Futile, unnecessary, detrimentalIn his previously mentioned attempt to rebut my negation of the two-state principle, Dershowitz claims that unless Israel accedes to the establishment of a Palestinian state, it will lose its international legitimacy as the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people.This is a shallow and superficial contention. It is not only conceptually unsound – although the tyrannical muzzling of debate has prevented rational discussion of other compelling alternatives that are both Zionist and democracy-compliant – but it also flies in the face of facts.After all, apart from a brief flush of international approval immediately following the signature of the Oslo Accords, Israel’s international standing has deteriorated alarming since declaring its willingness to establish a Palestinian state. (The causal mechanism which made this regrettable result inevitable will be elaborated in Part II next week.) This is what makes the entire two-state initiative so infuriating.Not only did it prove completely futile, it was totally unnecessary – worse, gravely counterproductive, with international delegitimization of Israel today far more pervasive and virulent than it was before the Oslowian misadventure!Indeed, though the mainstream media – both at home and abroad – have been meticulous in obscuring or misrepresenting the facts, Israel was doing very well in the pre-Oslo years under the recalcitrant Yitzhak Shamir, who steadfastly rejected any notion of a two-state approach.Setting the record straight By 1992, the (first) Intifada had virtually petered out, leaving the Palestinians exhausted – among other things, by internecine fratricide with as many perishing at the hands of their kinfolk as were killed by the Israeli security forces. It certainly had no inhibiting effect on the economy. Fueled by the burgeoning immigration from the former-USSR, economic growth soared, exceeding 7 percent in 1992.While it is true that economic growth was also impressive immediately following the signing of Oslo I, it fell quickly as the Palestinian violence spiraled upwards. The average growth in the three years immediately preceding Oslo I (6.6 % in 1990-92) was higher than that in the three years immediately following it. (6.1% in 1994-96), and easily outstripped the growth in the three years following Oslo II (3.4 % in 1996-99). (Significantly the higher pre-Oslo growth was achieved without the massive budget deficit incurred in the post-Oslo years by the Rabin-Peres government that brought the country to the brink of economic disaster averted, only by the drastic austerity measures of the first Netanyahu government.)Diplomatically, the country was far from being isolated. Israel scored dramatic pre-Oslo successes, establishing full diplomatic ties with Russia (in October, 1991, a quarter century since the USSR cut ties in 1967 ), India and China (both in January 1992). Strangely, these countries –comprising 40% of the world’s population –appeared singularly unperturbed by the Shamir government’s resolute “rejectionist” stance on Palestinian statehood.True, following the Oslo Agreements, a spate of countries did forge relations with Israel. But this was far more symbolic than substantive – with all due respect to exotic locations such Andorra, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Burundi, Cape Verde, Croatia, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, Rwanda, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe – which comprised the overwhelming bulk of the post-1993 additions to the list of counties with diplomatic relations with Israel.Moreover, one might well be excused for wondering whether the coveted goal of relations with Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe – which, with their proud tradition of human rights, understandably felt morally constrained from establishing formal ties with the Jewish state previously – represented a diplomatic coup worth the thousands of Israelis murdered and maimed by Palestinian violence that the Oslowian quest for two-state “solution” ushered in?An increasingly oxymoronic endeavor As the notion of a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is exposed as an endeavor increasingly detached from reality, its proponents seem to be advancing increasingly preposterous arguments – in a desperate attempt to avoid admission of error.As it becomes increasingly clear that they can no longer sustain the illusion of the continued validity of their proposed paradigm by any reality- based corroboration, they turn to ignoring, inventing – even inverting – inconvenient facts.They have thus been coerced into postulating a virtual reality, inhabited by imaginary Palestinians, docile and cuddly, who are presumed to be ready to accept – not only as a short-term stratagem, but on sincere and permanent basis – conditions rejected repeatedly and resolutely by their real-world counterparts. Of course, no persuasive rationale is ever provided to explain why or how such a dramatic metamorphosis in Palestinian attitudes would occur.Indeed, bereft of any factual foundations, the “two-staters” have tried to transform their disproven political credo into axiomatic political dogma, a self-evident truth, unencumbered by the need for shouldering any bothersome burden of proof.Likewise, bereft of any doctrinal consistency, “two-staters” embrace self-contradictory – or disingenuous–provisos.Thus, when Dershowitz conditions the imperative for the establishment of a Palestinian state on “secure borders” for Israel, is he really unaware that the two cannot be reconciled; that the minimal territorial pre-requisites for “secure borders” make a Palestinian state untenable as a sovereign entity?Is he really so woefully ignorant, or is he willfully ignoring the fact that the Palestinians have already firmly refused far-more magnanimous offers made by Barak and Olmert, who in their obsessive and irresponsible pursuit of an unattainable two-state vision were prepared to forego any semblance of secure borders?Ignorance or ignominy? There is nothing enlightened or democratic about support for a two-state solution. It will save neither the Zionist dream nor Israeli democracy. Quite the contrary, it will consign both to oblivion. Only political naiveté or social narcissism can account for further support for this failed concept. It is the hallmark not of the erudite, informed liberal but of either abject ignorance about prevailing realities or ignominious pandering to political faddism.For a further elaboration – and corroboration – of this ongoing case against the two-state delusion, watch this space!
