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Hard Questions, Tough Answers with Yossi Alpher - Special Edition

Alpher responded last month to the following questions for an APN mailing insert:

Would a Palestinian state threaten Israel's existence? Why can't we accept that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved, and, accordingly, find ways to manage the conflict or just live with it? Where does Israel's Peace Now movement come into the picture? How does it contribute to Israel's overall security?

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Would a Palestinian state threaten Israel's existence?

Only if it were armed to the teeth and allied with Iran, and if Israel had no capacity to defend itself. But in reality, Palestinian leaders have already agreed to a non-militarized state that will not enter into anti-Israel alliances, while Israelis fully understand that the advent of peace on another front does not mean the Israeli security establishment can let down its guard.

The real question should be: Does the absence of a Palestinian state threaten Israel's existence? Every day that passes without Israel finding a way to end the occupation and promote Palestinian sovereignty brings us closer to a single bi-national political entity between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that either is no longer Jewish and Zionist in character, or is apartheid and non-democratic. Under either of these negative outcomes, Israel in effect ceases to be Israel - a Jewish and democratic state.

Yet the solution is so elusive. Why can't we accept that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved, and, accordingly, find ways to manage the conflict or just live with it?

The basic conditions for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been laid out repeatedly by informal Israeli-Palestinian discussion groups and even American presidents. The problem is not how to end the conflict, but whether the relevant leaders are up to the task.

Undoubtedly, some aspects of the problem, such as territory, lend themselves more easily to resolution than others, such as the disposition of the holy sites in Jerusalem. The recent Al-Jazeera/Guardian leaks of internal Palestinian negotiating papers demonstrated that even regarding the difficult refugee/right of return issue, the Palestinian leadership under President Mahmoud Abbas has become remarkably flexible. Concerning territory and settlements, the "impossible to resolve" argument is of course self-perpetuating insofar as it is exploited to rationalize expanding the problematic settler presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem further and further.

The longer a solution is postponed, the more likely it is that we'll see the emergence of intransigent Palestinian leaders who complement their intransigent Israeli counterparts. And the more isolated and "delegitimized" Israel will become internationally and even in some Jewish circles. The longer a solution is postponed, the more Israel's current government entrenches the country in untenable policies and positions.

Better by far to take advantage of the current moderate Palestinian leadership and seek negotiating progress, even if only on some of the issues. For this we need a genuine freeze in the settlement expansion that so acutely threatens a two-state solution. And we need more determined American leadership.

Where does Israel's Peace Now movement come into the picture? How does it contribute to Israel's overall security?

Peace Now was founded some 35 years ago, primarily by reserve officers of the Israeli military. Then as now, the movement recognized that the settlements not only do not contribute to Israel's security--they impede peace agreements that are one of the foundations of any country's security. Even former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for years the most influential and energetic supporter of settlements, recognized this reality in 2005 when he removed settlements from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank.

Today, Peace Now's activists are the conscience of Israel when it comes to documenting and opposing disastrous and counter-productive settlement expansion. Much of this takes place on forcibly expropriated private Palestinian land in the West Bank, or amidst hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, often with American Jewish and evangelical financial backing.

These Peace Now activities, incidentally, are what make Americans for Peace Now different from any other American Jewish advocacy organization. APN and Peace Now are two complementary halves of a unique Israeli-American Jewish dynamic.