[Peace-discuss] An alternative perspective

[David Green]

from the one expressed by Bernard Wasserstein this
past Monday:

Subject: Meron Benvenisti - Founding a binational
state

Founding a binational state
By Meron Benvenisti

Haaretz
22 April 2004

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/418166.html

When U.S. President George W. Bush indulged in
references about an
historic event as he defined the separation plan, he
wasn't
exaggerating, even if it is not clear that he grasped
the
implications of his words regarding the future of the
Jewish state.
Nor did the Palestinians err when they compared his
declaration to
the Balfour Declaration, even if they perhaps failed
to grasp that
the statement is liable to have implications yet more
grave than the
1917 pledge, and will compel a substantive strategic
change in their
struggle. And Ariel Sharon - crowned by victory and
convinced that
he has unveiled a daring new initiative which will
foil all schemes
- will be surprised to discover that in Washington he
was pushed
into embracing an accelerated process of founding the
State of
Israel as a binational state based on Apartheid.

What's the connection between, on the one hand, the
end of the
conquest in the Gaza Strip and the dismantling of
settlements, and
the establishment of a binational state, on the other
hand? After
all, the goal of disengagement is to improve the
demographic
situation by removing a million and a half
Palestinians from Israeli
control and thereby reducing the danger that the
country will cease
to be a Jewish state. The surprising fact is that this
"conceptual
transfer" is accepted by the Israeli left, which
continues to
believe in anachronistic slogans about the "end of the
conquest" and
the "dismantling of settlements."

The report about a tacit agreement being reached
between Peace Now
and Sharon's aides - Peace Now will suspend the
"evacuate
settlements, choose life" campaign so as not to harm
public
relations efforts for Sharon's separation plan -
illustrates the
profoundly confused state of public discourse. As the
left sees it,
the confinement of one and a half million persons in a
huge holding
pen fulfills the ideal of putting an end to the
occupation, and
furnishes some relief about how "we are not
responsible."

Similarly, when, in South Africa, a failed attempt was
made to solve
demographic problems by creating "homelands for the
blacks,"
liberals originally supported the idea, and even a
portion of the
international community viewed the measure as a step
toward
"decolonization." But after a short time it became
clear that the
ploy was designed to confer legitimacy to the
expulsion of blacks,
and their uprooting. The Bantustans collapsed, demands
for civil
equality intensified, and the world mobilized for the
defeat of
Apartheid.

The Bantustan model for Gaza, as depicted in the
disengagement plan,
is a model that Sharon plans to copy on the West Bank.
His
announcement that he will not start to disengage
before construction
on the fence is completed along a route that will
include all
settlement blocs (in keeping with Benjamin Netanyahu's
demand),
underscores the continuity of the Bantustan concept.
The fence
creates three Bantustans on the West Bank: first,
Jenin-Nablus;
second, Bethlehem-Hebron; and third, Ramallah. This is
the real link
between the Gaza and West Bank plans - the link is not
what those
politicians who will provide a "security net" for
Sharon in a
Knesset no confidence votes call "the precedent of the
dismantling
of settlements."

And thus, with breathtaking daring, Sharon submits a
plan which
appears to promise the existence of a "Jewish
democratic state" via
"separation," "the end of the conquest," the
"dismantling of
settlements" - and also the imprisonment of some three
million
Palestinians in Bantustans. This is an "interim plan"
which is meant
to last forever. The plan will last, however, only as
long as the
illusion that "separation" is a means to end the
dispute is
sustained.

But the day will come when believers in this illusion
will realize
that "separation" is a means to oppress and dominate,
and then they
will mobilize to dismantle the Apartheid apparatus.
The last ones
who will consent to abandon the ideal of "separation"
and uphold
rights will be the Palestinians; but, to some extent,
Sharon's
separation plan, and Bush's declaration, will provoke
them.

In this way, Sharon's rhetorical victory is sown with
the seeds of
its own destruction. The Bantustan plan is now in
swing; and the
scenario which Sharon so badly wanted to avoid will
unfold.





	
		
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