Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:
If Akiva Eldar was certain that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam
Fayyad really had answers to the hard questions he would ask them. And he
would follow up on PA PM Fayyad's soft answers.
But Akiva Eldar doesn't do this.
Now if Akiva Eldar genuinely believes that Fayyad can handle the hard
questions he does him a disservice.
And if he avoids hard questions because he doesn't want to hurt the
Palestinian cause he is doing a disservice to his readers.
Here are some questions:
(1) Throwing rocks and firebombs is a form of "peaceful protest"?
(2) You demand that all Palestinians held by Israel be released now. Israel
is holding Palestinian cop Mahmoud al-Khatib who recently murdered an
Israeli soldier. Are you saying that al-Khatib should also be freed?
(3) What is your position on the right of Jews to immigrate to Israel and
become citizens while the same right is not provided for Arabs with family
ties to locations within Israel?
And there's more.]
Palestinian PM to Haaretz: We will have a state next year
By Akiva Eldar Haaretz Last update - 11:44 02/04/2010
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1160513.html
RAMALLAH - Next year, "the birth of a Palestinian state will be celebrated
as a day of joy by the entire community of nations," says Palestinian
Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in an exclusive interview to Haaretz.
Relaying Passover greetings to the Jewish community, Fayyad hopes Israelis
will also participate in the celebrations for the birth of a new state.
"The time for this baby to be born will come," he says, "and we estimate it
will come around 2011. That is our vision, and a reflection of our will to
exercise our right to live in freedom and dignity in the country [where] we
are born, alongside the State of Israel in complete harmony," says Fayyad,
58.
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He also welcomed the Quartet's announcement of two weeks ago in Moscow,
which supports the PA's August 2009 plan to establish a state within 24
months.
Fayyad says the Palestinians want an independent and sovereign state,
emphasizing they are "not looking for a state of leftovers - a Mickey Mouse
state." He and his aides plan for the state to be born during the first term
of Barack Obama; he notes that previous U.S. administrations seriously
tackled the conflict only toward the end of their second term.
"If for one reason or another, by August 2011 [the plan] will have failed...
I believe we will have amassed such credit, in form of positive facts on the
ground, that the reality is bound to force itself on the political process
to produce the outcome," Fayyad says.
The prime minister adds: "I envision that we will be so mature in terms of
positive facts on the ground, and along the way have grown on our Israeli
neighbors, we will have begun a process of transformation from a concept, to
a possibility, to a reality.
Fayyad says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succumbed to the settlers
who, he says, do not reflect the vision of the majority of Israelis. "We
have universally shared values," he says, and notes that "peace will be made
between equals, not between masters and slaves."
Fayyad, who has positioned himself at the forefront of popular opposition to
occupation, criticizes Israel's policies on protests at Bil'in and Na'alin
and for targeting demonstrators. "It is expecting too much of Palestinians
not to react," he says.
"It is the right of an oppressed nation to say 'enough'," says Fayyad. "No
one should be expected to stand for injustice, not least the Palestinians,
who have endured long decades of occupation. Is it not what Gandhi stood
for, what Martin Luther King stood for?
"The settlers have a tremendous pull on the Israeli government. It's pure
self-righteousness: the exclusion of the possibility that someone out there
might have a slightly different opinion - in an indignant way and often
times in a violent way.
"Related to the Zionist ethos, fine, Israel is a biblical country, there are
lots of hilltops, lots of vacant space, why don't they use that, and let us
get on with it?"
Q: Are the American demands of Israel moving us in the right direction? Do
you agree with the argument that putting an end to our conflict will help to
contain Iran?
A: "The conflict of the region is not about us at all; it's between radicals
and moderates. It is clear to me that ending the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict is an American national interest. The world should be able to do
what they want to do to help - in their own interest as well but they can't
do it.
"The issue should not be looked at as if the United States wants to take a
position, it is doing so to favor the Palestinians, at the expense of
Israelis. And for the U.S. to succeed it should not be the other way around,
either. Basically, for the world to succeed in helping us get to where we
want, both sides should be held accountable.
Q: Officials around Netanyahu keep arguing that you are using the settlement
issue to avoid a negotiated agreement and gain time until the international
community imposes your plan on Israel." A: "This is one way in which this
government attempts to trivialize the issue, as if it's a question of taking
turns - that we Palestinians somehow just woke up to this reality and
decided to make it an issue.
"If the whole world is unable to secure something as basic as stopping this,
preventing this from continuing to happen, how sure can we be the political
process, once relaunched, will be capable of delivering on those bigger,
permanent issues? It is a question of credibility.
"Anyone would be a fool to say that it was right for us to accept a
situation that we were not able to stop the expansion of the settlements
during negotiations. In hindsight, that is obvious. But a lot of things were
not expected in the euphoria of 1993."
Q: According to your information, is there a real moratorium on settlement
activity in the West Bank? A: "All indications show that it's not working.
There was a serious flaw in the moratorium itself, before the 1,600 units in
Ramat Shlomo and even before the Gilo affair. That underscored the deep flaw
associated with the moratorium concept that was put forward by the Israeli
government.
"We knew from the beginning that excluding East Jerusalem from the
moratorium concept would become a problem, a flaw associated with that.
"Essentially the way the moratorium concept was put forward, in the way
Jerusalem is defined by Israel, is a loophole. It is certainly not something
that is taken seriously by the government of Israel. It should be, and yet
it is contrived that the Palestinians looked for an issue - to use it as a
pretext not to negotiate. "
Q: How do you get out of this? No Israeli leader could promise to stop
building in East Jerusalem. A: "A way can be found, particularly since the
inherent structure of weakness associated with the moratorium concept that
was proposed by Netanyahu was exposed.
"At some point somebody has to stand up and assume responsibility for what's
going on. Isn't that what is expected of us Palestinians?
"We need to lift each other up, not drag each other down. You need a full
understanding of where the other side is coming from. I maintain that we
have that, we understand that these are completely different, diametrically
opposed narratives. I don't expect, ever, for our narrative to be accepted
by Israel, but likewise, for Netanyahu to say that the Israeli historical
narrative is basis for a just settlement, is expecting too much. "
Q: Can you build a Palestinian state as long as Hamas controls Gaza and you
are not able to hold elections?
A. "People in Gaza are looking at us as well, and saying they also want to
have a better life. Look at how fragmented we are in the West Bank, but Gaza
you can cover from north, south, east, and west 10-20 times a day. What took
us a year to do in the West Bank can be accomplished in two months in Gaza.
"Who would have thought a couple years ago there would be this
transformation in the mind-set? Not many thought that possible. All you have
to do is travel beyond Ramallah and see for yourself. It's a changed
reality.
Q: What are you doing to stop incitement against Israel?
A: Incitement can take the form of many things - things said, things done,
provocations - but there are ways for dealing with this. We are dealing with
this. "
Q: Would you agree to leave the issue of Jerusalem to a later stage of the
process? A: "Not at all. It should be handled at the very beginning. The
negotiations should not be about principles, they should be about
arrangements, accommodations, access.
"We look at this politically. Politically, we feel a right to have a state
of Palestine on the land that was occupied in 1967, including East
Jerusalem.
"But this is a political conflict, and I do not believe it should be allowed
to spill over into any other sphere, be it cultural or religious. That would
be most counterproductive and wrong."
Q: Your plan takes into consideration the need to absorb refugees.
A: Of course, Palestinians would have the right to reside within the State
of Palestine.
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