Point / Counterpoint: We called, but no one answered

Counterpoint to:

Call White House, Ask for Barack

…it's time for us to dust off James Baker's line: 'When you're serious [about peace], give us a call: 202-456-1414. Ask for Barack. Otherwise, stay out of our lives. We have our own country to fix.'"

Thomas L. Friedman
The New York Times
November 7, 2009

While the earth is accepted by scientists to be around 4.5 billion years old, various religions and cultures have their own version of creation (Judaism considers the earth to have been created about six thousand years ago). There is a circle of political commentators who accept none of this. For them, the earth was created last March.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman appears to have joined this circle of new creationists, at least in relation to the Middle East. He wants the United States to withdraw its involvement in the Israel-Palestinian peace process (such as it is) because, according to him, the parties are not really interested in peace.

I seriously doubt that, at least with regard to Binyamin Netanyahu, despite the fact that he leads a mostly right-wing government. Netanyahu, who is a realist, has declared, albeit reluctantly, his support for an independent Palestinian state and he knows very well what kind of concessions that would require from Israel.

But even if Friedman does not give Netanyahu the benefit of the doubt, it remains the case that there was life on this planet before Netanyahu's government took office in March. There were the sweeping post-Annapolis proposals from the Olmert government in 2008, and the unprecedented proposals from Ehud Barak at Camp David and Taba in 2000 and 2001, both of which were offhandedly rejected by the Palestinians.

The negotiations have almost consistently been characterized by Israeli concessions to the Palestinians actually widening the gap between the parties, rather than bringing them closer together.

When Ehud Barak, at Camp David and Taba, offered Arafat almost everything Arafat had been requesting, the offer was neither accepted nor responded to with a counterproposal. Arafat's response was flat rejection and the worst wave of Palestinian terror the region has ever seen. The result in Israel was the election of a right-wing government, led by Ariel Sharon.

The situation was similar six years later when Ehud Olmert made sweeping concessions to the Palestinians. The result, after almost a year of negotiations, was again flat rejection of the deal that had been painstakingly negotiated by the two parties, and a hail of rockets over the border from the Gaza Strip into Israeli towns. The consequence was the Gaza offensive, and, in Israel, once again the election of a right-wing prime minister, this time Netanyahu.

Tom Friedman must, of course, know all this, and yet he tells his readers a story about a western movie in which two viewers bet $10 on whether the cowboy or Indian will be killed:

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the cowboy is killed and the friend pays the $10. After the movie is over the guy says to his friend, 'Look, I have to give you back your $10. I'd actually seen this movie before. I knew what was going to happen.' His friend answers: 'No, you can keep the $10. I'd seen the movie, too. I just thought it would end differently this time.'"

Friedman's point is that nothing changes in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and his conclusion therefore is:

…it's time for us to dust off James Baker's line: 'When you're serious, give us a call: 202-456-1414. Ask for Barack. Otherwise, stay out of our lives. We have our own country to fix.'"

That conclusion, as stated above, is true only if your memory goes back no further than March. But you cannot honestly claim that Israel is't serious about peace if your memory goes back a little further.

Friedman's problem may well be his need for political correctness. He does not want to alienate a significant part of his readership, so he blames both sides equally. When President Bill Clinton left office he didn't have that need, and so, free of the shackles of office, he laid the blame for the failure of Camp David squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinian leadership.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, was not free of the shackles of office when she recently made the mistake of praising Netanyahu for significantly restricting settlement building activities. Secretary Clinton had to hurriedly retract her praise to ward off the Arab wrath that ensued.

The reverse side of this dilemma, though, is that being politically correct may well anger a wider audience than would stating one's true position. And judging by some of the responses from Friedman's readers that may, indeed, have been the case in this instance.

Former president Jimmie Carter, rarely considered a friend of Israel, rejects Freedman's basic premise and, in contrast to the Israeli argument, presents the mirror version:

[Freedman] claims that we Americans want peace more than the Israelis and the Palestinians. Certainly that is not true of the Palestinians."

Other responses include warnings that American disengagement will leave the stage open to Islamic fundamentalism, suggestions that the US use its financial aid package to strong-arm Israel, a belief that any hope for peace (slim as it may be) will be lost without US involvement, and a response from a reader who laments Friedman's loss of hope.

There was another key point made by Carter (some things are worth considering even if it is Jimmy Carter who says them):

…a continuation of the status quo will be a catastrophe for Israel, as a single nation continues to evolve between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. With a majority of Arab voters, Israel will soon cease to be a Jewish state...."

Essentially what Carter is saying is that Israel, without peace, can be either a democracy or a Jewish state.  Choose one.

The majority of Israelis understand Carter's point, and, like Netanyahu, support an independent Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. But, unfortunately, like Friedman, Carter also seems to belong to the circle of new creationists for whom the world began in March. Because before March, Israel called not only 202-456-1414, but every Palestinian number too, but no one answered.