"It is easier to dismiss claims that run contrary to what you already believe than to perhaps change your beliefs, but that fact alone doesn't invalidate what could be new facts." That was one friend's response to my questioning of the validity and purpose of the "leaked" Palestine Papers this week. Instead of recognizing the bias involved in Al-Jazeera leaking documents that Israelis readily concede will give Abbas and the Palestinian government a good standing internationally (and, consequently, continue to frame Israel as the evil, unwilling partner in negotiations), I'm supposed to be willing to concede to "what could be new facts" and change my entire way of thinking about the peace process.
Forget the fact that I've never really talked about the peace process or my opinions of the Palestinian government. I am Conservative, and therefore right wing, and therefore I distrust the Palestinians and will seek to frame them in as evil a light as possible by my very political nature.
And I thought Leftists were supposed to be the supporters of open minds and open dialogue.
In his reaction to the Palestine Papers, J. J. Goldberg notes the complete lack of a response from the organized Jewish community that he tends to characterize as typically right wing in nature when it comes to supporting Israel, commenting, "The one thing nobody seems able to get their minds around is the idea that Israel might be in the wrong here. That would be much too awkward."
Truthfully, if Jewish Leftists weren't such rampant environmentalists they'd probably have printed and distributed copies of the leaked documents with instructions to rub them in the faces of any Jewish right wingers they could find hiding under rocks. Within the next month the Papers will no doubt be published in America by at least one Jewish Leftist organization under the title "Triumph! Triumph at Last!"
So, what have they really won? They have papers that allege a Palestinian partner willing to compromise on the Right of Return, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and joint control of Jerusalem. No actual peace agreement documents were included in the Papers, which only covered Palestinian discussions. We don't know if these comments ever reached Israeli ears because we have no documentation to that effect. We also don't have any official Palestinian verification of the documents in question.
In fact, what we do have is the Palestinian Cheif Negotiator, Saeb Erekat, condemning the release of the Palestine Papers and accusing Al-Jazeera of slander, saying that the leaked documents make him look like a traitor to his people. According to Erekat, the leaks are the fault of a former CIA Agent and British national who now works for Al-Jazeera. (Perhaps this is one of the conspiracy theories J.J. Goldberg is trying to blame on the right wing, which is funny; I didn't know Erekat, who claims that the leaks are "punishment for going against the United States in the Security Council" qualified as yet another one of those annoying Israeli & American flag-waving right wingers.)
Still functioning on the assumption that the Palestine Papers are really true, Goldberg does concede that the Palestinians are slightly somewhat to blame:
But that would overlook the Palestinian leadership’s contributions to the mess. They never told their public how much they were willing to give up to achieve statehood. No doubt they wanted to hold off admitting how much they were giving away until they could announce how much they were getting in return. That’s a basic rule of negotiating.
Unfortunately, the Palestinian leaders didn’t just keep their cards hidden. They adopted an emphatic public stance that was the opposite of their negotiating position: no compromise on refugees, no deviating from the 1967 borders, no demilitarization, no Israeli presence on the Temple Mount. The result was that the Palestinian public wasn’t prepared for the realities of peace. Not surprisingly, the leak of the Palestinian negotiating positions in January caused an uproar.
You could approach this in one of two ways: If the papers are true, then the Palestinian government plays one incredible game of poker. If they aren't true, which is the official Palestinian government stance, then we are only left with what we do see coming out of the Palestinian leadership: an unwillingness to negotiate combined with a militant attitude towards Israel.
Perhaps that is why there has been so little conversation on the Palestine Papers outside of the Left Wing. It is the Left Wing that consistently looks for hope where there is none, just as they continually assign blame where it doesn't belong. The one solid conclusion that pragmatic Israeli analysts could draw from the leaks is "that the document leak aimed to harm Abbas's standing within the PA, but instead will raise his standing internationally." Suddenly, the man who supposedly was willing to negotiate but refuses to verify that claim and stands behind a wall of non-negotiation becomes the international hero. I'm sure the Nobel committee is already taking the leaks into account for this year's nominations.
I can't answer for the mainstream Jewish (secretly right-wing cabal) community's lack of response to the Palestine Papers. I can, however, say that from a Conservative perspective the Palestine Papers are nothing but the same old sorry news coming out of the Israeli-Palestinian sphere. As for my personal Conservative, crazy right-wing views, it's like I explained to my friend: Like mostly everyone I know, I'm always willing to put a little John Lennon in my CD player. I'm also far too used to these types of stories: "Palestinians are willing peace partners!" only to be followed by "More terror attacks by [insert terror front's name here] on Israelis" followed by "Crackdown on security in West Bank" followed by "[Terror Group] using special ed kid as human sheild suicide bomber" or "rockets fired over Gaza Strip into Sderot" followed by "There will be no talks until the militant action stops!" followed by "Fine then, we aren't negotiating!"
You either get beaten into submission by this cycle, or you start to say, "You know what? When you want peace, you'll tell the terrorists to knock it off and be the bigger guy, like Anwar Sadat. Oh, wait, no one wants to be the next Sadat. Nevermind."
If you think I'm oversimplifying my case, go back to 2008 when sources claim the Palestine Papers were written. According to an incredibly well-documented count on Wikipedia, 1,528 mortars and 1,575 rockets were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip the same year these unverified documents claim the Palestinian government was willing to make serious concessions for peace. 2008 ended in Operation Cast Lead in which Hamas terrorists in Gaza used a remarkable amount of civilians as human shields, with no condemnation or reaction from Abbas or his government. To the contrary, it was the soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces who were forced to undergo an ethics investigation after the war which concluded that "soldiers maintained a high professional and moral level while facing an enemy that aimed to terrorize Israeli civilians while taking cover behind uninvolved civilians in the Gaza area and using them as human shields."
When Al-Jazeera leaks some papers that indicate Abbas and his negotiating team condemn the terrorists in their midst who use innocent civilians as shields against peace, and when Abbas and his government walk out of Fatah Revolutionary Councils instead of participating in them, then I'll believe there's a chance for peace. Until then, I can only go with the most recent reports regarding the Palestinian government's willingness to "negotiate":
"The Fatah council derogatorily rejected recognition of “the so-called Jewish state” or any “racist state based on religion.” It reasserted the “right of return” which, if implemented, would facilitate the end of a Jewish majority within the pre-1967 Green Line by allowing about four million Palestinian refugees and their offspring to settle in Israel proper.
Land swaps as part of a peace agreement were ruled out as well. Large settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria, such as Gush Etzion, Ma’aleh Adumim and other cities located just over the Green Line, consisting of no more than five percent of the West Bank, where about 80% around 320,000 Jews live, must be uprooted and settlers must be expelled, it decided.
...In what sounded more like a battle cry than a declaration, Fatah essentially articulated its intent to do everything short of relaunching an armed struggle to undermine the existence of the Jewish state."
Now, that's what I call giving peace a chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment