122 Days to Go

By Sherwin Pomerantz

122 days from today, September 14th, is the opening of the fall 2011 session of the United Nations General Assembly. I don’t think we are ready for that.

This weekend’s newspapers underscored the need for the Government of Israel, our government, to publicly state what our position is regarding any future peace deal. After all, the Palestinians have made it clear in two places over the weekend.

Saeb Erekat, the Chief Palestinian negotiator, in an op-ed in Friday’s Ha’aretz made the following statements:

We will continue to work hard on gaining international recognition for the State of Palestine on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital…The Israel occupation of Palestinian land must end.

He goes on to repeat the canard that is present in pretty much every statement coming from the Palestinian side when he says:

We have respected their (i.e. Israel’s) choice by negotiating with every single government since 1991, including with the current Israeli coalition government, not a single member of which recognizes Palestinian rights.

Of course, he makes no reference at all to the fact that even though the Palestinians today demand a building freeze on settlements before they will negotiate further, they totally refused to meet during the last 10 month freeze. Nor does he state anywhere the recognition of the fact that this land is the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people.

In today’s Jerusalem Post Palestinian Authority President goes further when he states:

The Palestinian authority will never neglect the “right of return” for Palestinians to their original homes inside Israel. Every Palestinian has the right to see Palestine and return to the homeland, because our homeland is our final destination. Our message to the world is that we want a state on the 1967 borders and a just solution on the basis of the [2002] Arab Peace Initiative. But we won’t accept at all a Palestinian state that does not have Jerusalem as its capital. We believe in the principle of a two-state solution and we have recognized it for the past 17 years, but they [Israel] don’t agree to the two state solution.

Can the Palestinian position be any clearer? Isn’t it obvious that we here in Israel should make our opening position equally strong?

As always, the “left” will say that these statements by the Palestinians are for internal consumption and their negotiators know that all of these objectives will not be realized. They understand, for example, that Israel can never agree to the right of return for all who were displaced in 1948 and 1967. But do they? And even if this is so, why do we not take it seriously, at least at the outset?

In negotiations each party must state its opening positions clearly and without equivocation knowing full well that all of the stated objectives will not be realized. So what is holding up our government from doing this? The fear of putting the coalition in jeopardy? Or have we simply lost our way and no longer even know what our opening position must be?

Well, middle Israel, the man on the street, knows full well the parameters on which we must stand and the Prime Minister would find himself with the support of over 75% of the populace if he stated the obvious. No to the right of return! No to an armed Palestinian state on our borders! No to the re-division of Jerusalem! And no to any agreement with an entity that will not clearly recognize our legitimate right to live here in peace and security.

On Thursday of this week US President Obama will lay out his vision for the future of this region. The Palestinians have already laid out theirs. Don’t we have a right to expect our government to do the same in the name of the State of Israel and the Jewish people? And to do that sooner rather than later?