Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan
Two North Americans - deeply devoted to a just peace in the Middle East - doubt whether the US-sponsored talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will produce peace or justice. Both say it's another attempt to force the Palestinians into capitulation.
Norman Finkelstein, a respected US academic whose parents survived the Holocaust, has written nine books, including Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel is Coming to an End (2012). He was interviewed by freelance writer Matt Hill. Dr. Finkelstein was ousted from his academic position because he criticized Israeli policies.
Peter Larson, a consultant in Ottawa, chairs the national education committee of the National Council on Canada Arab Relations. He wrote a piece for Embassy weekly, which deals with foreign policy and is widely read in Canada's capital.
Dr. Finkelstein states that the talks aim to impose Israel's terms on the Palestinians. It means Israel will annex about 9-10 percent of Palestinian territory, depriving a future Palestinian state of the best land and critical water resources, severing it from East Jerusalem (Greater Jerusalem accounts for 40 percent of the Palestinian economy) and turning the West Bank into bantustans. Israel will also not allow Palestinians back into their homeland, which is their right, and insists that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, which would legitimize Israel's turning Israeli Arabs permanently into second-class citizens.
The Palestinians have to attend the peace talks because "the US pays the Palestinian Authority's bills (and bribes)." The US is pushing the talks to forestall the European Union and the United Nations and to give the impression that it is promoting peace.
Yet Dr. Finkelstein is also hopeful of a just settlement, as he stated in a speech in Ottawa, because the Europeans have become weary of Israel's "intransigence and bellicosity" and American public opinion, including among Jews, has become critical of Israeli policy. This public opinion, if developed, could produce a consensus agreement, he states. But the Palestinians have to launch a mass nonviolent civil disobedience campaign, which will precipitate Israeli violence, galvanize international opinion and compel the United Nations to impose a just settlement.
Dr. Finkelstein supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement provided it upholds Palestinian rights as well as Israel's right to exist. He said there is no leadership or mass struggle right now in Palestine. The Oslo Accords, signed 20 years ago, have been used by Israel to entrench its occupation, make it irreversible, deflect international criticism and to mostly outsource the repression and torture of the Palestinian resistance to the Palestinian Authority.
Dr. Finkelstein expressed confidence that the Palestinians will accept a "reasonable" peace proposal that creates an authentic Palestinian state within 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital and accommodates their rights. He stated that it was only in 2007-2009 that Israel first asked to be recognized as a Jewish state as another pretext for avoiding a final settlement. He asserted that in the name of its Jewishness, Israel discriminates against non-Jewish minorities in "multiple, often egregious and shocking ways that cannot be reconciled with any democratic theory."
Dr. Larson argues that the US pushed for the talks because "anti-American sentiment is growing in the region, and America's allies will be under increasing pressure to distance themselves from the US unless progress can be seen in resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict."
Obama named Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and former deputy research director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the top pro-Israel lobby in the US Congress, to lead the US team. Obama knows, according to Dr. Larson, that the US Congress will only approve an agreement if the Israeli lobby okays it.
Michael Bell, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel, says that Indyk outlined to both parties Obama's terms which mostly support Israel. This includes accepting the 1967 borders as a basis for discussion, land swaps, which will permit Israel to annex the land of its illegal settlement while giving Palestine arid land, denying the 4.7 million displaced Palestinians the right to return to their homes in Israel, and accepting Israel as a Jewish state, which will permit Israel to relegate non-Jews in Israel (20 percent of the population) to second-class citizenship.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas agreed to come to the talks because, according to Ambassador Bell, the US threatened to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority. The carrot was the release of 26 Palestinians who had been languishing in Israeli jails for years or decades.
Dr. Larson concludes: "Like many others, I look forward to a real peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. However, a careful analysis of the interests of the various players would seem to indicate that the deal that Kerry and Obama are trying to force on Abbas is not one that will bring justice to most Palestinians. If it doesn't bring justice to the Palestinians, it probably won't bring security to the Israelis either."
– Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.
