Fathom is a serious British journal about Israel and the Middle East. Micah Goodman is a serious commentator on Judaism and Israel. The current issue of Fathom carries an important essay by Goodman under the telling title, “We are paralysed by the failed search for a final peace. For now, let’s reduce the experience of occupation without reducing security.”
Goodman begins by reminding his readers how the 1967 War made right-wing religious Jews believe that “by settling this land one paves the way for redemption.” Left-wing liberals, on the other hand, saw in the Israeli conquest a historic opportunity: “For the first time Israel would no longer be a fortress state but an organic part of the area.”
Then came the Intifadas (Palestinian uprisings): “If the First Intifada was a blow to the messianic Right, the Second Intifada was a fatal blow to the messianic Left.” Hence this: “From the First Intifada, we learnt that most Israelis feel that we cannot stay in the West Bank, cannot control another nation. From the Second Intifada we learn that Israelis felt that they cannot leave the West Bank.” Goodman thus concludes that “both sides have moved from selling dreams to selling fears.”
Having come to the realization that the Israel-Palestinian conflict cannot be solved, at least not in the foreseeable future, Micah Goodman suggests eight steps to minimize it without in any way impeaching Israeli security. I hope that Trump’s Middle East Peace Team takes note.
- No settlement expansion outside the blocs of already existing Jewish settlements.
- The Palestinian autonomous zone should be and can be expanded.
- Allocate part of the West Bank (the so-called Area C) for economic and industrial development encouraging foreign investment to stimulate business activity.
- There are at present some 120,000 West Bank Palestinians working in Israel where salaries are twice as high as in the Palestinian area. They feed around 700,000 mouths. This could be expanded to some 400,000 Palestinian workers for the benefit of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
- Palestinians should be allowed to move freely within the West Bank “without having to bump into military occupation.”
- Palestinians should be allowed to travel freely abroad from a Palestinian airport instead of the current difficulties Palestinian travelers have to face when travelling in and out of Ben Gurion Airport where they often endure a lot of security delays.
- Palestinian free trade should be stimulated. One of Goodman’s suggestions is the construction of a Palestinian seaport in Haifa.
- More efforts to help Palestinians to gain economic independence.
Goodman concludes: “We don’t need to wait for final agreement – we don’t have to give up sovereignty over Temple Mount or the Palestinians give up their demand of ‘Right of Return.’ Paradoxically it is the dream of peace that is paralysing us today. And it is giving up on this dream can make things on the ground improve.” It’s not a solution, but it may be a beginning.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World