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Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of , Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
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By Dr. Aaron Lerner
May 27, 2005
"We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority."
- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in his last policy address to the Knesset on October 5, 1995 before the vote to ratify the Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement.
That's right. Rabin opposed a sovereign Palestinian state.
He considered the "two sovereign state" solution a non-starter.
If Rabin were alive today he might find himself more comfortable with the views of NRP leader Eitam, who advocates Palestinian regional autonomy within an Israeli envelope, than he would with the views of either his Labor Party rival Shimon Peres or Likud head Ariel Sharon - both proponents of "two sovereign state" solution schemes.
Regional autonomy?
Contrary to the radical changes associated with the formation of a sovereign Palestinian state, movement towards regional level autonomy is a natural development as municipal level leadership gives priority to the provision of municipal services over what might be termed "national concerns".
"The people elected us because they want better streets, water, electricity, work, schools and hospitals...My job is to give him [the voter] those things that he needs." And for that, Mustapha Sabri, a member of Kalkilya's newly elected Hamas-affiliated council told Jerusalem Post reporter Matthew Gutman this week, "we know we need to talk to the Israelis. We are open to that."
But what about the "demographic problem"?
The "demographic problem" hinges on what might normally be an esoteric question relegated to political philosophy debates in the ivory tower of academe: is it a sufficient expression of the right to vote for the Palestinians to elect the leaders of an autonomy or must they have the right to vote for the leaders of a sovereign state?
The "demographic problem" hinges on this otherwise esoteric question because the "demographic problem" only exists if the Palestinians in the autonomy can vote in the Israeli Knesset elections in addition to elections for the autonomy leadership.
Just a few short years ago - even after Oslo was signed - even Shimon Peres thought that autonomy was sufficient. and that thus the "demographic problem" was not relevant. "We thought that autonomy is basically, almost independence," Peres explained.
Why then the 180 degree change on autonomy as a solution to the "demographic problem?"
Before the horrific Oslo experience withdrawals and even a Palestinian state could have been naively claimed to somehow improve Israel's security.
But Mr. Bush's glowing talk about "progress" towards a peaceful Palestinian state notwithstanding, with the exception of the radical Left, the Israeli leadership expects anything but a "peaceful" state.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon isn't preparing for peace and tranquility after he retreats from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria - he's spending millions of dollars reinforcing roofs in preparation for the rockets and missiles he expects the Palestinians to fire from "liberated Gaza" into pre-'67 Israel.
And so, with nothing remaining to justify an Israeli policy driven by everything but the Arab-Israeli conflict, the demographic problem has become the excuse of last resort.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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