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Palestine, and the crime of being a Jewish state
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: peace process 

My heart goes out to the Palestinians. Not only because their entire world has become one of despair, immobility, bloodshed, disillusionment, crumbling infrastructure, crumbling history, crumbling horizons. There's also this:

Their leaders are even worse than ours.

Imagine the most pragmatic, the most moderate, the most persuasive, the most reasonable of their representatives, preparing for the first peace summit in recent memory, by attacking the very idea that Israel should be a Jewish state.
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Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, declared Monday that the Palestinians will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Erekat was responding Monday to a series of strong statements by Ehud Olmert the day before, in which Olmert said "We won't hold negotiations on our existence as a Jewish state, this is a launching point for all negotiations," adding that "Whoever does not accept this, cannot hold any negotiations with me."

Erekat's response, speaking to Israel Radio, was clearer than one might have expected from a seasoned diplomat. So was the flat tone of rejection.

"No state in the world connects its national identity to a religious identity," he said.

Never mind the fact that the Saudis, sponsors of a peace initiative which the Palestinians hope someday to parlay into an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, are a theocracy of such sectarian dimension that tourists are forbidden from entering the country with bibles, crucifixes, or items bearing the Star of David.

Never mind the fact that leftists the world over can live with the concept of explicitly Muslim states teaching the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other explicitly anti-Semitic texts, while arguing that the very idea of a Jewish state implies and, in fact, compels racism against non-Jews.

The bottom line is that if Palestinians want a state - an actual state, and not just a fantasy, not just trappings but actual indepence - they are going to have to reconcile themselves to the idea of an overtly Jewish neighbor.

The other paradigm, which has certainly gained currency in this decade, is to overpower Israel militarily, clearing away the foreign Zionist weeds so that a glorious, supremely non-Jewish Palestine may arise for the benefit of believing Muslims everywhere.

It's not going to happen. The world has had its fill of the Palestinians. The Palestinians have had their chance. The Iranians would love to help them, but at this point, even their brother Muslims will not stand for it.

It's not going to happen. The Palestinians are either going to have a state alongside a Jewish state, or they can choose to have no state at all.

Arafat knew this. That is why, in speaking to his own diaspora, he consistently held out hope for a Palestinian Right of Return, a way to overwhelm Israel demographically.

But that is not about to happen either. Arafat knew that as well.

These days, in the inept leadership sweepstakes, the graft and ineptitude and impotence has a new opposite number, the splintered and floundering upper echelons of Hamas. Once the most disciplined, well-run, canny organization in the Palestinian territories, Hamas has begun to misgovern Gaza the way Israel once did.

As Monday's disastrous memorial rally for Yasser Araft showed all too well, Hamas has begun to employ a deadly cocktail of apparent tolerance and spasms of brutality.

For Palestinians, Hamas was once a pillar of hope and a role model of probity. Now the best that Hamas can boast is that it cannot bring itself to recognize Israel. Even though, in proposing decades-long truces, it has signaled its willingness to sit down with the people it will not recognize, and negotiate with the people it will not recognize, and live alongside the people it will not recognize.

Here's the rub: There was a time when everything that happened, played into Hamas' hands. If Israel invaded, or refrained from invading, if it talked peace or made war, Hamas profited. Now those days are over. Time is no longer on Hamas' side. Nor on the side of Fatah.

The world has shown its willingness to let Palestinians suffer indefinitely. The world has shown its impatience with the glorious victories of Palestine, whether that means Qassam-butchering six cows about to give birth in a dairy barn on a Negev kibbutz, or raising an army which spends much of its firepower on fellow Palestinians, as in the memorial rally which left as many as eight dead in Gaza.

What matters, in the end, is not whether the Palestinians choose to formally recognize Israel as a Jewish state. What matters is whether the Palestinians can live alongside a state which happens to be Jewish in character. That is to say, can they come to share the Holy Land with a state in which the dominant religion is not Islam.

Most Jewish Israelis, meanwhile, have come to accept the idea of an independent Palestinian state, in which the dominant religion will certainly be Islam.

If Palestinians cannot bring themselves to accept a Jewish Israel, there is always the default option. It may be unfair. It may seem that Palestinian suffering has been much too long in vain. But here it is: For Palestinians to choose not to accept a Jewish state, is to make the decisive choice for a future of statelessness.



