Report: US Plan Could See Palestinians Cede Demand for Right of Return
Readers Number : 231
18/08/2009 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and US President Barack Obama will discuss on Tuesday a new initiative which would see Palestinians concede on their demand for the right of return in exchange for compensation, according to the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi.
The initiative, which was reportedly raised by past U.S. officials Jimmy Carter, James Baker and Brent Scowcroft, would see a demilitarized Palestinian state set within amended 1967 borders and occupied Jerusalem as the joint capital of both states.
Mubarak arrived in Washington on Monday for his first White House talks. He met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after arriving and is set to meet with Obama on Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a few months ago that he would endorse the concept of a Palestinian state, so long as it was demilitarized.
While the suggestion initially raised criticism board, Netanyahu said in June that he could see it gaining international ground and was the only feasible solution for Middle East peace. "The idea of a demilitarized state will in course become accepted," Netanyahu said after meeting the leaders of France and Italy.
'TWO-STATE SOLUTION NOT THE ANSWER'
A Ben-Gurion University of the Negev sociology professor argues in his new book that Netanyahu's call for a demilitarized Palestinian state will lead to violence and cause any future peace agreement to fail. "Even if a moderate Palestinian leader accepts this, the people will oppose it and it will turn into more violence than there is now," Prof. Lev Grinberg told The Jerusalem Post in a recent interview.
In June, in a speech at Bar-Ilan University, Netanyahu presented his framework for a future Palestinian state, including the stipulation that it must be demilitarized.
Grinberg's book, Politics and Violence in Israel/Palestine: Democracy versus Military Rule, was recently published by Routledge and analyzes the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from the 1992 Oslo Accords to the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
In it, he suggests that a new political framework is needed, one not based on a "one-state" or "two-state" solution. He proposes an "Israeli-Palestinian union," which would have equal representation of Israelis and Palestinians and would oversee the administration of those things that can't be divided. "Everything that can be divided, will be divided," he said. "[But] you have several things that we cannot divide, such as Jerusalem, water, air and - probably - the economy. For this, we need a shared administration."
The book doesn't focus much on the details of such an administration, but rather on a need to "think outside the box" and to accept that both separate and shared Palestinian and Israeli institutions will be necessary for a prolonged peace.
According to Grinberg, the national consensus in the Zionist entity in the decade since the beginning of the second intifada was based on a "myth" of insecurity that had prevented a solution from being reached. "My argument is [that] there is no difference between the Left and the Right - none of them are willing to accept a Palestinian state with a military," Grinberg said.
He points to the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as evidence both that Israel is not ready to give Palestinians full sovereignty and that until it is, it can expect more rocket attacks and bombings. "That isn't real sovereignty," he said, referring to Israel's control of Gaza's borders. "And it led to more violence."
Readers Number : 231
18/08/2009 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and US President Barack Obama will discuss on Tuesday a new initiative which would see Palestinians concede on their demand for the right of return in exchange for compensation, according to the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi.
The initiative, which was reportedly raised by past U.S. officials Jimmy Carter, James Baker and Brent Scowcroft, would see a demilitarized Palestinian state set within amended 1967 borders and occupied Jerusalem as the joint capital of both states.
Mubarak arrived in Washington on Monday for his first White House talks. He met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after arriving and is set to meet with Obama on Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a few months ago that he would endorse the concept of a Palestinian state, so long as it was demilitarized.
While the suggestion initially raised criticism board, Netanyahu said in June that he could see it gaining international ground and was the only feasible solution for Middle East peace. "The idea of a demilitarized state will in course become accepted," Netanyahu said after meeting the leaders of France and Italy.
'TWO-STATE SOLUTION NOT THE ANSWER'
A Ben-Gurion University of the Negev sociology professor argues in his new book that Netanyahu's call for a demilitarized Palestinian state will lead to violence and cause any future peace agreement to fail. "Even if a moderate Palestinian leader accepts this, the people will oppose it and it will turn into more violence than there is now," Prof. Lev Grinberg told The Jerusalem Post in a recent interview.
In June, in a speech at Bar-Ilan University, Netanyahu presented his framework for a future Palestinian state, including the stipulation that it must be demilitarized.
Grinberg's book, Politics and Violence in Israel/Palestine: Democracy versus Military Rule, was recently published by Routledge and analyzes the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from the 1992 Oslo Accords to the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
In it, he suggests that a new political framework is needed, one not based on a "one-state" or "two-state" solution. He proposes an "Israeli-Palestinian union," which would have equal representation of Israelis and Palestinians and would oversee the administration of those things that can't be divided. "Everything that can be divided, will be divided," he said. "[But] you have several things that we cannot divide, such as Jerusalem, water, air and - probably - the economy. For this, we need a shared administration."
The book doesn't focus much on the details of such an administration, but rather on a need to "think outside the box" and to accept that both separate and shared Palestinian and Israeli institutions will be necessary for a prolonged peace.
According to Grinberg, the national consensus in the Zionist entity in the decade since the beginning of the second intifada was based on a "myth" of insecurity that had prevented a solution from being reached. "My argument is [that] there is no difference between the Left and the Right - none of them are willing to accept a Palestinian state with a military," Grinberg said.
He points to the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as evidence both that Israel is not ready to give Palestinians full sovereignty and that until it is, it can expect more rocket attacks and bombings. "That isn't real sovereignty," he said, referring to Israel's control of Gaza's borders. "And it led to more violence."
No comments:
Post a Comment