24 | FEBRUARY 6 • 2020 

Jews in the D

continued from page 23

idea that they are going to create 
a Palestinian state is kind of a 
joke. It’
s not a “Palestinian state,
” 
but rather a subject entity with 
all controls designated to the 
Israelis. The Palestinian state 
will be severely fragmented.
“The Triangle,
” which are a 
group of Arab towns [located] 
in Israel, are now going to be 
transferred to the Palestinians. 
The Israelis will also have 
the power of the veto for any 
refugees who try and enter 
the Palestinian state, which 
will never work because the 
Palestinians will never accept 
that clause. 
The Palestinian textbooks 
now must be changed because 
they cannot contain anti-
Israeli statements — which, 
to be honest, “anti-Israeli” is 
defined very loosely. Hamas 
will also have to be eliminated, 
and that’
s something that is 
never going to happen. Also, 
Israel is not obligated to fulfill 
any of its agreements until the 
Palestinians complete all their 
agreements, which is just an 
excuse to do nothing. This is 
a position that Netanyahu has 
taken in the past. These are not 
sincere efforts.

What have previous adminis-
trations focused on that this 
peace plan is lacking?
 Stockton: The main dif-
ference between this plan 
and previous administrations 
is that previous administra-
tions actually dealt with and 
focused on fundamental issues. 
They understood that both 
Palestinians and Israelis had 
legitimate concerns and wanted 
to attempt to find a solution 
to these concerns. In previous 
administrations, both Israelis 
and Palestinians had agreed 
to mutual modifications and 

land swaps to the drawn-out 
Palestinian state. Even Ehud 
Olmert [Israeli Prime Minister 
from 2006-09], who was a 
Likudist, took that position.
You also need to have some-
one making sure that the holy 
sites and the Old City [are] pro-
tected from extremists, because 
[they’
re] often a target for vio-
lence. The topic surrounding 
refugees must also have some 
revisions because right now 
Israel can veto who returns to 
the country. They can simply 
say “no” to someone because 
they hold an “anti-Israeli” 
view, which, in turn, is any 
Palestinian.
However, the most import-
ant takeaway — and the real 
issue at hand — is whether we 
can prevent another war. The 
last time there was an Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, a resistance 
to the occupation, the Second 
Intifada began and left 4,000 
people dead. There is no doubt 
that another uprising is going 
to occur. I believe that this pro-
posal is making the next war 
inevitable.

Do you think this plan can 
bring peace to the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict?
 Stockton: It’
s not a peace talk 
or a peace proposal, because 
it’
s never going to produce 
anything. You had President 

Trump, Netanyahu and Benny 
Gantz all there, but who wasn’
t 
included? Palestinians. There 
are no Arab partners, no 
Palestinian partners, and it’
s 
totally just unrealistic. And now, 
the Palestinians have stopped 
cooperating altogether and have 
already come out against the 
peace plan.
This is similar to the May 
17 Agreement. When the 
Israelis invaded Lebanon in 
1982, they were trying to 
work out an agreement with 
right-wing Lebanese leaders. 
Abba Eban, the famous Israeli 
Diplomat, was the negotiator. 
[The agreement] provided that 
Lebanon would be a security 
ally, and that the Syrian army 
there at the time would be 
pushed out. Abba Eban later 
said they sat in a room, spoke 
in French, drank white wine 
and signed an agreement that 
had no support outside of that 
room. That right there is pretty 
much what you’
re seeing here. 
You have an agreement that 
only people at that press confer-
ence support. There’
s no effort 
to bring the Palestinians to this 
agreement.

What’
s your reaction to the 
timing of the plan’
s unveiling?
 Stockton: The timing of 
this is highly ironic. President 
Trump is amid his impeach-

ment trial, Netanyahu has been 
charged in court with corrup-
tion and they are hanging on 
to one another in desperation. 
The normal rule is you don’
t do 
anything that is going to affect 
political outcomes. Trump is 
really tied to Netanyahu and 
really wants him to be re-elected 
and wants to throw him a bone.
This plan gives Netanyahu 
the Jordan Valley and big 
chunks of the West Bank. There 
is no doubt that this is an effort 
to help Netanyahu.

What are your methods to 
teaching your students about 
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
 Stockton: I’
ve been teaching 
at the University of Michigan-
Dearborn since 1973. I started 
this course in 1978, when the 
Israelis first invaded Lebanon, 
with one of my colleagues who 
was a specialist in Lebanon. 
There was nothing in our whole 
university’
s curriculum that dis-
cussed this matter.
I developed some rules that I 
give to my students when they 
begin my course. I tell students 
that they have to assume that 
they don’
t understand this con-
flict. They must assume that 
all the things they’
ve picked 
up from their parents or their 
neighborhood are incomplete 
or wrong. 
I begin by telling them [the] 
things that Israelis believe in 
their hearts are true, and then 
tell them what Palestinians 
think in their hearts are true. 
You must humanize everything. 
I focus on documents and tell 
them their job is not to argue 
with someone but to under-
stand their position so well that 
they can explain it to their sat-
isfaction. Until you can do that, 
they won’
t know if they disagree 
with them or not. 

SCREENSHOTS FROM WHITEHOUSE.GOV VIA JTA

Two detailed maps of what a two-state solution could look like.

