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essay

Mideast Sight Lines

View a peace pact only as a start point to ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

M

aybe expectations are too high
when it comes to the Israeli-
Palestinian peace process.
Maybe a peace accord, were one to
somehow emerge from the swampland
of failed negotiations, would be a start to
something better. It wouldn’t have to be
the long-sought end to
decades of conflict.
Maybe regional sta-
bility and a sense of
security, fragile as they
might be, are more real-
istic initial expectations
than resolution of such
white-hot issues as bor-
Robert Sklar
ders, settlements, refu-
Contributing Editor
gees, Jerusalem, water
rights, holy sites and
mutual recognition.
Lasting peace won’t arise through
yet another round of talks given today’s
regional climate, but the timbers for a
framework for a more secure region cer-
tainly could. That should be the target.
In a perfect world, Israeli and
Palestinian leaders would understand
the danger of continuing a course strewn
with cultural and political land mines as
well as war zones.
But new negotiations aren’t in the
offing. Even if they were, a Palestinian
leadership in utter disarray and an Israeli
government with no consensus wouldn’t
likely be the kind of negotiating partners
required to solve a struggle predating
Israel’s statehood in 1948.

It’s as if the 1990s Oslo Accords gave
the prospect for real peace unrealistic
promise.

from an idealistic vision of peace and
instead sees peace emanating layer by
layer toward two states, one Jewish and
one Arab, coexisting side by side, secure
STEP BY STEP
and in peace. Under the right condi-
tions, the latter view is the one to
In a Nov. 3 essay in the Jerusalem
embrace.
Post, Israel Policy Forum strate-
Conditions today are anything
gist Adam Basciano caught my
but favorable. The Palestinians
attention by reminding that any
are led by Fatah, a perceived
peace treaty Israel negotiates
political moderate with a ter-
with the Palestinians and, by
rorist wing, and by Hamas, an
extension, with the Arab world,
outright terrorist organization.
may represent an end to official
Sadly, ordinary Palestinians who
conflict, but would not bring “an
seek a better way are taught to
immediate kumbaya paradise in Adam Basciano
despise Israel and belittle Jews.
which all tribes and peoples of
Meanwhile, some in Israel’s gov-
the Middle East join together in
ernment want no part of two states, pre-
embracing one another and their differ-
ferring unilateral settlement expansion
ent narratives.”
and land annexation.
Basciano is coordinator of strategic
Israel attracts plenty of international
partnerships and initiatives for the New
criticism for tightly regulating Palestinian
York City-based Israel Policy Forum. IPF
border passage, but checkpoint controls
advances “the goal of a two-state solu-
are vital to protecting Israelis from terror,
tion to the Israel-Palestinian conflict,
whether fomented by Hamas or con-
consistent with Israel’s security needs,”
doned by Fatah.
to ensure “Israel’s long-term future as a
Jewish and democratic state.”
“Even under the ideal package,”
A NEW MINDSET
A return to active peace talks hinges
Basciano writes in his JPost essay, “one
on both sides realizing the other side’s
that grants Arab-Israeli normalization
cultural, historical and political narra-
and regional security coordination in
tive will never change completely. The
return for Palestinian sovereignty, there
will not be scores of Israelis eager to vaca- best hope: The narratives will moderate
enough to rekindle talks.
tion in Qatar or Jordanians professing
As Basciano puts it: “If Menachem
their deep appreciation for the Jewish
Begin and Yitzhak Rabin had waited for
people.”
the Egyptians and Jordanians to embrace
That’s a thoughtful take that breaks

Zionism before signing their respective
peace treaties, Israel’s borders would be
even more contested and less secure than
they are today.”
Hard as it is to imagine opposing nar-
ratives comingling “in an atmosphere
of stability and under the political aus-
pices of a future agreement,” as Basciano
posited, there’s merit in considering the
notion.
Nothing else has worked.

THE WAY FORWARD

Basciano’s path toward peace is long
and winding — but also redemptive. He
believes “an end-to-all-claims, perma-
nent-status agreement (and its precondi-
tions) should not purport to solve the
many facets of the conflict, but what
we should expect it to do is provide the
political foundation to further enable
these larger social transformations to get
the peoples there.”
Yes, it’s a leap to think along those lines
when Hamas continues to build terror
tunnels from the Gaza Strip into Israel
and Fatah continues to glorify terrorists
and indoctrinate West Bank youth.
Still, with Palestinian leadership in
both the West Bank and Gaza Strip on
the precipice of a unity government
under the rubric of Mahmoud Abbas’
Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian
people eager for better times, it may well
be time to once more test the negotiating
waters and their ripple effect — this time
with layered expectations. •

commentary

ZOA May Rue Far-Right Alliance

T

chairman of Breitbart News,
he Zionist Organization
whose audience attracts anti-
of America (ZOA) has
Semites and white suprema-
given the idiom “politics
cists.
makes strange bedfellows” an
Bannon was to introduce
entirely new meaning — but it
Sheldon Adelson, the casino
is hardly a favorable one.
mogul who may be the larg-
Wearing political blinders,
est donor to the ZOA, but,
the ZOA has aligned itself with
guess what? An irony: Adelson
political factions which, at
Berl Falbaum
boycotted the gala, issuing a
best, have stoked anti-Semi-
tism and been a magnet for the
statement that, “The Adelsons
alt-right and white suprema-
will not be supporting Steve
cists.
Bannon’s efforts.” Adelson was
At the ZOA’s annual gala
probably referring to Bannon’s
declaration of war on establishment
Nov. 12 in New York, a principal guest
Republicans. Another irony: Bannon
was none other than Stephen K.
had asked to be invited so he could
Bannon, the former chief strategist to
President Donald Trump and now the
introduce Adelson.

This is the same Bannon who
advised Trump in a campaign which:
• Distributed a caricature of Hillary
Clinton that had anti-Semitic over-
tones (the Star of David surrounded by
$100 bills).
• Produced a TV ad that warned
against “global special interests con-
trolling the world,” and, during the
voice over, paraded prominent Jews
across the screen.
• Was inundated with some 3 million
anti-Semitic messages in its chatroom
during the GOP convention, many
coming while the former governor of
Hawaii, Linda Lingle, a Jew, was speak-
ing.
Overall, the campaign incited anti-

Semitism to a degree not experienced
since the days of the pilot Charles
Lindbergh and, locally, the Catholic
priest Fr. Charles Coughlin of Royal
Oak’s Shrine of the Little Flower in the
1930s.
But Bannon was not the only “star”
at the gala. Another featured “attrac-
tion” was Sebastian Gorka, whom
Bannon brought to the White House
and whom The Forward exposed as
having ties to “a violent racist and
anti-Semitic paramilitary militia [in
Hungary] that was later banned as a
threat to minorities by multiple court
rulings.”
The paper also reported that offi-
cers of Vitézi Rend, an anti-Semitic,

continued on page 10

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November 30 • 2017

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