Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., July 26, 2009 Av 5, 5769 | | Israel Time: 19:36 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Maccabiah Travel Week's End Anglo File
Share |
Last update - 10:16 24/07/2009
Give us a border
By Bernard Avishai
Tags: obam, West Bank, Israel news 

There is something about the Netanyahu-Obama stand-off on settlements that seems beside the point. Had Ronald Reagan, following Jimmy Carter's lead, demanded a total freeze in 1980, the idea might have worked. Today the demand for a freeze reminds me of the joke about the implacable customer at a restaurant who, having waited too long for his dinner, says he can be appeased only by being served "15 minutes ago."

President Obama clearly wants to make a clean break with the past, and even make a show of force to Israeli extremists. But a total freeze is now out of the question. About 400,000 settlers live in crowded communities more or less contiguous with Israel (like Gush Etzion), or in Jerusalem suburbs (like Gilo and Ma'aleh Adumim). These urbanized areas are clearly not going to be moved or dismantled. And they cannot stop growing. Rather, a new border must be drawn around them and Palestine will have to be compensated in some way. Even the Geneva Initiative negotiators agreed on this.

The people who will be moved as part of any conceivable peace, who have turned Palestine into strangulated enclaves, are the 75,000-100,000 residents of settlements scattered around Hebron and between Ramallah and Nablus - vexingly, the very people who are most mobilized against any kind of deal and must be confronted by the international community and mainstream Israelis. (Salam Fayyad's offer of Palestinian citizenship to Jews who are more attached to the ancient land than the modern state, will be scoffed at by most of these settlers.)
Advertisement
All of which raises a question. Clearly, the issue here is not a settlement freeze. The freeze has become a proxy for the larger question of where to locate an internationally recognized border between two states. Why, then, should Obama fight - with little chance of success - over a symbol and defer the fight over what is symbolized, which will eventually require a hard line from America and the world anyway?

Consider another approach, that taken in Geneva. The fact that large settlements are immovable means the June 4, 1967, border is not feasible, but the principle of defining a border on the basis of June 4 certainly is. America needs to offer support, and fast, for a 1:1 land swap to insure that territories allotted to Israel and Palestine are equivalent in area to what existed on June 4. It should appoint a Quartet commission, answerable to Senator Mitchell, to suggest a map. Palestine is not Israel's internal affair, nor will Palestinians ever accept the border envisioned by Netanyahu. Only a new "international" map will reconcile the Arab League peace initiative with the difficulties of moving settlers back into Israel.

Sketching a border will bring obvious immediate benefits, such as helping government officials, businesspeople and others on both sides to plan and invest. But it will also help prepare the ground to evacuate those who must ultimately be moved. This will take years, just like moderating Hamas by rehabilitating the Palestinian Authority will take years. The Israel Defense Forces and the police could never muster enough manpower to simply move these settlers by force - anyway, many IDF officers sympathize with settlement.

And to get these people out, you have to do four things: marginalize them politically, that is, create a conflict of interest between settlers living within an agreed-upon border and the more fanatic types outside; induce them to return to agreed settlements or to within the Green Line with time-limited financial compensation; threaten them with power and water cuts; and, should all else fail, remove them by siege or, if necessary, force. All that is going to be very hard. As it withdraws, the IDF should work with NATO forces to replace its own soldiers.

There is nothing fanciful about projecting a border. For most Israelis, the line between Israel and occupied territory is self-evident. Palestinian leaders have all but said they're willing to compromise on the 1967 line, and effectively demilitarize their state, so long as a way can be found to compensate Palestine with land that is as much and as good as land annexed to Israel, and compensate and resettle the original refugees of 1948 in a Palestinian state - or, as one Ramallah friend suggested, so long as the futures of Israel and Palestine are linked to larger federal arrangements. Nor do you need more than common sense to see where the contention will come. For example, Ariel (smack-dab between Ramallah and Nablus) could never be part of a future Israel. Olmert insisted that it must be, which is one reason his talks with Mahmoud Abbas went nowhere. Here is where America's view becomes crucial, so why not apprise the sides of it now?

In any case, Obama is right to try and keep new settlement projects from being added to the 160 that already exist -­ that is, to insist that Israel remove new outposts, and prevent construction that fills in the gaps between existing settlements; and to forestall projects that would further compromise the viability of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. But we are beyond the talk of the road map's freeze now, or should be. What we need is a destination and a driver.

