|
Recognizing Israel as a Jewish state |
|
|
|
|
There has been a lot of discussion over Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, with some on the left seeing it as simply an obstacle to forward progress towards a peace agreement. However, Shlomo Avneri, normally considered "left" thinks that it is important for a permanent peace that the Palestinians do in fact recognize Israel as the Jewish state. I agree with him, although when, during the Reagan era, America was frequently described as a "Christian nation" I cringed, and I realize the stresses I felt during that time are probably the types of stresses Arab Moslem and Christian Israelis might feel about this debate and its resoultion. To read beyond the excerpt below go to this link: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1108789.html
Shimon Shamir is right ("Ask Mustafa Khalil," August 17) in stating that, "It is not our concern if Egypt defines itself as Islamic, Arab, African or pharaonic. We recognize Egypt as a political entity..." Based on this premise, Shamir makes the case that we are not to demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. Yet the analogy is not valid for a number of reasons.
First, Israel has never called into question the existence of the Egyptian political entity. On the other hand, the Palestinians, through their rejection of the UN Partition Plan, refused to recognize the Jewish state and embarked on a war to destroy it. This is, after all, the root of the conflict. Indeed, the Palestinian narrative is based on the rejection of the existence of a Jewish nation state in any part of the territory they call Palestine.
If you declared war against the Jewish state, does not the signing of a peace treaty with that state obligate you to accept it? This does not mean the Palestinians are asked to accept the Zionist narrative, but it is incumbent upon them to alter their narrative, which rules out the existence of a Jewish state. Read more at this link: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1108789.html
|
Jerry's Jottings - More