CKNW Editorial
for September 20, 2001

Last week in an editorial I spoke of the need for the United States to bang some heads together and get the Israeli-Palestinian talks going again with a real intention on both sides to reach an agreement. In doing so I managed to get supporters of both Israel and the PLO angry.

The two sides are going to be angry no matter what anyone says unless one picks one side of the dispute and agrees with that holus bolus. But that can’t happen if one is at all objective.

The issues are not nearly as complicated as the emotions. The history, if you let it be, is a breaker of any deals. Even the basic Palestinian position that at no time did Arabs in the area accept a large Jewish presence can be attacked.

I spoke last week about the Jewish settlements and said that these had to go if any real chance for peace was to exist. I stand by that statement. These settlements are part of the sometime "in your face" attitude of the State of Israel and by no means are supported by all Israelis. But I want to deal with two other areas of dispute today.

First, Jerusalem. We tend to forget that there has always been a substantial Jewish population in Arab lands and especially in Jerusalem. Even before the State of Israel was formed, Jerusalem had a large Jewish population – the Israelis say a majority. A settlement must take that into account and this means a jointly administered city. Not a perfect solution, of course. It’s a solution that carries with it seeds of future dissension. But we’re not taking here about a peace settlement that’s going to have everyone hugging and kissing and calling each other brother and sister the day after it happens. God knows all wish that this might someday happen but we’re a number of steps away from even thinking about that.

The second issue is the right of Palestinians to return to their lands. They and their supporters rely on Article 13(2) of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." The Palestinians are fond of using United Nations laws and resolutions to back up their case and one can understand why. But however much we might all wish that the United Nations was the great forum of nations whose decisions were final the fact remains that, other than many of its agencies that do great work, it is a toothless pussy cat. It’s a talk shop dominated by the small nations of the world. None of the great powers have felt compelled to abide by any UN resolution unless it suits them.

13(2) is, and always will be utterly unacceptable to Israel. I’m not fond of ethnically based states but that’s what Israel is and always has been. It is unrealistic unto goofy to expect that Israel is going to make a deal that could conceivably give control of the state to Arabs. You can argue UN resolutions and one person one vote until you’re blue in the face but it isn’t going to happen.

13(2) is meaningless anyway. Do you realize what its acceptance would mean?

After the war, hundreds of thousands of Poles were moved out of what was once Poland but was now the Soviet Union. They would be entitled to return. At the same time hundreds of thousands of Germans were moved out of what was once Prussia and Silesia and now was Poland, into the new Germany. All the Sudetanland Germans, yes the same ones that spawned the infamous Munich Agreement, were expelled from Czechoslovakia into the new Germany. All these Germans would be entitled to go home and in all cases, presumably, granted their lands back or compensation in lieu. As if this isn’t bad enough, imagine if 13(2) were to apply to all those left in or put in the wrong countries with the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1919!

In saying this I don’t accept the argument by Israel that because many Palestinians were urged by Arab forces to leave their homes at the outbreak of the 1948 war that they abandoned all their rights. We’re not talking about sophisticated jet setters here but poor farmers who were scared as hell. But saying that means that compensation makes some sense as part of the bargain.

The long and the short of it is that Israel and the Palestinians have to make a deal and make it soon … and making deal often means that each side must abandon what they consider their sacred rights or rights under the law as they see it.

American Secretary of State Colin Powell is, as I predicted last week, laying some heavies on both sides in this dispute. It’s not as though a settlement is going to make the world of Islam pally with the United States – not at all. And for fanatics it won’t matter because they wish to have Israel destroyed.

What it will do, however, is two things.

First it will start, be the first step in, the long, long journey to real peace in this region.

Second, it will remove, perhaps only gradually at first, a major irritant in the relations the United States has and must build on with the world of Islam.

In fact the United States cannot build a lasting coalition against terrorism without this problem settled.

Evidently by the actions of Mr Powell, President Bush understands this.