Yossi Klein Halevi, one of the architects of the failed Oslo Accords, writes an open letter to the palestinians that will do, well, nothing:
During my journey into Islam in Gaza, I met General Nasser Youssef (who at the time of our meeting was head of one of the Palestinian security forces and is now the PA Interior Minister). At one point during our conversation, I asked the general to describe his vision of the relations between a Jewish state and a Palestinian state after we signed a peace agreement.
Let’s assume, I said, that Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, uproots the settlements and redivides Jerusalem: What then? He replied that, once the refugees begin returning to the area, so many would gravitate to those areas in Israel where their families once lived, that eventually we would realize there was no need for an artificial border between Israel and Palestine.
The next step, continued the general, was that the two states would merge. “And then we’ll invite Jordan to join our federation. And Iraq and Syria. Why not? We’ll show the whole world what a beautiful country Jews and Arabs can create together.”
But, I asked the general, aren’t we negotiating today over a two-state solution? Yes, he replied, as an interim step. And then he added, “You aren’t separate from us; you are part of us. Just as there are Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs, you are Jewish Arabs.”
He confronts Arab anti-Semitism. Again, the result will be: Nothing.
Instead, you have developed what can be called a “culture of denial,” that denies the most basic truths of the Jewish story. According to this culture of denial, which is widespread not only among your people but throughout the Arab world, there was no Temple in Jerusalem, no ancient Jewish presence in the land, no Holocaust.
Nowhere is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as popular as in the Arab world, which has also become the international center for Holocaust denial.
The real problem, then, is not terrorism, which is only a symptom for a deeper affront: your assault on my history and identity, your refusal to allow me to define myself, which is a form of intellectual terror.IN YOUR society’s official embrace, through media and schools and mosques, of the culture of denial, you have tried to reinvent us, to redefine us out of our national existence.
Someobody’s eyes have been opened. Pity it doesn’t mean anything.
I think you’ve got your Yossis confused. Yossi Beilin was the architect of the Oslo Accords. Yossi Klein-Halevi’s eyes have been opened, as it were, for quite a while.
/www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/yossi_halevi.htm has this quote from a speech of his in a blog entry dated 13 Nov. 2004
He also comments
Yes you are mistaking Yossi Klein Halevi with the useful idiot Yossi Beilin.
So, does this mean that the Arab Arabs LOL, G-d what a name, were hunted down and murdered during the holocaust? And if so…how many? G-d this claptrap is just infuriating…there is NO way in G-ds green earth that I would ever use the adjective of Arab to describe me….that is an absolute insult!
The “two Yossis” of the Israeli left are Beilin and Sarid. IMO Halevi has been a very solid commentator for a long while. He has been one of the Israelis who has gotten to know the “Palestinians” well enough to understand that even the “moderates” do not intend to reconcile with Zionism. Ever.
To the extent that I have a beef with him, it’s that he seems to view Israel’s recognition of Palestinian peoplehood as both proper and irreversible. He doesn’t connect the dots–Nasser Youssef repudiates Palestinian peoplehood when he envisions Israel and Palestine “federating” with Jordan, and Syria, and Iraq.
Palestinian “peoplehood” is part and parcel of the culture of denial that Haleve properly decries. It’s both a lie and a weapon that is wielded by the Arabs in their unending war against the Jewish state. To the extent that there is a unique Palestinian identity, it is that the Palestinians personify and embody Arab anti-Zionism.
Either Halevi doesnt see this or he’s too much of a dhimmi to say it.