative Nobel Peace Prize."
His book "1948: A Soldier's Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem," which was
published in Hebrew soon after the 1948 war and was a bestseller in Israel,
has just been translated into English for the first time by Oneworld
Publications. more...