Olmert: 'If talks fail, Israel will be finished'

[nico]

Olmert: 'If talks fail, Israel will be finished'
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 30 November 2007
The state of Israel would be "finished" if prospects of a two-state solution collapsed, its Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned. Two opinion polls have shown widespread scepticism among the Israeli public about this week's Annapolis summit.

Mr Olmert told the liberal daily Haaretz: "If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished."

Mr Olmert's warning – raising however obliquely a highly sensitive comparison with apartheid South Africa – came as a poll in the newspaper showed that only 17 per cent thought the Annapolis conference a "success" – compared with 42 per cent who thought it was a "failure".

A similar poll in Yedhiot Ahronot showed 50 per cent judging the conference a failure, with 83 per cent saying they need not expect a "final status" agreement by the end of 2008, the timetable fixed by the summit.

Mr Olmert appeared to be half-borrowing an argument used by the Israeli left and increasing numbers of Palestinians that if the occupation is not swiftly ended and a Palestinian state established, the alternative is a single state in which both Palestinians and Israelis would eventually have equal rights – negating Israel's status as a "Jewish democratic state".

Unlike those critics of Israeli policy hitherto, he was careful not to declare explicitly that time for a two-state solution was running out, or venture a prediction of when such a "collapse" of the two-state solution might take place. Nor did he repeat the specific warning by the Israeli writer Amos Oz last week that the collapse of current efforts to negotiate a solution might lead to that very "demise" of the two-state solution. Oz said that the two alternatives to such a solution were either a single state or an "Israeli apartheid regime".

On the other hand his relatively apocalyptic warning is likely to be quoted back at him if the year of negotiations ushered in by Annapolis ends in the failure that most Israelis appear to expect.

Mr Olmert insisted that he had said similar things in an interview with the newspaper four years ago. In that interview, however. Mr Olmert was contemplating unilateral withdrawal from large parts of the occupied territories and strongly denounced the "Geneva Accord" – reached between the left-wing Israeli politician Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo, now a key Palestinian negotiator. The Geneva proposals – based on 1967 borders with "modifications" requiring an equal land swap, East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and extensive compensation for refugees – is thought to be close to the minimum that the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, might seek to accept in any final status agreement.

The Haaretz poll indicated that despite their scepticism about the prospect of a negotiated agreement, 53 per cent wanted one on the main issues, with 38 per cent objecting to such an agreement.

The poll also showed that 22 per cent were now satisfied with Mr Olmert as Prime Minister after a slow rise since his record slump in popularity after the Lebanon war.

The police yesterday recommended against prosecuting him over his handling of the privatisation of the Bank Leumi when he was finance minister, citing a "lack of evidence" that he had interfered to benefit a friend.

* Four Hamas militants were killed by air strikes in southern Gaza last night after what the military said was a rise in mortar and Qassam rocket attacks on Israel over the past week.

You bet your a... Israel will be finished if this apartheid continues.

[Mandy]

Thanks nico

[major.tom]

I read this article on BBC news website last night. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7118937.stm

The photo that accompanied it is odd, imho.


But what's more puzzling is the line beginning, "If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses...". What would it take for this day to come? Even after 60 years of occupation, the possibility of a one-state solution is dismissed by virtually all in the media or politics.

I think Olmert was talking directly to Israelis, giving them something to fear so he might have a little wiggle room with with to appear magnanimous, much like the "generous offer" myth of Camp David.

[Mandy]

George supports a one-state solution. So do I.

Israel has taken so much land, that a viable two-state solution is no longer a possibility.

[Mandy]

The One State Declaration

For decades, efforts to bring about a two-state solution in historic Palestine have failed to provide justice and peace for the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish peoples, or to offer a genuine process leading towards them.

