{"id":5191,"date":"2010-05-03T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2010-05-02T22:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=5191"},"modified":"2010-05-01T21:59:47","modified_gmt":"2010-05-01T19:59:47","slug":"the-future-of-palestine-righteous-jews-vs-the-new-afrikaners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2010\/05\/the-future-of-palestine-righteous-jews-vs-the-new-afrikaners\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews vs. the New Afrikaners"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from the\u00a0The Hisham Sharabi Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor John\u00a0Mearsheimer at the Palestine Center in Washington D.C. on\u00a0April 29,\u00a02010.<\/em><\/p>\n

…There is going to be a Greater Israel between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.\u00a0 In fact, I would argue that it already exists.\u00a0 But who will live there and what kind of political system will it have?<\/p>\n

It is not going to be a democratic bi-national state, at least in the near future. An overwhelming majority of Israel\u2019s Jews have no interest in living in a state that would be dominated by the Palestinians.\u00a0 And that includes young Israeli Jews, many of whom hold clearly racist views toward the Palestinians in their midst.\u00a0 Furthermore, few of Israel\u2019s supporters in the United States are interested in this outcome, at least at this point in time.\u00a0 Most Palestinians, of course, would accept a democratic bi-national state without hesitation if it could be achieved quickly.\u00a0 But that is not going to happen, although as I will argue shortly, it is likely to come to pass down the road.<\/p>\n

Then there is ethnic cleansing, which would certainly mean that Greater Israel would have a Jewish majority.\u00a0 But that murderous strategy seems unlikely, because it would do enormous damage to Israel\u2019s moral fabric, its relationship with Jews in the Diaspora, and to its international standing.\u00a0 Israel and its supporters would be treated harshly by history, and it would poison relations with Israel\u2019s neighbors for years to come.\u00a0 No genuine friend of Israel could support this policy, which would clearly be a crime against humanity.\u00a0 It also seems unlikely, because most of the 5.5 million Palestinians living between the Jordan and the Mediterranean would put up fierce resistance if Israel tried to expel them from their homes.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there is reason to worry that Israelis might adopt this solution as the demographic balance shifts against them and they fear for the survival of the Jewish state.\u00a0 Given the right circumstances \u2013 say a war involving Israel that is accompanied by serious Palestinian unrest \u2013 Israeli leaders might conclude that they can expel massive numbers of Palestinians from Greater Israel and depend on the lobby to protect them from international criticism and especially from sanctions.<\/p>\n

We should not underestimate Israel\u2019s willingness to employ such a horrific strategy if the opportunity presents itself.\u00a0 It is apparent from public opinion surveys and everyday discourse that many Israelis hold racist views of Palestinians and the Gaza massacre makes clear that they have few qualms about killing Palestinian civilians.\u00a0 It is difficult to disagree with Jimmy Carter\u2019s comment earlier this year that \u201cthe citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings.\u201d\u00a0 A century of conflict and four decades of occupation will do that to a people.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, a substantial number of Israeli Jews \u2013 some 40 percent or more \u2013 believe that the Arab citizens of Israel should be \u201cencouraged\u201d to leave by the government.\u00a0 Indeed, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni has said that if there is a two-state solution, she expected Israel\u2019s Palestinian citizens to leave and settle in the new Palestinian state.\u00a0 And then there is the recent military order issued by the IDF that is aimed at \u201cpreventing infiltration\u201d into the West Bank.\u00a0 In fact, it enables Israel to deport tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank should it choose to do so.\u00a0 And, of course, the Israelis engaged in a massive cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948 and again in 1967.\u00a0 Still, I do not believe Israel will resort to this horrible course of action.<\/p>\n

The most likely outcome in the absence of a two-state solution is that Greater Israel will become a full-fledged apartheid state.\u00a0 As anyone who has spent time in the Occupied Territories knows, it is already an incipient apartheid state with separate laws, separate roads, and separate housing for Israelis and Palestinians, who are essentially confined to impoverished enclaves that they can leave and enter only with great difficulty.<\/p>\n

Israelis and their American supporters invariably bristle at the comparison to white rule in South Africa, but that is their future if they create a Greater Israel while denying full political rights to an Arab population that will soon outnumber the Jewish population in the entirety of the land.\u00a0 Indeed, two former Israeli prime ministers have made this very point.\u00a0 Ehud Olmert, who was Netanyahu\u2019s predecessor, said in late November 2007 that if \u201cthe two-state solution collapses,\u201d Israel will \u201cface a South-African-style struggle.\u201d\u00a0 He went so far as to argue that, \u201cas soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.\u201d\u00a0 Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is now Israel\u2019s defense minister, said in early February of this year that, “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic.\u00a0 If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”<\/p>\n

