Weekly Commentary: MK Livni fails to connect the dots – her program should reflect expectations

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
27 January '11

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=50803



MK Tzipi Livni: The idea that some [settlers] will remain by the grace of the Palestinian state and Palestinian security appears to me to be very problematic.

Udi Segal: If you think that the Palestinian state that will be established will murder Israeli citizens who remain there – that we are going to make a peace arrangement with these murderers? Either there will be peace or there will be a band of murderers.

Livni: I never sold peace in the sense of “new Middle East”[AL: a phrase coined by Shimon Peres]. We live in a harsh neighborhood. The “new Middle East” isn’t going to plop down on us tomorrow and we aren’t going to be living in different surroundings.”
Interview broadcast 26 January 2011 on Channel 2 evening news program

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni openly proclaims that conditions on the ground will remain “harsh” even if a sovereign Palestinian state is created as a result of a negotiated peace agreement that ostensibly puts to rest all Palestinian demands.

She says it.

But it isn’t reflected in the program she is promoting.

Consider the following:

#1. Is it in any way workable, under “harsh conditions”, to have a patchwork quilt of various sovereignties and other arrangements in Jerusalem?

#2. Is it in any way workable, under “harsh conditions”, to have a series of thin indefensible fingers poking into the West Bank to reach settlement blocs?

#3 Is it in any way reasonable, under “harsh conditions”, to assume that security arrangements, weapons limitations and a myriad of other restrictions and provisions detailed in a peace agreement with the Palestinians would actually be honored by the Palestinians?

And that’s just a sample.

Yes it is extremely frustrating.

But the fact remains.

It doesn’t matter how heavy the hammer.

The round “two sovereign states living side by side in peace” peg can’t fit the square Middle East “reality” hole.

Nor is the “two state solution” the best option of a collection of bad alternatives.

Given the “harsh neighborhood”, creating a sovereign Palestinian state would only serve to exacerbate the situation.

There certainly are candidates for “ best option of a collection of bad alternatives”, for example enhanced regional autonomy.

Yes, considerable rhetoric has been invested in “two sovereign states living side by side in peace”.

But repetition doesn’t make a program doomed to catastrophic failure any less dangerous.

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