The two-state solution ignores the physical and political realities on the ground, and presumes a false parity in power and moral claims between a colonized and occupied people on the one hand and a colonizing state and military occupier on the other. It is predicated on the unjust premise that peace can be achieved by granting limited national rights to Palestinians living in the areas occupied in 1967, while denying the rights of Palestinians inside the 1948 borders and in the Diaspora. Thus, the two-state solution condemns Palestinian citizens of Israel to permanent second-class status within their homeland, in a racist state that denies their rights by enacting laws that privilege Jews constitutionally, legally, politically, socially and culturally. Moreover, the two-state solution denies Palestinian refugees their internationally recognized right of return.

The two-state solution entrenches and formalizes a policy of unequal separation on a land that has become ever more integrated territorially and economically. All the international efforts to implement a two-state solution cannot conceal the fact that a Palestinian state is not viable, and that Palestinian and Israeli Jewish independence in separate states cannot resolve fundamental injustices, the acknowledgment and redress of which are at the core of any just solution.

In light of these stark realities, we affirm our commitment to a democratic solution that will offer a just, and thus enduring, peace in a single state based on the following principles:

- The historic land of Palestine belongs to all who live in it and to those who were expelled or exiled from it since 1948, regardless of religion, ethnicity, national origin or current citizenship status;

- Any system of government must be founded on the principle of equality in civil, political, social and cultural rights for all citizens. Power must be exercised with rigorous impartiality on behalf of all people in the diversity of their identities;

- There must be just redress for the devastating effects of decades of Zionist colonization in the pre- and post-state period, including the abrogation of all laws, and ending all policies, practices and systems of military and civil control that oppress and discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion or national origin;

- The recognition of the diverse character of the society, encompassing distinct religious, linguistic and cultural traditions, and national experiences;

- The creation of a non-sectarian state that does not privilege the rights of one ethnic or religious group over another and that respects the separation of state from all organized religion;

- The implementation of the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees in accordance with UN Resolution 194 is a fundamental requirement for justice, and a benchmark of the respect for equality.

- The creation of a transparent and nondiscriminatory immigration policy;

- The recognition of the historic connections between the diverse communities inside the new, democratic state and their respective fellow communities outside;

- In articulating the specific contours of such a solution, those who have been historically excluded from decision-making -- especially the Palestinian Diaspora and its refugees, and Palestinians inside Israel -- must play a central role;

- The establishment of legal and institutional frameworks for justice and reconciliation.

The struggle for justice and liberation must be accompanied by a clear, compelling and moral vision of the destination ­ a solution in which all people who share a belief in equality can see a future for themselves and others. We call for the widest possible discussion, research and action to advance a unitary, democratic solution and bring it to fruition.

Madrid and London, 2007

Signed:

Ali Abunimah

Naseer Aruri

Omar Barghouti

Oren Ben-Dor

George Bisharat

Haim Bresheeth

Jonathan Cook

Ghazi Falah

Leila Farsakh

Islah Jad

Joseph Massad

Ilan Pappe

Carlos Prieto del Campo

Nadim Rouhana

The London One State Group

[faceless]

This makes me think so much of the situation in Ireland in the early 1920s. The settlers in Ulster had been there 250+ years at that point and still today it's only even on the cards that some lasting solution can be achieved.

There's an island in the Baltic Sea which was fought over by (I think) Sweden and Finland for hundreds of years, and they finally achieved a peaceful coexistence after so much fighting.

It can be done, but it takes a long time and the first step is stopping the killing.

[Salim201]

fully agree, the problem is the understandable determination of Zionists to have their own state, a soveriegn state of the Jewish people, but sooner or later politicians in Israel will have to make a decision because its not possible to continue suppressing one population for the sake of another. A one state solution is the only viable one, regardless of ideologies and religion, its the only solution that can work. If you look at the settlements in the west bank, they look serene and palatial even, if half of that investment was put into creating palestinian neighbourhoods, the conflicts would immediately decline. Dismantle the check-points, invest in Palestinian homes, share the resources. Its a very long way off, utopian even, but its the only serious way forward.

[major.tom]

I noticed that the Guardian's version of this story differed slightly from the others in that it expanded on the Olmert quote...