Other Israelis, as well as Jimmy Carter and Bishop Desmond Tutu, have warned that if Israel does not pull out of the Occupied Territories it will become an apartheid state like white-ruled South Africa.\u00a0 But if I am right, the occupation is not going to end and there will not be a two-state solution.\u00a0 That means Israel will complete its transformation into a full-blown apartheid state over the next decade.<\/p>\n

In the long run, however, Israel will not be able to maintain itself as an apartheid state.\u00a0 Like racist South Africa, it will eventually evolve into a democratic bi-national state whose politics will be dominated by the more numerous Palestinians.\u00a0 Of course, this means that Israel faces a bleak future as a Jewish state.\u00a0 Let me explain why.<\/p>\n

For starters, the discrimination and repression that is the essence of apartheid will be increasingly visible to people all around the world.\u00a0 Israel and its supporters have been able to do a good job of keeping the mainstream media in the United States from telling the truth about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.\u00a0 But the Internet is a game changer.\u00a0 It not only makes it easy for the opponents of apartheid to get the real story out to the world, but it also allows Americans to learn the story that the New York Times and the Washington Post have been hiding from them.\u00a0 Over time, this situation may even force these two media institutions to cover the story more accurately themselves.<\/p>\n

The growing visibility of this issue is not just a function of the Internet.\u00a0 It is also due to the fact that the plight of the Palestinians matters greatly to people all across the Arab and Islamic world, and they constantly raise the issue with Westerners.\u00a0 It also matters very much to the influential human rights community, which is naturally going to be critical of Israel\u2019s harsh treatment of the Palestinians.\u00a0 It is not surprising that hardline Israelis and their American supporters are now waging a vicious smear campaign against those human rights organizations that criticize Israel.<\/p>\n

The main problem that Israel\u2019s defenders face, however, is that it is impossible to defend apartheid, because it is antithetical to core Western values.\u00a0 How does one make a moral case for apartheid, especially in the United States, where democracy is venerated and segregation and racism are routinely condemned?\u00a0 It is hard to imagine the United States having a special relationship with an apartheid state.\u00a0 Indeed, it is hard to imagine the United States having much sympathy for one.\u00a0 It is much easier to imagine the United States strongly opposing that racist state\u2019s political system and working hard to change it.\u00a0 Of course, many other countries around the globe would follow suit.\u00a0 This is surely why former Prime Minister Olmert said that going down the apartheid road would be suicidal for Israel.<\/p>\n

Apartheid is not only morally reprehensible, but it also guarantees that Israel will remain a strategic liability for the United States…<\/p>\n

I believe that most of the Jews in the great ambivalent middle will not defend apartheid Israel but will either keep quiet or side with the righteous Jews against the new Afrikaners, who will become increasingly marginalized over time.\u00a0 And once that happens, the lobby will be unable to provide cover for Israel\u2019s racist policies toward the Palestinians in the way it has in the past.<\/p>\n

________________________<\/p>\n

Professor Mearsheimer\u00a0is the R. Wendell Harrison\u00a0Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the\u00a0co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the\u00a0University of Chicago. \u00a0Dr. Mearsheimer has written\u00a0extensively\u00a0about security issues and international politics more generally. He has published four books:\u00a0Conventional\u00a0Deterrence\u00a0(1983), which won the Edgar S.\u00a0Furniss, Jr., Book Award;\u00a0Liddell\u00a0Hart and the Weight of History (1988);\u00a0The Tragedy of Great Power Politics\u00a0(2001), which won\u00a0the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize; and\u00a0The\u00a0Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy\u00a0(with Stephen\u00a0M. Walt, 2007).<\/em><\/p>\n

The full text is available on The Jerusalem Fund’s website at this link.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This except was made available courtesy of The Palestine Center.<\/em><\/p>\n

GO TO ORIGINAL \u2013 ALJAZEERA.NET<\/a><\/p>\n

Join the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions<\/span>)<\/em> campaign to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation, the apartheid wall, and its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people: DON’T BUY<\/strong><\/span> products whose BARCODE<\/strong><\/span> starts with 729<\/strong><\/span>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE! \u00a0729: BOYCOTT!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from the The Hisham Sharabi Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor John Mearsheimer at the Palestine Center in Washington D.C. on April 29, 2010. …There is going to be a Greater Israel between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. In fact, I would argue that it already exists. But who will live there and what kind of political system will it have?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}