Square circles, aerodynamic pigs and two states
Into the Fray: When somebody says they want to kill you, you should believe them.
Futile, unnecessary, detrimentalIn his previously mentioned attempt to rebut my negation of the two-state principle, Dershowitz claims that unless Israel accedes to the establishment of a Palestinian state, it will lose its international legitimacy as the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people.This is a shallow and superficial contention. It is not only conceptually unsound – although the tyrannical muzzling of debate has prevented rational discussion of other compelling alternatives that are both Zionist and democracy-compliant – but it also flies in the face of facts.After all, apart from a brief flush of international approval immediately following the signature of the Oslo Accords, Israel’s international standing has deteriorated alarming since declaring its willingness to establish a Palestinian state. (The causal mechanism which made this regrettable result inevitable will be elaborated in Part II next week.) This is what makes the entire two-state initiative so infuriating.Not only did it prove completely futile, it was totally unnecessary – worse, gravely counterproductive, with international delegitimization of Israel today far more pervasive and virulent than it was before the Oslowian misadventure!Indeed, though the mainstream media – both at home and abroad – have been meticulous in obscuring or misrepresenting the facts, Israel was doing very well in the pre-Oslo years under the recalcitrant Yitzhak Shamir, who steadfastly rejected any notion of a two-state approach.Setting the record straight By 1992, the (first) Intifada had virtually petered out, leaving the Palestinians exhausted – among other things, by internecine fratricide with as many perishing at the hands of their kinfolk as were killed by the Israeli security forces. It certainly had no inhibiting effect on the economy. Fueled by the burgeoning immigration from the former-USSR, economic growth soared, exceeding 7 percent in 1992.While it is true that economic growth was also impressive immediately following the signing of Oslo I, it fell quickly as the Palestinian violence spiraled upwards. The average growth in the three years immediately preceding Oslo I (6.6 % in 1990-92) was higher than that in the three years immediately following it. (6.1% in 1994-96), and easily outstripped the growth in the three years following Oslo II (3.4 % in 1996-99). (Significantly the higher pre-Oslo growth was achieved without the massive budget deficit incurred in the post-Oslo years by the Rabin-Peres government that brought the country to the brink of economic disaster averted, only by the drastic austerity measures of the first Netanyahu government.)Diplomatically, the country was far from being isolated. Israel scored dramatic pre-Oslo successes, establishing full diplomatic ties with Russia (in October, 1991, a quarter century since the USSR cut ties in 1967 ), India and China (both in January 1992). Strangely, these countries –comprising 40% of the world’s population –appeared singularly unperturbed by the Shamir government’s resolute “rejectionist” stance on Palestinian statehood.True, following the Oslo Agreements, a spate of countries did forge relations with Israel. But this was far more symbolic than substantive – with all due respect to exotic locations such Andorra, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Burundi, Cape Verde, Croatia, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, Rwanda, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe – which comprised the overwhelming bulk of the post-1993 additions to the list of counties with diplomatic relations with Israel.Moreover, one might well be excused for wondering whether the coveted goal of relations with Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe – which, with their proud tradition of human rights, understandably felt morally constrained from establishing formal ties with the Jewish state previously – represented a diplomatic coup worth the thousands of Israelis murdered and maimed by Palestinian violence that the Oslowian quest for two-state “solution” ushered in?An increasingly oxymoronic endeavor As the notion of a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is exposed as an endeavor increasingly detached from reality, its proponents seem to be advancing increasingly preposterous arguments – in a desperate attempt to avoid admission of error.As it becomes increasingly clear that they can no longer sustain the illusion of the continued validity of their proposed paradigm by any reality- based corroboration, they turn to ignoring, inventing – even inverting – inconvenient facts.They have thus been coerced into postulating a virtual reality, inhabited by imaginary Palestinians, docile and cuddly, who are presumed to be ready to accept – not only as a short-term stratagem, but on sincere and permanent basis – conditions rejected repeatedly and resolutely by their real-world counterparts. Of course, no persuasive rationale is ever provided to explain why or how such a dramatic metamorphosis in Palestinian attitudes would occur.Indeed, bereft of any factual foundations, the “two-staters” have tried to transform their disproven political credo into axiomatic political dogma, a self-evident truth, unencumbered by the need for shouldering any bothersome burden of proof.Likewise, bereft of any doctrinal consistency, “two-staters” embrace self-contradictory – or disingenuous–provisos.Thus, when Dershowitz conditions the imperative for the establishment of a Palestinian state on “secure borders” for Israel, is he really unaware that the two cannot be reconciled; that the minimal territorial pre-requisites for “secure borders” make a Palestinian state untenable as a sovereign entity?Is he really so woefully ignorant, or is he willfully ignoring the fact that the Palestinians have already firmly refused far-more magnanimous offers made by Barak and Olmert, who in their obsessive and irresponsible pursuit of an unattainable two-state vision were prepared to forego any semblance of secure borders?Ignorance or ignominy? There is nothing enlightened or democratic about support for a two-state solution. It will save neither the Zionist dream nor Israeli democracy. Quite the contrary, it will consign both to oblivion. Only political naiveté or social narcissism can account for further support for this failed concept. It is the hallmark not of the erudite, informed liberal but of either abject ignorance about prevailing realities or ignominious pandering to political faddism.For a further elaboration – and corroboration – of this ongoing case against the two-state delusion, watch this space!