Israel & The Palestinians: Creative Compromises Can Conquer Conflict, Argues David Singer

"Palestine: Creative Compromises Can Conquer Conflict" is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

'It has taken less than a month for the euphoria generated by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution conferring non-member observer status on the "State of Palestine" to dissolve into a farcical denouement.

Mahmoud Abbas's folly in unilaterally approaching the United Nations in breach of the Oslo Accords has been neatly summed up by CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk in her article "Is Palestine now a State?"

"In the end, the Resolution does not change the Palestinians lives on the ground, and it does not "recognize" Palestine as a state."

UN Special Rapporteur for the West Bank, Professor Richard Falk, offered his own prognosis on 2 January on his blog page:

"At this point, I do not believe that the two-state consensus can be implemented, nor is the one-state alternative politically feasible."

Demise of the two-state solution is confirmed by the following recent developments:

First: Jamal Muheisen, a member of the Fatah Central Council, has reportedly told the Jerusalem Post that Hamas is conducting secret negotiations in an Arab country to reach agreement with Israel over the establishment of a Palestinian state with temporary borders in the Gaza Strip and Sinai.

Muheisen has claimed that the negotiations were being held under the auspices of the US claiming  that:

"Hamas is seeking to establish its own emirate while leaving the West Bank as cantons that are separated by settlements. Hamas's goal is to foil the establishment of a Palestinian state on all the territories that were occupied in 1967."

Secondly: The 2003 United States Roadmap proposing a two- state solution has disappeared off the radar with State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland only being able to offer this vision:

"As we turn the calendar to 2013… now is the time for leaders on both sides to display real leadership, to focus on the work that’s necessary to return to direct negotiations"

That option is unlikely to happen.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have not held direct high level talks since September 2010 – at the tail end of a 10-month Israeli settlement freeze to which Abbas failed to respond until rhe freeze had mearly expired.

The Palestinian Authority still demands that settlement construction stop once again before they engage in talks – which they have said should pick up where they left off with Israel's then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008.

These demands will certainly not be met by Israel in the aftermath of November's General Assembly Resolution.

Abbas has now become firmly stuck on his high horse with no way to get down without considerable loss of face and prestige.

Thirdly: Attempting to salvage something from the wreck, Abbas has let it be known that he would be prepared to consider a confederation with Jordan once a Palestinian State was recognised in the territory lost by Jordan to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

If the creation of such a state has not reached first base after twenty years of tortuous negotiations – then it certainly will not do so after Abbas's foray at the United Nations.

Creative compromises are now urgently needed to determine the allocation of sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza that do not involve the creation of a State between Jordan, Israel and Egypt for the first time in recorded history.

Seeds for some such compromises appear to be sprouting from two different sources.

First: Reports emanating from Gaza suggest that discussions are underway with Egypt to supply electricity and natural gas to Gaza to reduce its dependency on Israel.

 Egypt has also been permitting freer access and egress to and from the Gaza Strip.

Such moves would materially assist in restoring the close relationship Egypt had with Gaza when it occupied and administered Gaza from 1948-1967.

If this relationship can be creatively nurtured to enable Egypt to provide a sphere of influence that persuades Gaza to look to Egypt for its salvation - rather than targeting Israel in continuing conflict - then the prospects for an improved relationship between Israel and Gaza could well be the end result.

Secondly: Reunification of the West Bank with Jordan as existed between 1950-1967 has now been raised as a possibility by the well respected and well connected Palestinian Arab commentator Daoud Kuttab in his article published in The Atlantic on 26 December – "Are the Palestinians ready to share a State with Jordan?"

Kuttab recalls his exclusive interview in 1993 with Israel's then Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin – the first ever given to a reporter working for a leading Palestinian newspaper.

Kuttab writes:

"I asked Rabin for his vision as to the ultimate political status of the West Bank and Gaza in 15 or 20 years. Rabin, who at the time, we later discovered, had approved the Oslo back-channel, took a puff at a cigarette given to him by one of his aides, and answered that he envisionsit being part of an entity with Jordan."

Kuttab has also dismissed the confederation idea proposed by Abbas:

'Confederations are political systems that include two independent countries. For some time in the 1980s, this was the most talked-about term in the region. The late Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyyad), the former head of intelligence for the PLO, was quoted as saying that what Palestinians wanted was five minutes of independence and then they would happily agree to a confederation with Jordan. However, the issue became politically poisonous as soon as the late King Hussein of Jordan said publicly that he doesn't want anyone to ever utter the term "confederation." And so it has been for the past two decades.'

