Final Blog

Before entering this internship, I had little knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  In truth, I was mostly pro-Israel until just a few weeks before the program began.  Talking with some of my friends, I began to see a different side to the conflict; one that was contrary to what I had always believed.  Looking into things a bit more, I was shocked at the number of stories about Israeli repression against Palestinians.  Sure, I had read Chomsky before and I had heard anti-Semitic rhetoric about how Israeli is ethnically cleansing the Palestinians, but I mostly chalked this up to extreme points of view; either left wing or Islamic fundamentalist.  However, reading more into it, I was surprised at how little the media had portrayed the other side of the affair.  I don’t know why I was shocked, I knew that the Israeli lobby in the US is huge, that the media almost always takes a pro-Israeli stance, and that due to their strategic importance in the region, the US would always back them and the people would most likely follow due to Holocaust guilt.  After arriving here, my impression only became stronger.  True, the program was very balanced with both sides of the conflict well represented, but the fact remains that even the most hardline pro-Israelis in our group were swayed toward the middle and I personally was pushed firmly over the line.  Every nation is entitled to self-defense, but no nation can justifiably treat one portion of its citizens worse than any other part.  The occupation is also an area of contention for me, but I can see the Israeli point of view on that segement better than I can the mistreatment of the Arab Israelis.  These are the people that are the key to the whole peacemaking process, in my opinion.  If they were treated as equals and allowed to prosper, they would make a powerful intermediary between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.  They would be a visible sign to the West Bank and Gaza that Israel is a just and fair society that is willing to work towards peace.  Instead, they are treated like conquered subjects. 

I have mentioned several times that I don’t care about historical justice and past grevences.  The world is what it is.  By digging into the past, people are opening up a hole into an area that bears little to no significance on the present.  How far back do you go? Ten years, fifty years, 100 years or several millennia?  It doesn’t change the facts on the ground: two different societies are living next to each other and if they don’t figure out how to get along, they will both suffer from it.  The problem is that for much of the population, this is not a realistic option.  Both sides are rooted in the past and erasing the fact that someone lost their house to an Israeli bulldozer or someone else lost a spouse to a Palestinian suicide bomber is not something that we can expect to happen overnight.  However, we can start the process of mitigating the drive for further conflict.  Israelis are uncompromising on a one state solution.  That is fine, but it means that they will have to stop building settlements and those settlers will have to either get used to living under a Palestinian government or they will have to come back to Israel.  Palestinians are uncompromising on recognition of atrocities in the ’48 war.  Fine, but they may have to settle for something that is vaguely worded and doesn’t come right out and say that Israel blatently drove Arabs out of the country on pain of death, like they want. 

Israel currently holds all the cards and all the chips.  The idea that they can get any more strategic gain out of the West Bank is ludicrous in my opinion.  True, they will most likely have to give up some of their resources that they have secured by the occupation.  For example, control of the Jordan valley is a big one.  But by not making some concessions now, they are risking a turn of events that they are not able to reverse.  Why not bargain now that they have nothing else to gain but so much to lose? If the Jordanian monarchy ever falls, the new government will most likely be a Palestinian one.  The current population of the country is dominated by them, so this would make sense.  How would that affect not only relations with Israel, but sentiments in the West Bank?  A peaceful revolution there could spell political turmoil in Israel.  If a hasty withdrawal plan were initiated, much like the Gaza plan, odds are much greater that the result is going to come out with Hamas being in control and firing rockets at Tel Aviv.  I know that if I were Palestinian, I would be doing daily sit-ins on Israeli-only West Bank roads.  I would be leading teams of women and children to cut down border fences that separate Arab communities.  And, most of all, I would be encouraging western media to document the Israeli response to these things.  Americans and Europeans can only stand by so long as they watch scores of unarmed men, women and children get tear gassed and beaten by IDF soldiers who are trying to keep the roads open and the fences secure.  So long as they don’t resort to violence, Israel will eventually have to back down and make some hard concessions and this would not be good for the region if those concessions are not done in the proper manor. 

My solutions, though obviously far from perfect would be to firstly restart the peace talks.  This should happen after the next round of elections in the hopes that the new PA government will be viewed as legitimate by the people.  Next, I would begin the slow process of reducing the number of checkpoints within the West Bank and allowing a greater number of Palestinians through the border fence in order to find work.  This could be done with either more access points or by initiating a random screening process for people trying to pass through.  Instead of checking everyone, check two out of three, then gradually reduce the number further.  If attacks increase, the wall is still there and everything can quickly be re-implemented.  More police and counter terrorism units should be funded and trained either alongside Israeli units or by third parties such as Germany, France or Britain.  This would allow more of the operations to be conducted by the Palestinian government and not by the Israelis.  This should obviously include extensive information sharing.  Furthermore, the freeze on settlement building should be immediately enforced excepting only those areas that will agreed upon as a land swap between the two states.  Those settlers that are currently deep within the West Bank should be allowed lifetime leases and/or compensation if they wish to move.  After the death of the current occupants, the property would go to auction in order to allow Palestinians the opportunity to purchase it openly.  Further construction could only be done through the legitimate purchase of land from either the PA government or from Palestinian individuals.  Finally, the borders of the West Bank should remain under Israeli control for the present and only be gradually transferred over to the PA.  This includes the right of passage to Jordan from both sides.  Israel would oversee this for a number of years, gradually working with the government police until they feel that they can hand over certain areas.  Eventually, the country would be free of an IDF presence.  Existing infrastructure would become the responsibility of the government to maintain and expand upon, though I believe that it would be in Israel and the International Community’s interests to support this financially.  Regarding the land swap, I can only say that a just amount of compensation is required by both sides.  If that is to include some cities on the Israeli side that are predominantly Arab, so be it.  An influx of population is more financially secure, better educated, and speak some Hebrew would most likely be in both parties interests which is why caring for the Arab Israeli population is so important.  By allowing these people to become the diplomats for a new Israeli-Palestinian peace process, they will serve an important function within the new state. 

None of these solutions is a magic bullet and even all of them together are likely to be difficult if not impossible to pass, but they seem to me to be the most likely paths toward some form of reconciliation.  Maintaining the status quo merely delays the inevitable and reduces the likelihood that the end result will be to the maximum benefit of Israel.  Acting sooner will prevent disaster later.