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Why U.S., Israel should welcome Palestinian move at U.N. - CNN.com
By Rabbi Michael Lerner , Special to CNN
November 28, 2012 -- Updated 1933 GMT (0333 HKT)
CNN.com
Why U.S., Israel should welcome Palestinian move at U.N.
Editor's note: Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun: A Quarterly Journal of
Politics, Culture and Society, chair of the interfaith Network of Spiritual
Progressives and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in Berkeley, California. He
welcomes feedback: [email protected]
(CNN) -- Israel's security can only be assured when its neighbors believe that
it is no longer oppressing the Palestinian people but instead living in peace
and harmony with them.
The de facto strategy of past and present Israeli governments of seeking
security through domination and by pushing Palestinians out of their homes, or
allowing right-wing religious fanatics to create settlements throughout the
West Bank to ensure that no Palestinian state could have contiguous parts, has
not and cannot work to provide safety for Israel.
Israel's fate and its well-being are intrinsically linked to the well-being of
the Palestinian people. It's time for the powerful to show generosity to the
relatively powerless.
So those in the U.S. and Israel who want Israel to be secure should welcome the
Palestinian Authority's decision to seek observer status as a nonmember state
in the United Nations. The authority has agreed to return to negotiations with
Israel without conditions once that status has been granted. The goal is
creation of a state living in peace with Israel in borders roughly
approximating those of the before than 1967 war, with minor border changes
mutually agreeable through negotiations.
So who opposes this? Hamas, Israel and the U.S.
News: 'Cruel paradox' for Palestinians
Why Hamas? Because Hamas' strategy is to keep their area so powerless that the
Palestinian people will turn away from support for the secular and
peace-oriented and nonviolence-committed Palestinian Authority. So the last
thing Hamas wants is for the Palestinian Authority to win popular esteem by
being seen as having "delivered" a real tangible accomplishment to the
Palestinian people in the form of statehood.
To the extent that even observer status is a step in that direction, powerful
elements in Hamas want to undermine it. In fact, Hamas consistently tries to
undermine the Palestinian Authority. That explains why it has been so unwilling
in the past years to stop its war crimes against Israeli civilians by sending
(thankfully, mostly inefficient) missiles toward Sderot and other parts of
southern Israel. But even as they fall short of their targets, Hamas manages to
create fear and trauma for millions of Israelis.
Why Israel? Because the Likud-Beiteinu dominated government does not want a
Palestinian state to emerge that would limit the ability of the Israeli
settlers to expand their hold on much of the West Bank. So while they sometimes
talk about a two-state solution, they have in mind a tiny state that would not
be economically or politically viable.
Its strategy: Insist that it cannot negotiate seriously with the Palestinian
Authority on creation of a state because the authority cannot control Hamas.
With that reasoning, they ask how can Israel be expected to work with the
authority on terms for a peace treaty that would actually be viable? And then
simultaneously, Israel strengthens Hamas in various predictable ways.
Opinion: What is Israel's mission?
Palestinians push for U.N. status
Future of Israel, Palestinian Authority
Next steps in Israel-Hamas truce
Israel's defense minister resigning
Its first move in this direction was to pull out of Gaza militarily without
negotiating for the Palestinian Authority to take over control there, de facto
leaving Gaza in the hands of Hamas. If the pull-out had been done in
cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, there would have been no missiles
and hence no "proof" that giving up land to the Palestinians would only
increase Israeli vulnerability.
To keep any substantial Palestinian state from developing, the government of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has managed, in the latest Gaza war (whose
cease-fire is for the moment holding) to strengthen Hamas. It allowed Hamas to
show that it can fight back against Israeli assault in contrast to the
Palestinian Authority who, Hamas points out, has gotten nothing in return for
the past five years of complete non-violence and security cooperation with the
Israeli Army (IDF).
Netanyahu is not stupid, and this is an intended outcome.
The shelling of Israeli sites killed five people. Israeli bombing killed 150
Palestinians. Yet the air raids and missiles aimed at Israel again stimulated
the latent post-traumatic stress disorder among Israelis that leads so many to
vote for right-wing parties against their own best interests out of fear of the
Palestinian people, most of whom would like to live in peace with Israel.
(Palestinians told me when I visited a few weeks ago that the ongoing trauma of
the occupation is so present it can't become post-traumatic).
What the violence meant
As long as Hamas is seen as the main face of Palestinians, even centrist and
left-wing Israelis will support militarism rather than peace compromises.
Why the U.S.? The Obama administration gave a green light to Israel's attack on
Gaza, refused to support calls for an immediate cease-fire and has now joined
Israel in opposition to upping Palestinian status at the U.N.
The most charitable explanation is the Obama team believes the Netanyahu
government will never negotiate a reasonable deal with the Palestinians and so
has turned its attention to trying to gaining leverage with Israel to stop it
from dragging the U.S. into a war with Iran. And for that, it's willing to
ditch the Palestinian Authority, even though it certainly knows that the
authority might soon collapse unless it can deliver something real for its
people.
In my recent book, "Embracing Israel/Palestine" (North Atlantic Books, 2012), I
show that Israel will be safe when it becomes famous not for its power but for
its spirit of generosity and open-hearted caring for the Palestinian people.
I've outlined how a Marshall Plan to eliminate poverty in Israel and the
surrounding states would totally change the political dynamics and create the
preconditions for lasting peace. A similar path would make the U.S. far more
popular and far more powerful around the world. But this strategy of generosity
will take a major paradigm shift in the consciousness of Americans and
Israelis, and for the moment, that seems unlikely. But it's worth fighting for.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rabbi Michael
Lerner.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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