And so it will apparently continue – no matter what Abbas says.

Kuttab concludes:

"While it is unclear if Jordan will ever end up having any sovereign role in the West Bank, support for a greater role for Jordan in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will no doubt increase in the coming months and years if the current decline of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority continues. The one determining factor in all of the discussions will have to come from the Israeli side, which has yet to decide whether it will relinquish sovereignty over the areas occupied in 1967 to any Arab party, whether it be Palestinian or Jordanian."

Israel has already agreed to cede its claims to sovereignty in more than 90 per cent of those areas in 2000 and 2008 and only needs a willing Arab partner to close the deal.

Jordan is rapidly readying itself to fill that role.

Creative compromises can indeed conquer conflict as a means of resolving even the most intractable and long running disputes.'

An American Jewish Ambassador's Murder Worth Its Weight In Jihadist Gold

American diplomat Gerald M. Feierstein,  who has served extensively in the Middle East and was for some time based in Washington, DC, working for the Bureau of Counterterrorism, became US Ambassador to Yemen in 2010.

Now, there's a price on his head.

Observes Lori Loewenthal Marcus in an article published today:

'Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is offering gold worth more than $100,000 to anyone who will kill the Jewish U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Gerald M. Feierstein, as well as more than $20,000 for anyone who kills a U.S. serviceman in Yemen....

According to the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, the audio explained that the bounties were offered by Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) "to encourage our Muslim Ummah (nation), and to expand the circle of the jihad (holy war) by the masses".

AQAP is regarded as the most dangerous branch of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group.  In September, AQAP called for increased violence and protests directed at U.S. diplomats worldwide.  The terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi Libya, which led to the death of U.S. Amb. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, is believed to have been carried out by AQAP.

On the day after the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Mary Feierstein received a phone call from her diplomat husband, to assure her that he was fine.  Mrs. Feierstein told a Philadelphia-area newspaper on September 13, that her husband was not worried about his safety.

But that was before Ambassador Feierstein was specifically targeted by AQAP.

Feierstein’s religion is of particular concern. On numerous websites, much is made of Feierstein’s Jewishness, with the usual claims of Zionist control of foreign countries and connections to the Mossad.....'

See more here

Mohammed Morsi On "The Descendants Of Apes & Pigs" (video)

Here's a newly uploaded video from MEMRI, showing what the now President Morsi had to say in the not so dim and distant past about the "bloodsucking warmongers" of the Zionist Entity ...

The Zionist Entity's Days Are Numbered, Declares Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Bigwig

"Israel will be erased within ten years," Essam el-Erian,  vice-chairman of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood says.  Talking to the Arabic daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, el-Erian, a leading figure in the Brotherhood-linked Freedom and Justice Party, declares:

"The Jews conquering the historic Palestinian territories are an obstacle to the Right of Return and it is Israel's fate to collapse in the upcoming years.The future name of the country will be Palestine and those who lived there from the beginning will live there and those who conquered it will have to go back to their countries.

I have said that for the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, the occupiers of the  land ... these occupiers have previous homelands, and I pray for the return of the Palestinians

There are an estimated 14 million Jews in the world and only about 6 million in the land of Palestine. They can go out to other places they consider the best for them. The Zionist ideology ended in failure and this project [Israel] fated to collapse in coming years.

 There will be no such thing as Israel, it will be called Palestine, where Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze and all the people who live there will remain Palestinian citizens. This is our faith and this is what we live and strive for. We tell all those who came and occupied Palestine to return to their countries."

Read more here  (Hat tip: Assad Elepty)

Here's Looking At You, Kids: Orthodox Jewish schools (& many Muslim ones) reportedly under scrutiny for un-British values

This is London

The London Daily Telegraph informs us, regarding a secret Department of Education memo leaked to it on extremism in  faith schools, that 'there are concerns about 118 "socially conservative" independent faith schools – the vast majority of them Muslim – where pupils may be encouraged to cut themselves off from mainstream society.'

Reveals the newspaper:

'.... Among “schools of interest” are three run by the Islamic Shaksiyah Foundation in Haringey, North London and Slough, Berks. Reports have claimed the foundation is run by senior members and activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist political group that campaigns for an Islamic state.... Another school, the Alif Academy in Forest Gate, East London, is also on the list. The local council has raised concerns about links with Hizb ut-Tahrir....

