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del.icio.us Digg It!  new Last update - 10:47 29/11/2007 The 29th of November, then and now By Tom Segev Tags: Palestinians, Israel  On Saturday night, November 29, 1947, many of the Jews in the Land of Israel went out to dance in the streets of the cities. They were celebrating the United Nations decision to establish a Jewish state in part of the country. The Arabs were also supposed to get a state, but they went to war. In his new book, Yoav Gelber, a professor of history at the University of Haifa, ponders what would have happened had the Arabs agreed to the Partition Plan adopted by the UN 60 years ago today. "We can only guess," writes Gelber cautiously. Such guessing fires the imagination: It is possible that everything would have happened as it did, from one war to the next. The Zionist movement invested great efforts into attaining a majority in favor of partition, but the borders proposed by the UN were far from being an answer to its yearnings. Had the Arabs agreed to those lines, the Zionists might have rejected them. Advertisement In any case, everyone knew that it was not the UN that would determine the borders of the country, but rather the outcome of the war. Israel today controls an area about twice the size of the area it was allotted on November 29, 1947. The partition resolution can therefore be seen as the mother of all the ensuing diplomatic fictions, from Security Council Resolution 242 to the "road map." In recent months, we have marked a number of significant dates that offered an opportunity for similar pondering: the 90th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the 70th anniversary of Lord Peel's partition plan, the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, the 30th anniversary of Anwar Sadat's visit. There is no point in asking who is to blame, the questions which usually dominate such discussions. There is a point to trying to understand why it is so difficult for the two sides to end the conflict, and where they erred. It is not easy to understand why so many Israelis still believe that a large Israel without peace is better than a small Israel with peace, and why Israeli patriotism is usually identified with expanding borders rather than with the desire for Jewish and democratic borders. But the really important question is this: Who has more to lose in the present situation? The answer is clear: Israel. Not only because of Iran, Hamas and the weakness that was revealed in the Second Lebanon War. With every settler who moves to the territories and with every Palestinian child who is killed by Israel Defense Forces fire, Israel loses some of the moral justification that led to the decision on the 29th of November 60 years ago. The Palestinians have already lost almost everything they had. The partition resolution reflected the assessment that Jews and Arabs cannot live together. The fact is that most of them really do not believe today that they will see the advent of peace; Annapolis has not changed that. But from a historical perspective, the gap between the basic positions of the sides seems to have been gradually reduced over the years. There was a time when Israelis and Palestinians refused to speak to one another, the Palestinians refused to recognize the State of Israel and Israel refused to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state. All that is behind us. Most Israelis and most Palestinians agree in principle to dividing the country between them. There are some who believe that a Palestinian state on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip will be unable to survive. That may be true, but Gaza and the West Bank could also be part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The decision to make peace with King Hussein without returning the West Bank to him can thus be considered a mistake that we will regret for a long time to come. In the time that has passed since the November 29 resolution, generations of politicians, legal scholars and economists have arisen, who have thought about alternatives to partition. There were Arabs who wanted to throw Israel into the sea, there were Israelis who wanted to expel the Arabs to the desert. The idea of living in some kind of binational framework has also come up repeatedly. There are people who believe in it now. Most are neither Israelis nor Palestinians, but pundits in other countries. They suggest to the Israelis that they give up their state and to the Palestinians that they give up the state they don't yet have. That is a nice post-Zionist idea, for the End of Days. Bookmark to del.icio.us Do Jews have a say? How much influence should Diaspora Jews have over Israel's decision? Nixon's nuke concern Former U.S. president feared Israeli nukes would spark an arms race.   1.   SEGEV NEEDS TO OPEN A MAP AND LOOK AT JORDAN 11:15  |  *!*D.Ranged*!* 29/11/07   2.   Old U.N. 11:21  |  Doug McFarlan 29/11/07   3.   That depends on where you start 11:47  |  El-Birawi 29/11/07   4.   Not at all true about Palestinians 11:57  |  Shalom Freedman 29/11/07   5.   Right of return becomes an American problem 12:15  |  Natallie Durson 29/11/07   6.   Isreali patriotism is usually identified with WHAT? 12:25  |  Tzfonit 29/11/07   7.   #5 Natallie Dur d`Oreille,you don`t have problems paying for the 12:53  |  Hastaroth 29/11/07   8.   Primitive propagandist Segev,pals`ve gained life-expectancy and 13:08  |  Absolute Sweden 29/11/07   9.   #2 Old McFarlan 13:26  |  Hastaroth 29/11/07   10.   Neville Segev - Peace in out time 13:44  |  eddie 29/11/07   11.   however in the 21st century 13:55  |  cool 29/11/07   12.   #2 Old UN Old El Paso Doug 14:02  |  Petra 29/11/07   13.   Telling... 14:20  |  Teresa-Maria (Tess) 29/11/07   14.   to *!*D.Ranged*!* #1 - well said 14:21  |  zeev 29/11/07   15.   Natallie should exercise her right of return 15:39  |  Moise Cohen 29/11/07   16.   Tess 15:46  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 29/11/07   17.   Territories Give Israel Only Problems 15:50  |  Jane 29/11/07   18.   # 14 # THE WHOLE WEST BANK INCLUDED IN PLAN FOR ISRAEL 16:13  |  "! D.Ranged !" 29/11/07   19.   Margie, it really is not so disjointed.... 16:16  |  Teresa-Maria (Tess) 29/11/07   20.   One Palestine, Complete 16:34  |  Ned 29/11/07   21.   Usual Segev 16:42  |  Gene 29/11/07   22.   Margie, 3rd issue.... 17:02  |  Teresa-Maria (Tess) 29/11/07   23.   to D.Ranged #18 17:14  |  zeev 29/11/07   24.   Segev is dead wrong; there was no UN partition decision 17:15  |  Jake 29/11/07   25.   Moise Cohen, excuse me? 17:21  |  Jake 29/11/07   26.   El Birawi, your Arab Legion razed Old Jewish Jerusalem 17:27  |  Jake 29/11/07   27.   More BS from Segev - a failed Itanatkutist & Osloist 17:38  |  Jeremy 29/11/07   28.   to Gene #21 - usual propaganda 17:40  |  zeev 29/11/07   29.   Segev silly. Who says there will be peace with small state! 17:48  |  McQueen 29/11/07   30.   Tess 18:01  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 29/11/07   31.   to McQueen #29 18:30  |  zeev 29/11/07   32.   Hello Tom Segev 18:51  |  Michael Santomauro 29/11/07   33.   That depends on where you start 20:07  |  danisilas 29/11/07   34.   The creation of Israel was a disaster... 13:28  |  Dutch 30/11/07

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