______________


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  1.   EREKAT shows his true face 18:41  |  yossi 12/11/07
  2.   Poor Arabs 19:09  |  JK 12/11/07
  3.   Erakat is no different from Abbas... or Hamas 19:38  |  Raymond from DC 12/11/07
  4.   Appeal 19:56  |  Choni Davidowitz 12/11/07
  5.   Brad - Why Did it Take You So Long to Figure This Out ? 20:08  |  Tod Zuckerman 12/11/07
  6.   Is it just Providence? 22:41  |  Joseph 12/11/07
  7.   Reincarnation 22:44  |  Motic 12/11/07
  8.   Erekat is a known liar 22:53  |  Joe Sittizen 12/11/07
  9.   Bradley Burston is a nut 23:18  |  Josh 12/11/07
  10.   Judaism is a nationality 00:17  |  Manny 13/11/07
  11.   To Josh (#9) 00:29  |  Tod Zuckerman 13/11/07
  12.   A jewish state is the antithesis of what a democracy should be. 00:58  |  Sean 13/11/07
  13.   To Tod #11 -- Levy and Haas are definitely worse than Burston 01:21  |  Josh 13/11/07
  14.   Surprise surprise, Palestinians aren`t Zionists. 01:37  |  Rebekah S 13/11/07
  15.   Palestinians as Zionists II 01:39  |  Rebekah S 13/11/07
  16.   #11 Manny 01:42  |  Boycott 13/11/07
  17.   Third and final 01:43  |  Rebekah S 13/11/07
  18.   Summit time! 02:23  |  Existential 13/11/07
  19.   Another good article 02:39  |  Gili 13/11/07
  20.   poor Erekat is not Bileam riding on a donkey to curse Israel.... 04:01  |  king Balak 13/11/07
  21.   Manny #10 Not Unlike Some Other Nations 05:42  |  Tim R 13/11/07
  22.   Boycott #15 Secular Jews 05:58  |  Tim R 13/11/07
  23.   15Boycott (the Jewish State?) 06:16  |  Rob 13/11/07
  24.   Two wrongs doesn`t make it right 06:59  |  Bandar Michaels 13/11/07
  25.   Response to #11 and #13 07:02  |  Tod Zuckerman 13/11/07
  26.   Boycott #189 07:19  |  Choni Davidowitz 13/11/07
  27.   Suppose we declared England an Anglo-Saxon state? 07:25  |  Rowan Berkeley 13/11/07
  28.   Josh #9 08:13  |  S 13/11/07
  29.   Where`s Dahlan At? 08:30  |  Yosemite 13/11/07
  30.   How many Jews are there in: - 08:34  |  S 13/11/07
  31.   Jewosh state 08:55  |  Jack 13/11/07
  32.   The light has gone on 09:55  |  Amos 13/11/07
  33.   Is Israels "mainstream" capable of logical thinking....??? 10:08  |  Swiss (Dino) 13/11/07
  34.   I think Erekat said this because he knows that the new state 10:14  |  Judith, Haifa 13/11/07
  35.   SEMANTICS 10:17  |  Mark of Lewiston 13/11/07
  36.   Palestinians: if not by the sword, then by the poisoned pen 10:23  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  37.   EREKAT WASN`T AN APPOINTED LEADER 10:33  |  indrajaya 13/11/07
  38.   ben-gurion said 10:33  |  hi there 13/11/07
  39.   #`s 4 & 23 Chaver?? Choni!!!! the diaspora Jew 10:34  |  Ari ben Yisrael 13/11/07
  40.   #27 the ash tree and the balfour declaration 10:36  |  victor hardman 13/11/07
  41.   they either recognize, or they do not 10:48  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  42.   Khartoum, encore 10:51  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  43.   EXCELLENT postings by Rebekah S 10:56  |  Phillies Wright 13/11/07
  44.   YOSEMITE 10:57  |  indrajaya 13/11/07
  45.   The world has turned its face away from the Palestinians 10:57  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 13/11/07
  46.   ARAB DEMANDS 10:58  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  47.   Here`s the new Tosefta, RebekahS 11:02  |  Joe Slovo 13/11/07
  48.   Tim R #21 reply to Manny - silly comparisons 11:03  |  dana 13/11/07
  49.   INDRARAT rank in Al-Qaida: Rear Admiral of disinformation 11:04  |  Genuine Tosefta 13/11/07
  50.   The Palesinians do not deserve their own state. 11:04  |  Zev 13/11/07
  51.   "the crime of being a Jewish state" 11:04  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  52.   manny 10 11:09  |  realism 13/11/07
  53.   Tim R #21 - more on religion and on BB old column 11:10  |  dana 13/11/07
  54.   response to existential 11:13  |  sarah 13/11/07
  55.   response to existential 11:14  |  sarah 13/11/07
  56.   #35, Mark of Lewiston 11:15  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  57.   # 37, A CORRECTION 11:15  |  indrajaya 13/11/07
  58.   cipora 42 11:17  |  realism 13/11/07
  59.   TO BRADLEY:DONT FEEL BAD.THEY NEED TO EAT WHAT THEY COOK. 11:18  |  WARRIOR 13/11/07
  60.   S #30 - the answers! 11:26  |  dana 13/11/07
  61.   The non-silence of the "doves" (Erekat and Peres) 11:31  |  Swiss (Dino) 13/11/07
  62.   #45, dana 11:33  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  63.   THE LEADERS OF ISRAEL AND HAARETZ ARE "UNSER UNGLUCK" 11:34  |  R.Efuse 13/11/07
  64.   All You Lefties and Arabs Make me laugh 11:53  |  Levi 13/11/07
  65.   Their own worst enemies? 11:54  |  Sherlock Holmes 13/11/07
  66.   A righteous Zionist called Bradley, it so funny 12:03  |  Phillies Wright 13/11/07
  67.   dana #48 12:11  |  S 13/11/07
  68.   Rebekah S 12:11  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  69.   # 45 Margie in Tel Aviv 12:12  |  Swiss (Dino) 13/11/07
  70.   TWO FACED BRADLEY 12:16  |  VIPER 13/11/07
  71.   EREKAT`S POSITION 12:20  |  patrick hammel 13/11/07
  72.   Rebecka 12:23  |  Tal 13/11/07
  73.   Rebekah S 2 12:27  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/07
  74.   Erekat Throwing out the baby with the bath water 12:31  |  Tzfonit 13/11/07
  75.   Is A Secular Jew Still Jewish? 12:32  |  dyinglikeflies 13/11/07
  76.   #22 Tim R 12:36  |  Boycott 13/11/07
  77.   # 45 Margie in Tel Aviv, honestly..... 12:38  |  Swiss (Dino) 13/11/07
  78.   Israeli state? 12:38  |  Avi Yerushalmi 13/11/07
  79.