Another causing concern is the Darul Uloom school in Birmingham, associated with the missionary group Tablighi Jamaat, where an undercover documentary recorded children being taught a hardline version of Islam that criticised Hindus and Jews....

 The document also mentions a proposal to set up a school attached to the Central Mosque in Rochdale, called Darul Ilm, which is also associated with Tablighi Jamaat....

 The briefing document also highlights an application to set up a private school at the Green Lanes Mosque in Birmingham, which has links to fundamentalist “salafi” Muslims in Pakistan, and where another undercover documentary filmed preachers speaking out against homosexuals and non-Muslims.'

Yes, that' s life in the dear old Motherland today.

But, we are also informed, certain Jewish and Christian schools are also under scrutiny:

'To add to the problems the education department faces, included in the list of  "socially conservative" schools also those run by Orthodox Jews and the fundamentalist Christian sect the Plymouth Brethren.'

During my youth I worked with a woman, close to retirement age, who was a member of one of the Brethren sects.   She had a responsible position in a major academic institution but seemed somewhat forbidding.  She did not smile, wore her white hair very long, held back by a black alice band, and wore singularly unstylish clothes.  During lunchtime on my first day at work, in the canteen, I noticed her sitting alone at the end of one of the long refectory-style tables, having her meal while reading a book.  Thinking she'd welcome company, and would prove warm and helpful to a colleague who'd only just joined the staff, I sat opposite her.

Big mistake.  She looked absolutely aghast at my presence, said not one word of greeting, and buried her head deeper into her reading material, which proved to be the Bible.

That afternoon, I mentioned the snub to a couple of colleagues.  "What on earth have I done to offend her?" I asked.  "Nothing," they laughed.  "She's like that to everyone.  She only talks to us about work matters, but otherwise is strictly aloof, since we're not in the Brethren and represent a corrupting influence."

This too is London

Definitely "socially conservative," irritatingly unsociable, yet, like the strictly observant Jews whose educational system is also reportedly under scrutiny, not a threat to anyone else, not intent on preaching hatred against those of other faiths or none, or causing them  physical harm or converting them to her way of life.

Paul Weston, the urbane leader of the British Freedom Party, an avowedly centrist non-racist party that campaigns against mass immigration and membership of the EU, warning not so long ago of the rapid demographic and cultural change that Tony Blair's grotesque Open Door immigration policy wrought and is still wreaking on British society, remarked:

'We have 250,000 Jews in Britain. I mean it's a very small proportion of the population. When you read the newspapers every week, you never see stories about violent Jewish gangs dealing in drugs, or Jewish gangs stabbing Pakistani gangs. You know, the Jews in Britain have integrated utterly. They were very poor, and they've risen mostly to the middle class now. They get on with their lives. They get on with their jobs. They pay their taxes and they're wonderful people.... The rise of antisemitism in the UK comes from Islam. We now have Shariah enforced no-go zones in various parts of the country, and they actually say "no Jews allowed." No homosexuals, no alcohol, no Jews.... What do [should] we do about it? We [should] prosecute imams in the mosques who are calling for the murder of Jews. We [should]close down the mosques that are doing this. We should go all out to make sure that if these Muslims want to live in our country, they accept the Jews in exactly the same way that the native British have accepted Jews....

.... The aggression, violence and desire for a global Caliphate that is being instilled in the minds of our growing Muslim community in England signals the likelihood of possible Civil War before 2050. For me the most important thing is that we do not get dragged into a horrific Civil War similar to that of Lebanon – the Civil War in Lebanon – and the breakup of Yugoslavia which of course fractured on racial, religious and tribal lines. I would also like to see our children educated properly as they used to be back in the 1950's and 1960's. I would like to see morality re-introduced, because what they [the left] did in Britain was undermine religion and come up with moral relativism, which said there is no such thing as morality.

Now, if you take away religion and its guiding moral principles, and you declare morality to be null and void as well, you end up with what we get in British towns and cities every Friday night. This out of control, decadent group of young people who have no conception of honor and decency, of patriotism, civility and appropriate behavior. It is quite awful. We are the worst country in Europe for this. It is like hell on a Friday and Saturday night. People are frightened to go into town centers. I see the basically good British people betrayed. Now the young have been betrayed. It is not their fault that they are like this. They have been essentially raised to be like this. I would like to completely reverse that. I would like to see morality reintroduced. Now, I'm not going to say I want to see Christianity rammed down everyone's throats. I just want to see the morality of Judeo-Christian values re-introduced ...'. 

