NOVANEWS
Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that the statement is accurate. It is also accurate to state that Rosarians (is that the demonym for my city?) are not prepared to pay $7 for an orchid. The result: orchids are not available at Rosario’s flower kiosks.
Peace, like flowers, is a commodity. You want to have it, you’ve got to pay for it. Now it’s not that Israeli Jews reject the idea of paying a price altogether. They would be happy to give the Palestinians a collection of cantons with no contiguity, no borders with any country other than Israel, no freedom of movement and no army, very much like Rosarians would be happy to buy orchids for $1.5 apiece. The problem, of course, is that the price of things is not set by the potential buyer; it’s set by the market.
I know nothing about the culture of orchids, but I guess they don’t grow as easily as roses. It takes more time, space and care to produce them; hence their exorbitant price. Analogously, peace in the Middle East doesn’t grow as easily as in, say, Scandinavia. Whatever the wishes of Israeli Jews, you can’t have peace without a reasonable measure of justice. Gerrymandering intricate borders around confiscated territories and declaring them your own may be an attractive idea to some, but it is thoroughly unfair to many more, and it is dellusional to believe that it will bring peace just because the people harmed by the scheme are in a weaker position.
There are several conditions for peace in Israel/Palestine to be achieved. Among them:
- No people should be uprooted from where they were born.
- Property confiscated should be returned to their owners.
- People with a legitimate claim to land or houses somewhere should be allowed to move there if they so wish.
- People should be able to move around with ease.
- The interests of some citizens shouldn’t be prioritized over the interests of other citizens.
These conditions, and other similar ones, can’t be met outside of a single-state solution. While the Jewish settlers in the West Bank could in principle be thought of as the fiercest opposers to such a solution, at least some of them are beginning to reconcile with the idea of coexistence with Palestinians. One country with equal rights for all is the right price that needs to be paid –by both sides– to achieve peace.
To state that Israeli Jews don’t want a binational country is, thus, to state the actual problem: they don’t want peace. They see that the status quo works very well for them and have no problem keeping it. It hasn’t yet sunk in that, just like peace with Egypt brought enormous benefits, so would peace with the Palestinians under a binational state. That more money could be spent in education; that they would spend less time doing military service and reserve duty; that the task of raising the living standards of Palestinians would create a huge boost for the economy as a whole.
If Israeli Jews want orchids, they’ll have to pay what orchids are worth. Otherwise, they’ll get roses, or, more likely still, thorns.