Bernard Avishai is adjunct professor of business at Hebrew University, and the author of "The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last" (Harcourt). He blogs at www.bernardavishai.com.
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Don't blame Obama
Painting Obama as an enemy of Israel will hurt us badly.
The fallout
Brooklyn Sephardic community rocked by detention of leading rabbi.
  1.   Yeah that`s right, don`t bother moving back to the 1967 borders! 10:33  |  Maureen Ann 24/07/09
  2.   Excellent article 10:44  |  Chanalau, Tova 24/07/09
  3.   Avishai means well, but 11:04  |  dana 24/07/09
  4.   something rational & visionary by Avishai, giving perspective - 12:20  |  ivo 24/07/09
  5.   There is plenty of room for growth inside of the 1967 border 12:36  |  Johan Odin 24/07/09
  6.   wish everyone saw it 14:20  |  dave duncan 24/07/09
  7.   dana #3: too dark glasses, dana - 14:31  |  ivo 24/07/09
  8.   And What Borders Will These Be?? 16:17  |  Yaakov Sullivan 24/07/09
  9.   Ivo #7 - too late not the same as never 19:40  |  dana 24/07/09
  10.   Universal standards of behavior!!??!! 19:55  |  Buddy Love, Jr 24/07/09
  11.   But is not not what Olmert offered and Addas rejected? 20:29  |  CM 24/07/09
  12.   If the Arabs won in 1967, where would Avishai be today? 20:35  |  Steve of Mevaserret 24/07/09
  13.   What Olmert "Offered" and Abbas Rejected 21:19  |  Yaakov Sullivan 24/07/09
  14.   #5, Odin, completely wrong about intl law 22:16  |  David 24/07/09
  15.   Basically right 22:40  |  arik 24/07/09
  16.   #10 Steve from my uncles` neighbourhood.... 23:01  |  Smadar 24/07/09
  17.   Our right to the Land of Israel- Smadar (#13) 01:50  |  Steve of Mevaserret 25/07/09
  18.   Nothing a few dozen cat`s couldn`t reverse 02:07  |  binny 25/07/09
  19.   So good that someone talks about the basics 03:10  |  Shelley 25/07/09
  20.   Israeli Borders 06:05  |  Cynical American 25/07/09
  21.   Israeli Borders 06:36  |  Cynical American 25/07/09
  22.   All borders are illegal 06:52  |  Marilyn 25/07/09
  23.   The Land Belongs to the Tenacious (Smadar #13) 07:29  |  Steve of Mevaserret 25/07/09
  24.   Ivo #7 - too late not the same as never, but 08:19  |  dana 25/07/09
  25.   Probably the best deal available. 08:34  |  Spokanite 25/07/09
  26.   Article misses the point 09:05  |  Joe 25/07/09
  27.   Israel has recognized borders. 09:15  |  James Hovland 25/07/09
  28.   cynical american 09:29  |  arik 25/07/09
  29.   Present some options. Show us maps! 09:32  |  James Hovland 25/07/09
  30.   Borders issue is not abstract. Palestine IS Palestinian homeland 10:09  |  Ivar 25/07/09
  31.   Yaakov Sullivan another Zionist who does not live in Palestine 10:38  |  guardian of stolen 25/07/09
  32.   To Yaakov Sullivan #11 `What Olmert offered...` 11:20  |  Colin Wright 25/07/09
  33.   to Ivar of Estonia 11:38  |  GA 25/07/09
  34.   Yaakov Sullivan, James Hovland & others: the -67 line isn`t holy 13:37  |  ivo 25/07/09
Special Offers
Advertisement
hotel Jerusalem
David Citadel Hotel, come stay at the finest of Jerusalem hotels.
Handmade In Tel Aviv
Itay Noy, Timepiece Maker
ISRAEL ARMY SURPLUS STORE
IDF insignia,Uniforms, Paladium Boots Watches, Israel Army T-shirts & Collectibles
Dead Sea Salt Beauty and skin care
From the Dead Sea Coupon cofe Haaretz for 10% off!
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
More Headlines
12:50 Mitchell to Barak: U.S. commitment to Israel security is 'unshakable'
16:37 Clinton brands Iran's nuclear pursuit 'futile'
11:26 Rahat residents pelt police with rocks as rightists march through town
12:06 Painting Obama as an enemy will hurt Israel badly
17:22 Group that exposed 'IDF crimes' in Gaza slams Israel bid to choke off its funds
17:06 Egypt refers accused Hezbollah operatives to emergency court
09:32 U.S. money laundering suspects linked to Shas spiritual leader
00:15 WATCH: Daily news round-up from Israel
18:56 Cockatoo stolen from kibbutz identifies owner, screeching 'Dad!'
10:42 Hamas set to compel Gaza women to wear head covering
08:12 Clinton: Israel to agree to temporary settlement freeze
10:54 Police: Father may have premeditated murder of 3-year-old daughter
10:31 Brooklyn Sephardic community rocked by detention of leading rabbi
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Site rules |
| Israel 2009 election results | Makom: Engaging on Israel
| Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved