Israel Ready to End Conflict

Israel Ready to End Conflict

  • 9/26/2011
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    Printed in the Savannah Morning News on Sunday, September 25, 2011

    There is a famous old adage that goes: Ask a question of two Jews and you’ll get three opinions.

    This saying is twice as true for Israeli Jews.

    Joking aside, extroverted bursts of multiple opinions among Israelis derive from a long history of appreciation for debate within the Jewish culture. Since I was a child I was taught that the way to resolve a conflict is by dialogue; sometimes even through a true argument.

    I believe that a similar value can be applied when we are talking about relationships between nations. The biblical book of Levitus says, “You shall surely reprove your friend,” namely, it is those people most close to you with whom you should confront and dialogue, so that a true friendship based on understanding can be created.

    Israel and the Palestinians have been negotiating for years in an attempt to bridge the gap between the two people. Israel has taken great steps within the last decade to reach peace including Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent public calling for a two state solution — a defensible Jewish state living side by side with a Palestinian state.

    Following this vision, the Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, led the building of a Palestinian state from the ground up with the Israeli government’s support.

    Unfortunately, the Palestinian leadership has decided recently to take a detour from direct negotiations by deciding to unilaterally declare independence in the United Nations.

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    This political act of smoke and mirrors will serve to achieve nothing. A unilateral declaration by the Palestinians avoids the true issues affecting Palestinians and Israelis and fails to resolve any of the key issues in the center of the conflict such as land, refugees and aid.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas explained his goals for approaching the United Nations very clearly in his article in the New York Times on May 16 of this year. Abbas wrote, “Palestine’s admission to the United Nations would pave the way for the internationalization of the conflict as a legal matter, not only a political one. It would also pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.”

    Clearly the Palestinian bid for independence is about bashing Israel rather than resolving the conflict. Abbas would rather attack Israel in international forums rather than work to secure a true state for his people. He chooses to trash the hopes and dreams of the Palestinians before daring to acknowledge the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East.

    Israel, on the other hand, is ready to engage the Palestinians in open and honest discussion of the issues dividing our peoples. In the last 10 years, two Israeli prime Ministers, Ehud Olmert in 2009 and Ehud Barak in 2000, came to the negotiation table with extremely generous offers to the PA offering them a state and an end to the ongoing conflict.

    Just last year, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared a moratorium on building settlements, not because he thinks settlements are an obstacle for peace, but as a gesture at the request of the Palestinians in the hope of commencing direct talks. None of these opportunities were embraced by Mahmoud Abbas.

    Despite the rhetoric and action of the Palestinians at the United Nations, Israel will remain steadfast in its offer to realize a peace agreement with the Palestinians through direct talks.

    After all, if two Jews have three opinions, the chances are higher one of these opinions may be the true answer. The only way to find out is for open and honest discourse.

    Sharon Kabalo is deputy consul general at the Israeli consulate to the Southeast in Atlanta.

     
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