Saturday, 24 January 2009
The Mission
The Israeli invasion of Gaza and its horrific toll on Palestinian civilians demonstrate that, so long as this self-destructive conflict goes on, the innocent people of Israel and Palestine will wallow in their suffering.
It is time to stop this bloodbath. And the creation of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is the only way to reach that goal.
The question of Palestine remains the biggest chasm between Israel, the Arabs, and non-Arab Muslims. Since the first war between Arab states and Israel in 1948-49, there has been no end in sight to the conflict. For sure, Israel managed to sign peace treaties with, and gain recognition from, two of its neighbors (Egypt and Jordan). But because Israel does not take the bold steps necessary to create the Palestinian state, most Arab and Muslim countries refuse to recognize it. Israel, without recognition and security, refrains from normalizing relations with the Palestinians. And without the prospects of a viable Palestinian state, groups like HAMAS gain prestige in the eyes of Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.
(Tragically, HAMAS’s rocket attacks had prompted Israel to attack Gaza over three weeks ago. And this deadlock has played out disastrously: more than 1,200 Palestinians – many of them innocent civilians – lie dead. Over 5,000 are wounded.)
So, how do we create a Palestinian state; convince Israel that it is in its interest to do so; and move forward to a new order in the Middle East?
How, in other words, do we accomplish mission impossible?
The Task
The trick to creating a viable Palestinian state can come about by addressing the “people problem.”
At the moment, of the West Bank’s population of 2.5 million, nearly 200,000 are Israeli settlers. An additional 175,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, the venue that Palestinians hope will become the capital of their state. Resettling unwilling Israeli civilians into Israel’s pre-1967 lands will be a troublesome task (just as it was in 2005 when Israel withdrew from Gaza).
An even larger problem will be to accommodate the return of Palestinian refugees, a large body of 5 million. Truth be told, since the State of Israel would not allow the return of former residents of Mandate Palestine into its territories, probably not all Palestinian refugees would come into what would become the Republic of Palestine; at least not immediately.
The third hurdle is the status of Jerusalem. Jerusalem houses the Western Wall of Solomon’s Temple, the Church of Sepulcher, and the Masjid al-Aqsa/Qubbat as-Sahra, the holiest sites for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, respectively. Israelis and Palestinians contest this city fiercely for its great symbolic value. Currently, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and the Palestinians will never accept statehood without Jerusalem as their own capital.
The Possible and the Necessary Mission
Aside from Jerusalem, the “people problem” is one that can be solved by careful planning and a price tag. Building decent housing for the nearly 5.5 million people in question (5 million Palestinians and a total of 375,000 Israeli settlers) will be a gargantuan task but it is not an impossible one. (A feasibility study commissioned by the World Bank would probably be the best way to start this project.)
For years, the major players of the Middle East conflict – indigenous and foreign – have wasted their resources on warfare – clandestine and open. In its stead, if the wealthy countries – oil-rich Arab states, the United States, and the European Union – can channel their energies to relocate Israelis and Palestinians, peace can be within reach.
As for Jerusalem, two alternatives – neither of which will be pleasant, it must be said – exist. The city can be divided into Israeli and Palestinian sectors and United Nations (UN) peacekeepers can monitor the holy sites. Alternatively, Jerusalem (old and new) can be administered as a single unit by a UN commission, although experience with “free cities” (Danzig/Gdansk had given Hitler the pretext to start a world war in 1939) does not bode well for this option.
The Substitute
“There is no substitute for victory” said General Douglas MacArthur upon Japan’s capitulation in 1945. In the case of Israel and Palestine in 2009, the only substitute for solution is the current situation: HAMAS gains political strength (for merely surviving the latest Israeli onslaught); Israel fails to succeed in its political objective (annihilating HAMAS and keeping moderate Palestinians on its side); and radical Islamists everywhere have another excuse to engage in anti-Western propaganda (Western support for Israel and distance to Palestine).
This is the mission, should you choose to accept.
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Barýn Kayaoðlu is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Virginia and a regular contributor to the Journal of Turkish Weekly.
E-mail: kayaoglu@virginia.edu
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