I hold no brief for Weston's party, and I do not know whether or not it adheres to its avowedly non-racist agenda.  But, at a time when leftists and atheists are gunning for faith schools (is it mere coincidence that the odious Israel-demonising Guardian chose an image of Jewish schoolchildren to illustrate the article here?) a lot of what he says there seems reasonable to me. 

Zionist Stalwart Hoffman's Heroes & Villains Of 2012

British pro-Israel activist Jonathan Hoffman, long a stawart of the Zionist Federation and a man who often goes where others fear to tread, has selected his list of (mainly British) deserving individuals in a variety of categories for their performances in the year just ended:

Person of the Year: Ronnie Fraser for enduring hours of hostile cross-examination in order to establish that his trade union UCU is institutionally antisemitic (the verdict of the industrial tribunal is not expected until April). All who deplore racism – and that is the vast majority of humanity – owe Ronnie an enormous debt of gratitude.

Human Rights Award: The IDF for achieving – in Operation Pillar of Defence – a ratio of civilian:combatant casualties of around 1:1, unprecedentedly low in the history of asymmetric warfare

Inhuman Rights Award: Jacques Rogge for failing to agree a memorial in the Olympics Stadium for the Israeli Athletes murdered 40 years ago in Munich

Most Enjoyable Cultural Performances of the Year: Habima’s ‘Merchant of Venice’ and the Batsheva ballet – both were unforgettable – please come back soon!

Gift Horse Awards (“Never look a gift horse in the mouth”): Lord [Andrew] Phillips (‘huge admirer of the Jewish people’ who thinks Jews are ‘on the suicide path’) and Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles (‘deep affection for the Jewish people’ who are committing ‘assisted suicide’).

Most Confused Chairman Award: Len Wardle of the Co-Op who denied all knowledge of the ICJ’s 2004 Judgment, despite its inclusion in the Co-Op’s written justification for its partial boycott!

Foot in Door Award to a Journalist: Asa Winstanley of Electronic Intifada, for demanding that Richard Millett tell him who funds his blog

Most Hypocritical Politician Award: Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton, for encouraging picketing of the SodaStream shop in Brighton despite its ‘green’ qualities

David Icke Award for Looniest Zionist Conspiracy Allegation: Press TV for suggesting that the UK Olympics was "under the influence of" Zionism

ASHamed Jew Award (as in “The Finkler Question”) : Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC

Misguided Funding Award: Pears Foundation for funding Crisis Action which is lobbying the EU for a boycott of goods produced in Judea and Samaria.

Obnoxious Statement Award: Tim Llewellyn [ex-BBC] who described the founding of Israel thus: “the imposition and implanting of an alien people”

Wilful Misrepresentation Award: The BDS crew for failing to acknowledge that in awarding contracts, the only thing UK local authorities can legally consider is value for the taxpayer.

English-Language Students Taught A Big Lie: No Israel, Only "Occupied Palestine"

British publisher Garnet Education, which publishes books for English-language learners, has issued a textbook, Skills in English Writing Level 1, which omits Israel from the map:

When a similar "error" was discovered in a textbook for Australian schoolchildren during the early 1980s, the head of Australia''s Jewish community immediately telephoned the publisher concerned, and, using no-holds-barred language, told the man to recall all copies of the book and pulp it.

The publisher, cowering before such a verbal onslaught, needed no second urging.

Will Anglo-Jewry's leaders follow where that Australian Jewish leader led, and if so will this British purveyor of the Big Lie comply?

From Israel Today:

 'A popular textbook used by institutions and teachers to teach English as a second language to students in the UK has been found to have a serious anti-Israel bias....

"I teach English as a foreign language in a further education college in Nottingham, England. I came across the attached map and couldn't believe my eyes!" Liz Wiseman told Israel Today.

The textbook in question is Skills in English Writing Level 1, which includes a map of the Middle East on which Israel is nowhere to be found.

While Wiseman acknowledges she was not obligated to use this particular textbook, it is one of the more popular and mainstream English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks published by one of the more popular and mainstream ELT publishers, Garnet Education.

Garnet Education bills itself thus:

"Garnet Education is an independent English Language Teaching (ELT) publisher, specialising in English for Academic Purposes. We produce award-winning ELT books, multimedia resources and tests for students of all ages, from kindergarten to university."

This is far from an isolated incident, which is motivation for drawing attention to this particular case. It is not only in the Middle East where students, both adults and children, are being taught that Israel has no right to exist. The more students around the world are fed this brand of propaganda, the more remote prospects for true peace become.'