--MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid), who immigrated from Argentina during that country's "Dirty War" period of state terror, tells Culture Minister Miri Regev after she presented her controversial 'Cultural Loyalty' bill to Knesset.**
Let’s take a moment for a thought experiment. I do this days after more Palestinian attacks on Israelis, including the horrific murder of a mother of six children; soon after Israel announced the expropriation of another 370 acres of land near Jericho; and after Majed Faraj, the Palestinian security chief, announced that Palestinian security forces had intercepted 200 potential terrorist attacks against Israel. The thought experiment focuses on whether the “Plan B” for the Israel-Palestine dispute should be Israel’s annexation of the territories it occupied in 1967 and the extension of full citizenship rights to the Palestinians in those areas.
I came from a long line of worriers — we’re Jews after all! My parents worried that I’d never make a living as a songwriter and urged me to become a shoe salesman! I didn’t become a shoe salesman but I remain a worrier.
I worry about Israel today, after nearly 50 years as an occupier of another people. The Occupied Territories hardly figure in the public discourse in Israel these days, and yet the occupation won’t go away simply as a result of inattention.
The attitude of right-wing extremist supporters of Israel also worries me greatly. When you tell them that constructing peace is a complex undertaking, that it requires both imagination and pragmatism, they’ll dismiss you by dumbing down the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They say things like, "The Muslims want to destroy Israel" or "The Arabs refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state" or "If the Arabs had accepted Israel in 1948, the Palestinians wouldn’t be where they are today."
They say things like, "Israel has no partner for peace," ignoring the Palestinian government's renouncement of violence against Israel. They even have problems with the Palestinians using a non-violent diplomatic path towards peace by turning to the international community for support of their national aspirations.
Extremists here and in Israel will never find a situation in which Israelis and Palestinians can reach an accord and a Palestinian state can peacefully come into existence.
That’s why I’m so worried — and infuriated.
Assaf Orion and Udi Dekel / INSS (2016)
Article presenting the infrastructure and conditions necessary to create an environment for successful peace
negotiations. Read More >
Ofir Winter / INSS (2016)
Article discussing the political process towards peace from an Arab standpoint and unsuccessful attempts to revive
the political process, specifically from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Further assesses the factors that resist political
progress and towards improving relations with Israel. Read More >