In my view we need to relax our attention to the aborted Kerry Initiative and focus on Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is a fundamentalist ideologue and politician. His political convictions are deeply embedded in the most extreme revisionist interpretation of the Jewish claim to the land. He is systematically (and successfully) crafting political ambiguity around his plans, in order to gain time vis a vis his Palestinian adversaries, his Israeli detractors and his relations with the American leadership.
Netanyahu, I believe, regards himself as the historic leader. His ambition is to shift history from its current course, which has manifested decolonization as the flagship project of post WWII civilization, to allow Israel a territorial gain that is thus far denied to it.
In 1949 the UN hosted negotiations that led to accepted ceasefire lines around Israel which were demarcated (green line) according to military gains, rather than the UN partition plan. That has led to the expansion of territory under Israeli control from 55% of historic Palestine/Land of Israel to 78%. The November 1967 UNSC Resolution 242 actually manifested almost universal recognition of the Israeli territorial gains of 1948, on condition any territorial gains of the 67 war are annulled by ending the occupation within the context of a negotiated peace in the Middle East.
For 47 years Israel refuses to relax its hold on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but never dared declare the territory annexed. "The world would not allow this to happen" goes the usual argument. In my view Netanyahu believes he could actually do that, as the international map of forces has transformed regionally and internationally, and the old paradigm, by which the Palestinian cause is protected by regional and global powers, is totally worn out. Egypt and Jordan are in strategic alliance with Israel, Syria is madly consuming itself in civil strife, the "eastern front" military threat is gone, the strategic threat from Iran is a charade, the Soviet Union, bastion of post WWII decolonization in Asia and Africa, has been replaced by a re-colonizing power as Putin's Russia is. Above all, the EU remains skeptical and the US is losing its grip as the World's lion-power.
The American history, to which Netanyahu was exposed, narrates accolades to the heroic voyage of pioneering settlers who fought wilderness and emptiness to make way for a glorious civilization which succeeded in its struggle against the elements. The lethal confrontations with Indian indigenous tribes are scarcely mentioned. Some of this is also reminiscent of the history of the Dutch settlers in South Africa. Netanyahu is obsessed with the narrative of the empty land waiting in waste for its indigenous people to return and bloom its Biblical landscape again. In this picture there is no room for Palestinians as indigenous residents in the country. To him, today's Palestinians are the descendants of job seekers who realized that the emerging Jewish settlements (as of 1882 onwards) create jobs and income. They simply moved from neighboring territories to reside in proximity to potential gains. We all know how fictitious this imagery is, but Netanyahu believes in repetitious messaging as the best means of creating a narrative. In the face of Prime Minister David Cameron of the UK, while speaking to the "Jewish Knesset" (March 12th), he spelt this fraudulent imagery, claiming "there are no two narratives, there is one truth".
Netanyahu leads a thrust to deny the Palestinians the right to indigenousness in the land, claiming exclusivity on national religious grounds. One can see this as a reminder of the Hamas Covenant, which portrays a claim of Muslim exclusivity when it comes to the issue of land ownership in the Holy Land of Palestine. That is where Netanyahu risks everything by turning a national conflict into a religious one. This is where his demand stems from, that the Palestinian leadership will recognize Israel as the Jewish nation state. In this demand we find the folded assumption that a refusal will shift the blame for collapse of the peace process towards Abbas, and an acceptance will give Israel a huge headway in the ultimate conflict over exclusive ownership. The Indians in America were offered symbolic (souvenir-shop) autonomy in designated National Parks. Blacks in Apartheid South Africa were given restricted autonomy in the Bantustans. Netanyahu seems to be playing with the idea that the Palestinians (and the World) will somehow accept a formula by which their aspirations for self-determination will be satisfied with a Palestinian State Autonomy in areas A, B and Gaza. Area C and East Jerusalem are then gradually integrated into Israel. Jewish settlement expansion intertwined with Palestinian forced evictions, mainly in the Jordan Valley and South Hebron range, will result with "facts on the ground".
To sum it up, in my view that is what should lead us in our struggle:
· Recognition of Netanyahu's objectives and plans.
· Palestine: Tight peaceful resistance on the ground. Regiment support in regional (API) and international theatres (UNGA, UNSC and agencies).
· Israel: Energize political resistance within Israel: civic society and parties.
· International pressure: UNGA, UNSC, EU, bilateral diplomatic channels with Israel, campuses, media, etc.
For sure, the Israeli Peace Camp needs to move away from the People-to-People paradigm (let us make friends now, peace will follow) in favor of participation in the Palestinian "soft struggle", in its quest to break the yoke of occupation and subjugation, realize its right to self-determination, sovereignty and statehood.
I believe it can be done. I believe we jointly ought to do it.
