[DEBATE] : Muammar Qaddafi: "The One-State Solution" (in the New York Times [!])

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

I just criticized the MSM with regard to its typical coverage of all
things concerning Israel/Palestine, but even the MSM in the USA are
showing a sign of change, and it is rather astonishing that they
printed this. -- Yoshie

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/opinion/22qaddafi.html>
January 22, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
The One-State Solution
By MUAMMAR QADDAFI

Tripoli, Libya

THE shocking level of the last wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence,
which ended with this weekend's cease-fire, reminds us why a final
resolution to the so-called Middle East crisis is so important. It is
vital not just to break this cycle of destruction and injustice, but
also to deny the religious extremists in the region who feed on the
conflict an excuse to advance their own causes.

But everywhere one looks, among the speeches and the desperate
diplomacy, there is no real way forward. A just and lasting peace
between Israel and the Palestinians is possible, but it lies in the
history of the people of this conflicted land, and not in the tired
rhetoric of partition and two-state solutions.

Although it's hard to realize after the horrors we've just witnessed,
the state of war between the Jews and Palestinians has not always
existed. In fact, many of the divisions between Jews and Palestinians
are recent ones. The very name "Palestine" was commonly used to
describe the whole area, even by the Jews who lived there, until 1948,
when the name "Israel" came into use.

Jews and Muslims are cousins descended from Abraham. Throughout the
centuries both faced cruel persecution and often found refuge with one
another. Arabs sheltered Jews and protected them after maltreatment at
the hands of the Romans and their expulsion from Spain in the Middle
Ages.

The history of Israel/Palestine is not remarkable by regional
standards — a country inhabited by different peoples, with rule
passing among many tribes, nations and ethnic groups; a country that
has withstood many wars and waves of peoples from all directions. This
is why it gets so complicated when members of either party claims the
right to assert that it is their land.

The basis for the modern State of Israel is the persecution of the
Jewish people, which is undeniable. The Jews have been held captive,
massacred, disadvantaged in every possible fashion by the Egyptians,
the Romans, the English, the Russians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites
and, most recently, the Germans under Hitler. The Jewish people want
and deserve their homeland.

But the Palestinians too have a history of persecution, and they view
the coastal towns of Haifa, Acre, Jaffa and others as the land of
their forefathers, passed from generation to generation, until only a
short time ago.

Thus the Palestinians believe that what is now called Israel forms
part of their nation, even were they to secure the West Bank and Gaza.
And the Jews believe that the West Bank is Samaria and Judea, part of
their homeland, even if a Palestinian state were established there.
Now, as Gaza still smolders, calls for a two-state solution or
partition persist. But neither will work.

A two-state solution will create an unacceptable security threat to
Israel. An armed Arab state, presumably in the West Bank, would give
Israel less than 10 miles of strategic depth at its narrowest point.
Further, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would
do little to resolve the problem of refugees. Any situation that keeps
the majority of Palestinians in refugee camps and does not offer a
solution within the historical borders of Israel/Palestine is not a
solution at all.

For the same reasons, the older idea of partition of the West Bank
into Jewish and Arab areas, with buffer zones between them, won't
work. The Palestinian-held areas could not accommodate all of the
refugees, and buffer zones symbolize exclusion and breed tension.
Israelis and Palestinians have also become increasingly intertwined,
economically and politically.

In absolute terms, the two movements must remain in perpetual war or a
compromise must be reached. The compromise is one state for all, an
"Isratine" that would allow the people in each party to feel that they
live in all of the disputed land and they are not deprived of any one
part of it.

A key prerequisite for peace is the right of return for Palestinian
refugees to the homes their families left behind in 1948. It is an
injustice that Jews who were not originally inhabitants of Palestine,
nor were their ancestors, can move in from abroad while Palestinians
who were displaced only a relatively short time ago should not be so
permitted.

It is a fact that Palestinians inhabited the land and owned farms and
homes there until recently, fleeing in fear of violence at the hands
of Jews after 1948 — violence that did not occur, but rumors of which
led to a mass exodus. It is important to note that the Jews did not
forcibly expel Palestinians. They were never "un-welcomed." Yet only
the full territories of Isratine can accommodate all the refugees and
bring about the justice that is key to peace.

Assimilation is already a fact of life in Israel. There are more than
one million Muslim Arabs in Israel; they possess Israeli nationality
and take part in political life with the Jews, forming political
parties. On the other side, there are Israeli settlements in the West
Bank. Israeli factories depend on Palestinian labor, and goods and
services are exchanged. This successful assimilation can be a model
for Isratine.

If the present interdependence and the historical fact of
Jewish-Palestinian coexistence guide their leaders, and if they can
see beyond the horizon of the recent violence and thirst for revenge
toward a long-term solution, then these two peoples will come to
realize, I hope sooner rather than later, that living under one roof
is the only option for a lasting peace.

Muammar Qaddafi is the leader of Libya.