What Israel Could Do Next
Tony Klug proposes a simple next step for Israel:
I propose we call on the Israeli prime minister and government to set about unblocking the deadlock and sparking a new peace momentum by a simple act of state: a public declaration that, in exchange for full peace and subject to agreed equitable land exchanges, Israel is prepared in principle to withdraw fully from the West Bank to enable the Palestinians to build their independent state, with which Israel would desire normal neighbourly relations. Not a hazardous unilateral withdrawal, but a sincere, risk-free, unilateral declaration about the envisaged political horizon.
If Israel’s leadership truly seeks peace, let us hear it make this vital - in principle - statement, loudly and clearly and often. And if not, why not?
Israel/Palestine: it is not about blame
"If, at times, it turned violent and involved deadly atrocities, it was not because the perpetrators were Palestinian, or Arab or predominantly Muslim, but because they were an occupied people.
"In parallel, if there has been a persistent pattern of serious human rights violations in the occupied territories, it is not because the perpetrators are Israeli, nor even because they are Zionist ... and certainly not because they are Jews. It is because they are occupiers... " Tony Klug
Tony, one of the founders of Independent Jewish Voices, was speaking at the IJV Speak Out on 19th February. Read his speech: Unblocking the Deadlock.
Dr Tony Klug is a veteran writer on the Middle East who has been advocating a two-state solution since the early 1970s. He is senior policy consultant at the Middle East Policy Initiative Forum and vice-chair of the Arab-Jewish Forum. His doctoral thesis was on Israel's rule over the West Bank between the wars of 1967 and 1973.