Mc.LEOD 6 CARPET ONE®

Varied Choices

Moving forward, Eid said Israel has
multiple options:
• Option 1, a two-state solution
based on the pre-1967 border —
pitched, along with other conditions,
by the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative,
which Israel never acknowledged and
remains dormant.
• Option 2, a binational state from
the Jordan River to the Mediterranean
Sea, encompassing the West Bank
(biblically the Jewish regions of Judea
and Samaria), the modern Jewish state
and the Gaza Strip — a nightmarish
demographic mix that Israel would
never support.
• Option 3, one state with two
systems, much like what Eid says
exists today with Israel "occupying"
Palestinian land — a situation Eid
wrongly brands "apartheid" In reality,
apartheid, an Afrikaans word defined
as "the state of being apart:' repre-
sented a South African system of racial
segregation and economic and politi-
cal oppression enforced by the ruling
National Party from 1948 to 1994.
Israel's military presence in the West
Bank is a defensive measure following
years of terrorist attacks and attempts.
I suggest Option 4: Successful
negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinians over such final-status
issues as borders, security, settlements,
Jerusalem, refugees, water rights and
holy sites. The Palestinians argue the
West Bank and Jerusalem as defined by
the pre-1967 border as well as the Gaza
Strip together represent Palestinian
land that Israel illegally occupies. In
truth, the land, at worst, should be
described as disputed subject to fruit-
ful talks that address the extent of
Palestinian security patrols and the
nature of Jordan Valley peacekeeping.
Talks also could yield some sort of
Palestinian governing autonomy over
Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem,
which since 1967 has been part of the
united Israeli city of Jerusalem. I've
never favored a divided city.

Hope Lingers

Reaching a final-status agreement
wouldn't make him love Israel, but it
would mark "a very important first step
in order to do that," Eid said.
Despite the dysfunctional state of
negotiations, in large part a byproduct
of Palestinian indifference as the PLO
mines the international community for
statehood support, Eid hopes the two-
state solution via traditional channels,
U.S. brokered or otherwise, isn't dead.
"We are committed to achieving our
rights through peaceful means:' he said.
But negotiations won't resume,
he said, unless Israel begins to treat
Palestinians with "dignity" and step

up to ending the "occupation," leash-
ing the "settlements" and bringing
closure to the matter of upwards
of 500,000 Arab refugees and their
descendants following Israeli state-
hood in 1948. He didn't mention the
800,000 Jews who last century were
expelled from, or felt compelled to
flee, Arab and other Muslim lands.
Later in the day, Kamel Husseini,
the savvy managing director of the
Portland Trust, a British nonprofit that
seeks to improve relations between
Israelis and Palestinians via economic
development, told our group the PLO
has a window of no more than five
years to reach an accord with Israel.
After that, Husseini believes, younger
generations of Palestinians will be
inexorably susceptible to the effects of
radical Palestinian factions.
In that vein, Eid warned, "Israel
should be worried about what's going
to happen in the absence of a solu-
tion:' Tied to that veiled warning is
Palestinian indoctrination of children
to hate Jews and despise Israel — a
haunting scenario that will take gen-
erations to overcome.

In Search Of Peace

In closing our hour-long visit, Rabbi
Harold Loss, on behalf of the 22-mem-
ber Temple Israel delegation on hand,
acknowledged "there are different nar-
ratives in this process" and "history is
not easily overcome on either side:'
He told Eid that when "we come
back to Israel, we will come visit you
again — and we
look forward to
sitting down and
hearing that you've
been able to make
movements in the
direction of peace:'
Let's hope that's
the case.
Rabbi Loss
A two-state solu-
tion and its econom-
ic energy would be
the quick answer to helping allay the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Inherent in the answer, however, is
a Palestinian leadership capable of,
and committed to, protecting against
violent forces that could target Israel
from within (like Fatah's Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades and llamas' Izzedine
Al Qassam Brigades) and from beyond
(like ISIS and Hezbollah).
It's up to the up-and-coming gen-
eration of Palestinian flag bearers
like Xavier Abu Eid, who comes off
as a "moderate" by Palestinian politi-
cal standards if he's truly willing to
negotiate without the interference of
preconditions, to help spur such lead-
ership.
Meanwhile, the wait continues. ❑

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June 25 • 2015

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