![T]()
he long-awaited
Mitchell commission report about Israeli-Palestinian violence was released
yesterday, and now there is a debate over what to do with its
recommendations. I have a suggestion. It's kind of a two-for-one deal.
Take all the Mitchell reports, make a big pile out of them, and set them
ablaze into a gigantic bonfire. It would surely generate enough heat, and
light, to make a small contribution to the Bush energy plan.
Am I being unfair? Yes, just a bit. George Mitchell is a good man, and
the central argument of his report is right, in the narrowest sense: If
you want to stop the latest Israeli-Palestinian slide into the abyss,
first there must be a cessation of all violence, and then
confidence-building steps, including a settlements freeze and Palestinian
security measures.
My problem with the Mitchell report is that it fundamentally ignores
how we got into this abyss and the only real way out. It is not because of
Israeli settlements. The settlements are foolish, and their continued
expansion is a shameful act of colonial coercion that will meet the fate
of all other colonial enterprises in history. The inability of American
Jewish leaders or U.S. governments to speak out against settlement
expansion ? which should be stopped under any conditions for Israel's sake
? is a blot on all of them.
But the settlements are not the core problem. The core problem right
now is Yasir Arafat ? the Palestinian leader who cannot say "yes" and will
not say "uncle."
President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak put on the table
before Mr. Arafat a historic compromise proposal that would have given
Palestinians control of 94 to 96 percent of the West Bank and Gaza ? with
all the settlements removed, virtually all of Arab East Jerusalem, a
return to Israel of a symbolic number of Palestinian refugees and either
the right of return to the West Bank and Gaza or compensation for all the
others.
Not only would Mr. Arafat not take it, he would not even say: "Well,
this was insufficient, but this is the most far-reaching and serious
proposal Palestinians have ever seen. Now, I want to enter into a dialogue
with the Israeli people and government to see if I can get them to 100
percent."
No, instead, Mr. Arafat launched this idiotic uprising. He did so
because he is essentially a political coward and maneuverer, who
apparently has not given up his long-term aim of eliminating Israel and
who was afraid in the short run that if he took 99 percent, he would be
killed for the 1 percent he left on the table. Mr. Arafat has never been
willing to tell his people he got them most of what they wanted and now is
the time to end the suffering of as many Palestinians as possible and move
on.
This truth is what the Mitchell "investigation" should be telling the
world and the Palestinians. There was an Israeli leader, and a slim
Israeli majority, for a fair historic compromise. But there was no
Palestinian equivalent, and unless there is a Palestinian partner, and a
Palestinian leader, for a historic compromise roughly along the Clinton
lines, no cease-fire is going to hold.
The best Hebrew biography of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is
entitled "He Doesn't Stop at Red Lights." Mr. Arafat's biography should be
entitled "He Doesn't Go at Green Lights."
Now Mr. Sharon ? who was elected in the Israeli backlash against the
failure of Camp David ? is trying to pummel Mr. Arafat into submission.
That won't work either. Because Mr. Arafat is as afraid to say "uncle" to
Sharon as much as he was afraid to say "yes" to Clinton. He fears he would
be killed for saying uncle as much as he would be killed for saying yes to
99 percent. The Palestinians will never be bombed into submission. One
hundred years of Palestinian history tells you that.
The real problem is that the Palestinians are leaderless today, and
that is what the U.S., the U.N. and the Arab world have to face up to.
Deep down, they all know it and they admit it to each other in private.
There is no Palestinian leader right now willing or able to say yes to a
fair historic compromise, and we simply fool ourselves with commissions
that don't acknowledge that. Unless the Arabs can stiffen Mr. Arafat by
supporting him in any grand compromise, or by creating a context in which
an alternative leadership can emerge, this bonfire will rage on and it
will consume many, many others.
