By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM–The fact that the peace process that was to lead to a two-state solution is going nowhere isn’t news, but the fact that Yossi Beilin – the architect of the 1993 Oslo Accord that gave birth to the idea and charted a path for its realization – has now called for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority that Oslo created, and thus kill the Accord, is.
Beilin, who was deputy foreign minister at the time, reminds readers and listeners (I saw him on Israeli TV on Thursday) that the Accord was supposed to last only six years before a permanent solution would be in place. As some 19 years later nothing has happened, it’s time to call it a day and go back to square one.
This would mean that much of the West Bank that’s now under the regime of the Palestinian Authority – and perhaps even Gaza, now in Hamas hands – would be returned to full Israeli occupation. That’s not intended to be a bonus for the Jewish state but, on the contrary, to burden it with the responsibility for some four million Palestinians. The hidden agenda is, of course, to bring the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to their senses and get moving. Let’s hope that it’ll work.
The Palestinians are no less to blame than the Israelis for the stalemate. But it’s generally accepted that continued settlement expansion and the antics to declare illegal settlements to be “legal” is an insurmountable obstacle to turning Oslo into a reality. Not that freezing settlements would solve all the problems, but as long as the existing ones are being expanded or made kosher, makes by definition any solution impossible.
The present situation that now has some half-a-million Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, i.e., territories conquered in the 1967 War, suits well the Israelis who opposed the Accord in the first place. Despite the rhetoric about peace, these opponents may have wanted to create a Bantustan for the Palestinians and keep the rest for the Jews.
What two decades ago may have been considered extremist is becoming more and more mainstream, especially around the cabinet table. The government seems to be in the grip of the old doctrine about “facts on the ground.” By establishing settlements and annexing East Jerusalem it was hoped that both the Palestinians and the rest of the world would accept the situation and abandon the idea of national independence.
Jewish opponents of Oslo have reasoned with a measure of justification that as neither Jordan, when it was in charge of the West Bank for almost two decades, nor Egypt, responsible for Gaza in the same period, granted the Palestinians anything, so why would they expect from the Jews more than from their own people?
The opposition to Oslo is no less strong from the Palestinian side where, according to Beilin, they “spin their dream of an Islamic empire.” Hamas, for example, refuses to have anything to do with Israel until it has been wiped off the map. Like so often in such situations, there’s an uncanny collusion between enemies. The arguments on each reinforce the intransigence of the other.
It’s difficult to believe that Beilin’s statement has influenced the parties but the fact that they’re about to negotiate again brings some hope to us peaceniks. That hope should be alive at least during Pesach. As I so often seem to be the bearer of bad news, at least today I try to find some comfort in the fact that all isn’t lost yet. I can think of no better and more honest way to wish all who read this a חג פסח כשר ושמח
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple of Toronto. Now dividing his time between Canada and Israel, he may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com