Gaza pullout exchange

The Boston Phoenix carried this exchange I had with the "chair of the journalism department at Boston University who served as the ABC News correspondent in Israel from 1984-86" and author of an article on the Gaza pullout.

STRIPPED OF RIGHTS

Bob Zelnick’s article "The Gaza pullout" (News and Features, September 9) contains several distortions. Zelnick considers security a major motivation in the Sharon government’s decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. It has been clear for a very long time that the safety of its citizens is a decidedly secondary concern for the government (a situation we Americans should be familiar with). If security were valued, the first step would be to agree to a minimally just settlement with the Palestinians (roughly, a return to pre-1967 borders, full autonomy for a Palestinian state, and the return of at least the original refugees with full compensation to those not returning). Instead Israel, with the full and crucial support of the United States, has sought to expropriate the most valuable land and water sources while expelling the indigenous inhabitants — a surefire way to engender hatred. Further, Zelnick calls the right of return "a formula for Israel’s demographic suicide." It is remarkable that liberal opinion is still unable to perceive the bigotry in valuing racial purity. Was the 1954 Brown decision a formula for the demographic suicide of white schools? Given the balance of power, it is possible that refusing to budge on the right of return could "doom future [peace] talks" but let us be clear about where justice lies. Who can deny that refugees have a right to return to homes they were driven from? Nor can Zelnick resist recycling the usual distractions about Palestinian leaders being unwilling or unable to control terrorism. Does anyone really expect the PA will ever effectively police its own population while under colonial rule?

Steve Fake

Brookline

Bob Zelnick replies:

Mr. Fake accuses me of "distortions" but cites only policy disagreements. My article makes clear that I have never been a supporter of Israeli settlement policies on the West Bank or Gaza Strip. But in the moment of truth at Camp David and later at Taba, Arafat and his colleagues rejected a good if not perfect withdrawal proposal proferred by Prime Minister Barak without so much as a counter-offer. Of course, it is clear that Mr. Fake’s real problem is with the very existence of a Jewish state, despite the fact that from Oslo to the present the official Palestinian position is support for two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian, living side by side in peace and security. Brown is not the issue. The issue is whether after centuries of pogroms culminating in the Holocaust the Palestinian leadership is, as it claims, truly prepared to accept a permanent Jewish state in the region.


Issue Date: September 30 - October 6, 2005