Honest Debate On The Mideast
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The Capital Times,
Madison, WI.
Published: March 22, 2006
A Cap Times Editorial

Writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz last Saturday, former President Jimmy Carter offered this opinion on the long and frequently disappointing search for peace in the Middle East:

"The preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel's Colonization of Palestine. There were Just a few hundred settlers in the West Bank and Gaza when I became president, but the Likud government expanded settlement activity after I left office. President Ronald Reagan condemned this policy...President George H. W. Bush even threatened to reduce American aid to Israel.

Although President Bill Clinton made strong efforts to promote peace, a massive increase of settlers occurred during his administration, to 225,000, mostly while Ehud Barak was Prime Minister. Their best official offer to the Palestinians was to withdraw 20 percent of them, leaving 180,000 in 209 settlements, covering about 5 percent of the occupied land.

The 5 percent figure is grossly misleading, with surrounding areas taken or earmarked for expansion, roadways Joining settlements with each other and to Jerusalem, and wide arterial swaths providing water, sewage, electricity and communications. The intricate honeycomb divides the entire West Bank into multiple fragments, often uninhabitable or even unreachable...

This will never be acceptable either to Palestinians or to the International Community, and will inevitably precipitate increased tension and violence within Palestine, and stronger resentment from the Arab World against America, which will be held accountable for the plight of the Palestinians."

Though Carter's skepticism about the motives of particular Israeli leaders may be more gently stated than that "Expressed In The Capital Times Staurday" (1) by Madisonian Jennifer Lowenstein, it addresses similar concerns about the seriousness of the commitment of Israel's right-wing government to the peace process.

Lowenstein has lived and worked in Jerusalem, Gaza City and Beirut and regularly writes on these pages on Middle East issues. She asserted,

"For those who haven't noticed, Israel opposes a two-state solution. It has been doing everything in its power to prevent a Palestinian State from emerging and will continue to do so as long as it can count on the complicity of its powerful friends and on abundant popular indifference."

Like Carter's article, Lowenstein's piece has drawn criticism from those who suggest that Israel really is committed to forging peace with the Palestinians. One critic, UW Professor "Daniel S. Greenspan, Takes Us To Task" (2) for publishing Lowenstein's views, writing that her piece "Is meant to misinform and to breed hatred."

We have no doubt that Greenspan and others critical of Lowenstein are sincere in their sentiments. But we worry that they are mislabeling honest skepticism as "misinformation" and "hatred."

If we are ever to have an honest debate about making peace in the Middle East, it is essential to recongnize that sincere observers of the same actions may come to different conclusions about the intents and motivations of those involved. Thus, when considering Israel's commitment to the peace process, while Lowenstein sees a glass almost entirely empty, Greenspan sees a glass reasonably filled.

The Capital Times, which has long supported a two-state solution and tends to share the views of Jimmy Carter with regard to the peace process, does not accept the narrow character of the debate about Middle East policy that is found in most U.S. media. We want to encourage a broader debate. So we will continue to welcome contributions from writers whose interpretations of what is happening in the region will differ sometimes radically from one another.

That freewheeling discourse, which the Israelis have long enjoyed, needs also to take place in the United States, a country that, because of its special relationship with Israel, wields disproportionate influence in a region where the peace process needs far more encouragement than it is currently getting.

Source:
http://madison.com/tct/opinion/editorial/index.php?ntid=77179

1) Jennifer Lowenstein: Israel plows over human decency, Palestinians:
http://madison.com/tct/opinion/column/guest/index.php?ntid=76682&ntpid=2

2) Daniel S. Greenspan: West Bank piece was full of errors West Bank column full of
non-truths:
http://madison.com/tct/opinion/letters/index.php?ntid=77172&ntpid=0