Recently one hundred Palestinian intellectuals addressed an open letter to the Israeli public. The document produced a strong reaction, both because of its content and because the signatories were influential persons representing all important sectors of the Palestinian community. In their open letter, these intellectuals inform Israelis that the agreement Ehud Barak is about to impose upon what they term "the weak, worn out Palestinian Authority" will not bring peace because it ignores the vital interests of the Palestinian people and surrenders their rights. Even if Arafat signs the agreement, say these intellectuals, it will not endure: the Palestinians will rise in revolt against it.

The signatories, who claim to represent the true feelings of grass roots Palestinians, believe there are only two possible solutions to the conflict: either set up a sovereign Palestinian state in all the territory that Israel conquered in the Six Day War with East Jerusalem as its capital and solve the refugee problem, or establish a bi-national state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. As far as they are concerned, these are the only solutions that are just, will not cause resentment and will lead to real peace.

This is an extremely important document, precisely because of its truthfulness. It means that even if Prime Minister Barak were to sign an agreement relinquishing 90% of Judea, Samaria and Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, leaving Israel with indefensible borders that Abba Eban once characterized as "Auschwitz borders," the Palestinians would continue their armed struggle against Israel. Meretz circles and the Arab parties have always maintained that complete Israeli withdrawal will bring peace. But if Israel accedes to all Palestinian territorial demands, will the Arabs put aside their enmity and the conflict end? Hardly.

For as the open letter indicates, one issue, the mother of all issues, will remain. More problematic than borders or the status of Jerusalem are the millions of Arabs scattered throughout Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Judea, Samaria and Gaza, living in refugee camps under miserably crowded conditions, waiting to return to the villages in the State of Israel which they abandoned. The hard-core issue is what Arabs call "The Right to Return."

The Israeli Left has devised a formula which provides that Israel will recognize, in principle, the right of five million refugees, including their progeny, to return to the State, in return for a verbal understanding that only a symbolic few will actually arrive. One has to be extremely naive, incurably blind or incredibly stupid to believe that this leaves room for the continued existence of a Jewish state. A bi-national state in all of Western
Eretz Yisrael would initially have a Jewish majority, but the right of return would ipso facto be put into practice, putting an end posthaste to the Jewish majority and the Jewish character of the State.

The proposal to grant Arabs national self-determination in a large part of Western Eretz Yisrael is even more imprudent because it will rob the Jewish people of everything. Given the existence of an Arab state with an overwhelming Palestinian majority in Eastern Eretz Yisrael, i.e. Jordan, the establishment of still another Palestinian state in Western Eretz Yisrael, especially if it does not absorb Israel's present Arab citizens within its borders, will not guarantee Jewish self-determination within the pre-June 1967 lines. Rather it will presage a bitter struggle with Israel's Arab minority. Moreover, should the present demographic trends and Israeli lassitude continue, Israel will become a bi-national state in any event. Neither proposal in the open

Forgive me for not offering a quick solution. There is none.

In light of the above, it is clear that those who concentrate their efforts on retaining one territory or another have missed the point. The battle may revolve around the Golan Heights, Judea, Samaria, Gaza or east Jerusalem, but in the last analysis we are fighting a war for the very existence of the Jewish State.

Forgive me for not offering a quick solution. There is none. The Israeli public, unfortunately, is not yet ready to address the problem and adopt the necessary measures to reverse the process. I am reminded that at the hanging of the leaders of the Decembrist Rising against Czar Nicholas I, one of them is said to have remarked, "I erred. I wished to reap before I sowed."

For the present, Barak has succeeded in marketing his version of the impossible dream to a substantial number of Israelis on both the Right and Left. He claims that if we permit Palestinian self-determination in Judea, Samaria and Gaza -- "there" -- Jewish self-determination will be secured "here" within the State. This has been his motto from the outset. Oddly enough, he has conveniently forgotten that "they," the Palestinians, live "here" too, in the tiny territory still reserved for Israel. And that they are here to stay. I am not even certain that Barak knows what he means when he says "here." Do the Palestinian residents of Haifa and Jaffa belong "here" or "there?" The pity of it is that the Israeli

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April 2000               - 3 -               Outpost