Soccer Dad: Troublesome myths

January 11, 2007

Troublesome myths

Yesterday I linked to Dennis Ross's Don't Play with Maps as an example of the NY Times new Permalink feature.

The gist of Ross's argument is that the violence in the Middle East is the function of myths. Do away with the myths, stick to the facts and a solution is possible. Ross does a nice job of dismissing people like Robert Malley.

The problem is that the �Palestinian interpretation� is actually taken from an Israeli map presented during the Camp David summit meeting in July 2000, while the �Israeli interpretation� is an approximation of what President Clinton subsequently proposed in December of that year. Without knowing this, the reader is left to conclude that the Clinton proposals must have been so ambiguous and unfair that Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, was justified in rejecting them. But that is simply untrue.

But when he comes to his larger point he argues

The basic trade-offs require meeting Israeli needs on security and refugees on the one hand and Palestinian needs on territory and a capital in Arab East Jerusalem on the other. But producing such trade-offs won�t simply come from calling for them. Instead, an environment must be created in which each side believes the other can act on peace and is willing to condition its public for the difficult compromises that will be necessary.

So long as mythologies can�t be cast aside, and so long as the trade-offs on the core issues can�t be embraced by Israelis or Palestinians, peace will remain forever on the horizon. If history tells us anything, it is that for peace-making to work, it must proceed on the basis of fact, not fiction.

If Ross is correct though, why wasn't peace achieved in 2000 at Camp David, or even in January 2001 at the beginning of what Arafat called "the Aqsa intifada" when the "core issues" were addressed? It' because there are core issues that Ross and his fellow peace processors ignore.

One is that the fundamental values of Palestinan nationalism is that Israel is an illegitimate colonial construct. This still has not changed 13+ years after Oslo. That the international community in many fora still abides this fiction gives it currency and keeps it potent. It also leads to the second core issue, that of permanent Palestinian victimhood.

This allows the Palestinians to avoid taking responsibility for actually making peace and creating a functioning government. Or put another way

In 1992, the Palestinian per capita GDP was $2,683 per person. If there had not been terror, the Palestinian economy could have grown during the 1990s into one of the leaders in the Middle East. The money was used for three major purposes: perpetuation of the refugees as victims, purchase of weapons and explosives, and corruption. Opportunities to achieve independence and prosperity were rejected for the ultimate goal: the removal of Israel from the map.

(excerpt of article translated by Daily Alert 01/08/2007)

The myth that Dennis Ross promotes - that fulfilling Palestinian requirements in territory will bring peace - has been as ruinous as any that have promoted over the past generations.

Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Blogdigger tags: Dennis Ross, Israel, Peace Process.