By Ed Gold
More than a year ago, the Times’s erudite Tom Friedman outlined what an Israeli-Palestinian peace might look like:
The Palestinians, through the P.L.O. would sit down and negotiate details of the so-called “road map,” would reiterate their intentions of living in peace alongside an Israeli state, and would urge their supporters in the Arab world to accept the reality of a tiny Jewish state living in their midst, a historic change from their desire to eradicate Israel.
The Israelis and Palestinians would have to compromise on a host of issues.
Israel will never relinquish its two largest settlements near Jerusalem but will have to compensate the Palestinians by giving up an important slice of the Negev.
On the so-called “right of return” — regarding Palestinians who fled what is now part of Israel during the 1948 war of liberation — Israel would only support token reunification with Palestinian relatives still living in Israel; but Israel would have to assume a heavy burden in relocating ghettoed Palestinians, now living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, into the new Palestinian state.
Possibly the two most difficult issues for an Israel really serious about peace would be the removal of many West Bank settlements whose existence thwarts a realistic Palestinian state, and an arrangement on Jerusalem that would permit the Palestinians to place their capital in the eastern part of this most holy city.
So how has the sensible Friedman suggestion fared despite efforts by Obama and his agents, George Mitchell and Hillary Clinton? It’s virtually nowhere.
Washington argues that it has made important progress in stopping construction on the West Bank, but that claim falls short after cursory examination.
The right-wing Netanyahu government agreed to a temporary halt on construction, but left a lot of holes in the offer. Residential construction already underway could continue. Nonresidential construction, like libraries and schools, would not be affected. And most blatant, no construction limitations were placed in the eastern or Arab section of Jerusalem.
Further, the Netanyahu crowd made it clear that the limited steps taken were to placate Obama and no one else.
The P.L.O. rejected the construction compromise and threatened to go out of business, leaving the extremist Hamas as the only remaining Palestinian organization. Of course, none of the key Arab states in the area, Saudi Arabia in particular, had anything positive to contribute.
The conflict remains a painful reality. Maybe improvement would occur if Obama’s persuasive talents began to really pay off.
