Tuesday, October 19, 2004
(1:50 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
My Innovative Plan to Solve the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
I am of the belief that nationalism is a bad thing and that dividing up nations based on dominant ethnic groups is the source of a huge amount of violence and suffering in this world. As such, I advocate poly-ethnic states with a cosmopolitan mindset and fluid borders. Establishing such a state in Israel/Palestine, however, is impossible in the current political situation, in which Israel is basically a superpower in the region, offering the Palestinians only a paltry, discontinuous block of land on which to establish their state (on its generous days). I believe that too much hope has been staked on a two-state solution -- just as with the attainment of the initial goals of the civil rights movement in the US, the establishment of the Palestinian state will effectively halt the process of Palestinian liberation, not even taking into account the possibility that a Palestinian government may well end up oppressing its own people.In order for the Palestinians, or any ethnic group (including the Jews), to thrive, they need to participate in a poly-ethnic state that fosters interaction and mutual respect among various groups. Since such opportunities are not available in Israel, due to the insistence on maintaining a specifically Jewish state, the only hope for the Palestinians is to experience their own Exodus, out of the bondage of Israeli occupation and into the promised land -- in this case, Iraq.
Certainly adding in another ethnic group -- and one, we might add, that is already multi-religious (Islamic and Christian) -- might help free Iraq from the dangers of becoming a strictly Shiite Muslim state, instead opening up the possibility of a purely secular state or at least a pluralistic state based on broadly Islamic principles. For those of us on the left, the need to provide Palestinians with land opens up the possibility of broader land reform and perhaps even the establishment of some form of non-nationalist socialism in Iraq.
Moving beyond this, a tolerant, poly-ethnic Iraq (note that Iraq already has pourous boundaries) could perhaps become a haven for refugee groups from all over the world. Imagine -- Darfurians, East Timorians, Kosovars, Chechens, Chiapans, Haitians, and all manner of oppressed groups living together in harmony in the cosmopolitan paradise of Iraq. It would almost make the whole debacle worth it in the end.
I strongly encourage everyone involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to give my proposal the serious consideration it deserves.
