Palestine * "Palestinian state" is a slogan which has lost its meaning Growing Israeli support for a "settlement" is not motivated by a new recognition of Palestinian rights. Veteran peacenik Meron Benvenisti explains After the signing of the Oslo Accords and mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO... many Israelis discovered that the recognition of the Palestinian collectivity can actually serve their interests more effectively than the denial of their existence
The Oslo Accords convinced them that it is possible to turn the Palestinian National Authority into an instrument to perpetuate the occupation and the inequality. External, Israeli rule of the separated bubbles [of self-rule territories, which lack all capacity for independent existence, is increasingly seen as a 'historic compromise which will solve the key problem of the Land of Israel. "What's so dangerous about detining this as a
Palestinian 'state'?" Israelis are asking
We can wear away at the Palestinian people by pomp and etiquette, by cultivating a bureaucratic officialdom for them, with five different military uniforms for their security services; and we can continue to pull the strings.
There' are all kinds of states. Prime Minister Netanyahu talks of Andorra and Puerto Rico, Ariel Sharon speaks of cantons that resemble Swiss cheese, and Yossi Beilin refers to the village of Abu Dis as a new Palestinian capital, 'Al-Quds'. They all intend some sort of "Transkei,' a Palestinian bantustan, surrounded by Israel.
[.]Celebration of the demise of the 'whole land of Israel' ideology is premature. The new tone on the Right do not indicate that the Left has won, but only that the slogan 'a Palestinian state' has lost its meaning and its moral value. It no longer signifies the demand for a compromise on a basis of equality, but a sophisticated formula for discrimination devised by the victors in the conflict. It is easy to swear loyalty to slogans which have lost their meaning. Source: Ha'aretz, 26 December 1996, translated by the Alternative Information Center
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