Geneva Q&A
: Steven I. Weiss is going to an event tonight on the Geneva Accord with Tom Friedman, Yossi Beilin, and Yasser Abed Rabbo. He’s soliciting questions to ask from bloggers.
4 responses to “Geneva Q&A”
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I don’t know how to phrase this question, but my problem is this–I have reluctantly, after many years, come to the conclusion that only a small minority of the Palestinians actually want a two-state solution (no matter what it is–I don’t really give a shit about the actual borders). Their schools have always vehemently preached a one-state solution (theirs) and now almost everyone seems to believe it–at least that’s how the Palestinian citizenry acts. I would like to know, particularly from Mr. Abed Rabbo, how he proposes to convince this skeptic otherwise.
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I don’t have any questions for Messrs. Beilin and Abed Rabbo. I did see them on the PBS Newshour on Monday, 12/3/03, and I was impressed by each of them. One main point emerged from the discussion: The Geneva Agreement is the first detailed image of what a terminal settlement would actually look like, instead of a time table of steps that puts off the really hard issues that have so far made this situation, as Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal says, “intractable.” Peace will only come through compromise when both peoples give up things they cherish. Judging from the outrage from the extremes I think that Beilin and Abed Rabbo are on the right track. I just hope this effort will cause both the Israeli and the Palestinian center to swell over time so that eventually peace can become a reality.
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I think that the notion of a “Palestinian center” is wishfull thinking. Where does that center lay in a population where surveys consistently show >70% of Palestinians support terror attacks targeting Jewish civilians?
My question for Mr. Rabbo is what rights will Jews have in the Palestinian state? For example, will they be allowed to live there, own land, become naturalized citizens, vote, free associate, etc?
I have two questions for Mr. Beilin. The first is what role did the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the daily humiliation of Palestinian Arabs at Israeli checkpoints have in causing the violence of 1929, when Jews were attacked by Arabs all over pre-state Palestine and 69 were slaughtered in Hebron? The second question is has he ever read the children’s story The Emperor’s New Clothes? -
A question for both of them:
In the interests of fairness, when the settlements are dismantled and Jews evicted from the advent Palestinian state, should not an equal number of Palestinian Arabs be evicted from Israel? The only way that you can advocate dismantling the settlements and evicting the Jews while simultaneously condemning the idea of “transfer”, evicting Arabs from Israel, is if you believe that only Arabs ultimately can lay claim to be sovereign in that entire region, that ultimately Jews have no rights there.
Of course many of those involved with the Geneva process have no problem with the following scenario. First a Palestinian state is created, giving Jews no political, religious or civil rights in that state. Simultaneouly, Israeli Arabs and their supporters like Mr. Beilin will increasingly agitate for “equal rights” and the redefinition of Israel from a Jewish state to a “state of its citizens”. I can understand the Palestinians supporting this. The only way I can understand Beilin and his ilk is that they think that when the Palestinians take over, they’ll be treated as the “good Jews” who helped them.
Jews have no monopoly on righteousness, that’s for damn sure. Jewish history is sadly replete with renegades, apostates and malcontents who were quick to curry favor with Jew haters. In medieval times they lied and accused their fellow Jews of the blood libel. More recently they betrayed fellow Jews to the Nazis. It’s almost an archetype, the Jew who betrays his community for some kind of personal gain. Pablo Christiani, Theobald of Norwich, Adam Shapiro, Yossi Beilin. Sometimes it’s more extreme than others, but there always seem to be Jews who are at best blind to the dangers facing their community.
