Another brief interview/discussion with Neil Zagorin about recent developments in Palestine/Israel

"Neil: The Israeli body politic is complicated. Leaving aside what the approximately 25% of Israeli citizens who aren’t Jewish think about Palestinian independence, there is a spread of opinion among Israeli Jews about Palestinian independence."

Djata: Neil, recently, I saw a news clip that featured the mayor of Hebron boasting about how he and his constituents are looking forward to expanding Jewish settlements, especially due to the return of Benjamin Netanyahu as the Prime Minister of Israel. Is this an anti-peace position that that mayor is taking?

Neil: A two-state solution in which Palestine becomes independent in the West Bank and Gaza, and Israel withdraws to its 1949-1967 borders has been discussed and negotiated for the past 15 years or so. It’s not the same thing as peace, but it’s a political resolution that might make peace possible someday – or that’s the hope. The two-state solution assumes that Jewish communities built in the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967 will be dismantled to make an independent Palestine possible. Expanding Jewish settlement in the West Bank complicates the process of removing Jewish communities from the West Bank. This in turn complicates the prospect of some type of two-state solution.

Djata: Does it seem that, at least, some political Zionists do not recognize the right of Palestinians to exist as a free and autonomous people within the present geographical domain of Palestine/Israel?

Neil: The Israeli body politic is complicated. Leaving aside what the approximately 25% of Israeli citizens who aren’t Jewish think about Palestinian independence, there is a spread of opinion among Israeli Jews about Palestinian independence. There’s a small group of Israeli Jews who believe that Palestinian independence is the right thing to support no matter the risks involved. There’s a much larger group, possibly a majority, who would support Palestinian independence if they felt it brought them security and peace. At this point many of these Israeli Jews are despairing that Palestinian independence would bring Israel security and peace. There are some other Israeli Jews who favor or would support Palestinian independence, but view this as a settlement to be unilaterally imposed by Israel. Avigdor Lieberman, the new Foreign Minister, exemplifies this. His platform calls for Israel to annex the large Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank, while insisting that a number of Arab-majority areas of Israel adjacent to the West Bank leave Israel to become part of some type of Palestinian state.

Then there are groups of Israeli Jews who have a vision of Israel as a Jewish nation-state stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Such visions may be based on political nationalism (many early Zionists held this view,) a fundamentalist reading of the bible (God gave all the Land of Israel to the Jews,) or some combination of the two. So, yes, there are Israeli Jews who oppose any kind of Palestinian political independence between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. Political parties informed by these beliefs predominate in the new Israeli government. Their current electoral strength stems partly from the fact that many Israeli Jews who formerly were willing to negotiate for Palestinians independence and Israeli security now despair of that option, and support political parties that take a hard-line stance on maintaining Israeli control of the West Bank.