39 Days to Go – Is Anybody Listening?

By Sherwin Pomerantz

The clock is ticking and there are now just 39 days to go to the opening of the UN General Assembly and the vote on Palestinian statehood.

Here in Israel the Palestinian Arab leadership seems intent not only in going all the way with this (even though they surely understand that this will cause more problems than it solves) but also in urging their people here not to react violently after the vote, whichever way it goes.

Is there a way to avoid a worst case scenario? Well, for a change I actually agree with a New York Times editorial which appeared yesterday and which said:

"The best way, likely the only way, to head off this debacle is with the start of serious negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The two sides haven’t even been in the same room together since September 2010. "

Uncharacteristically for the New York Times, they lay the blame at the feet of both parties as opposed to their usual position of criticizing Israel alone. They also refrained from urging third party intervention here (although they do give credit to the continuing efforts of the Quartet to come up with some formula that will be accepted by all), which is also a departure from the norm, perhaps realizing at long last that only the parties to the conflict themselves can craft a solution, if there is one.

To reiterate a position that I have taken earlier, the ONLY way this situation will EVER get resolved (if it can be resolved, and there are those who believe we need to live in a perpetual state of war to survive) is if the two parties sit down together, without outside interference, and hammer together a plan that makes sense for both parties. Because I retain an American mentality even after 28 years here, I believe this can yet be done and deplore the fact that neither party seems to be willing to come to the table and work on this.

The Palestinians have created every excuse in the book not to do so and Netanyahu’s reluctance to meet the Palestinian Arab leadership without having them first agree to calling Israel the nation state of the Jewish people (which it is) is no less stultifying. Earlier last week the Bronfman’s urged Netanyahu to go to Ramallah and speak to the Palestinian National Council (something I suggested in my blog months ago) but my guess is he will continue to dismiss that suggestion.

So we are left with a very difficult and, of course, serious situation compounded by what is now going on in the world’s financial markets and the demonstrations here in the Israel Spring as it were. As for me, I continue to share the same frustration I have always shared living here. We are really smart people who know how to do things better than we oftentimes demonstrate and I will never fully understand why. But that is endemic to the society, I would even say it is part of the local DNA and it makes true progress in certain areas such as peace most elusive.

Tonight, the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, here in Israel and around the world, the Jewish community will pause for 24 hours to commemorate the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago. It is a period of fasting, prayer, engaging discussions on related topics and general mourning, akin to that of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) but much different. In addition to the Temple remembrance, this was also the day which marked the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942, from England in 1290 and the start of the Crusades in 1095 which resulted in the death of 10,000 Jews in the first 30 days after that date. So we have reason to mark the calendar tomorrow in a special way.

But the message of this day is not only about remembrance, it is also about hope and the possibility of breaking the cycle of mourning that has too often enveloped the Jewish people. To do that, national leaders must know when to stand firm and when and how to bend to avoid disastrous results. They must be able to put their personal agenda and feelings aside and make proper decisions for the long term welfare of their people. Is anybody listening?