By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM–I’ve been urging Kaddish for the idea of the Palestinian state ever since the sound of exploding buses replaced enthusiasm for the Oslo Accords.
That puts me against many people who consider themselves right thinking, and perhaps a large majority of those who are leaders of their countries.
On the other hand, few of those people ever say Kaddish at any time, or even know that it is the prayer for the dead.
Why Kaddish for an idea that even the Prime Minister of Israel says he supports?
I also support the idea.
Life would be easiest here if a proper state of Palestine lived at peace alongside of me. I would not mind if its border was 100 meters from my apartment, along the back side of the synagogue on Hahayal Street. I would applaud the transfer of Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, including Isaweea, with a nod toward the right of those residents to vote as to whether they want to be part of Palestine.
The President of the United States and other prominent worthies have indicated the outlines of an agreement.
They are like children trying to put together a puzzle that looks simple from a distance, but whose pieces do not fit one another.
Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have indicated that they cannot finish the puzzle. Borders, refugees, Jewish settlements, and the Old City of Jerusalem are the knottiest of the problems. Each is complicated by powerful segments of the Palestinian community, backed by not so moderate other Arabs, who cannot abandon their hatreds and total demands; and by a large segment of the Israeli population who perceive Palestinians as extreme and unreliable.
So what is likely to happen?
Most likely, nothing dramatic.
Palestinian leaders threaten a unilateral declaration of statehood, which they will ask the United Nations to endorse and other states to recognize.
It may happen, especially if they turn to the United National General Assembly and not the Security Council. It may happen even if they turn to the Security Council, and President Obama is on the extreme edge of his engagement mode.
A large majority of nations may recognize Palestine.
Israel would again be an outlier, and refuse to move its people and institutions, including the police and army, from areas claimed by Palestinians.
The result would not differ much from what happened when the Palestinian National Council, under the chairmanship of Yassir Arafat, issued a Declaration of Independence from the safety of Algiers in 1988.
For some years, a considerable number of states have granted recognition to a “Palestinian ambassador” or some lesser but dignified title. International organizations have granted observer status or more than that to a person having credentials from Palestinian authorities.
The nastiness toward Israel would escalate. The Olympia Food Co-op and like-thinking bodies will confirm their boycotts.
Arab states called moderate, and even some of the others, have not shown great enthusiasm for a unilateral declaration of statehood. It would rock their boats, and cherished arrangements could get soaked.
Most likely there will continue the anomaly of Palestinians without statehood.
If the vast majority behave themselves, Israel will let them live in peace, with as much prosperity as they can achieve. They already do better than Kurds under the heel of Turkey, and could achieve the status of the Catalans of Barcelona or the Basques of Bilbao. Barcelona is the 18th most visited city in the world, with close to 5 million international tourists a year. It is well worth the trip, but is not without signs of discomfort.
Bilbao and Barcelona are part of Spain, while Israel is not about to accept the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in what leftists fantasize as a “one-state solution.”
So the anomaly will be different than than of the Catalans and Basques, but the life of Palestinians is already better than many ethnic groups that consider themselves deprived by others. The Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza–along with the Arabs who are citizens of Israel–are free to call themselves Palestinians, teach their language and national history. Israel does what it can to keep the Arabs living in the country from teaching a history that indicates that they have all the rights and that the Jews have done all the wrongs, and it argues against that kind of teaching in schools outside of Israel.
Discomforts there may be. Jews knew the feeling for two millennia. Palestinians have only thought of themselves as a people for something between 60 or 100 years, depending on how you read history. They have gotten attention and sympathy not shown to Jews for most of their two millennia, or to the vast majority of other stateless ethnics who claim rights of self-determination.
We can count on Israel allowing to the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza much, but not all of the autonomy associated with statehood. There are already officials, flags, a recognition of legal documents, police, and the provision of social services. To the extent that they control those who would be violent toward Israel, Israel would reinstate their more complete control of internal security, and.freedom of passage to Israel and through it to the outside.
It will not be ideal, but many things in the world fall below that standard.
*
Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University