Carlo Strenger in the U.K. Guardian breaks down how critics of Israel do the cause of a two-state solution disfavor when they keep bringing up 1948:
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more than 100 years old. Israel is, no doubt, not doing what it should to end the occupation of the territories conquered in 1967. Along with many others in Israel I am committed to ending it. But there are many Palestinians and others who endorse their just cause who take every opportunity to return to what happened in 1948 – which is not constructive.
Abe Hayeem’s recent article is typical of this tendency, in that he seamlessly moves from Operation Cast Lead (which was conducted in an indefensible manner – even though Hayeem might have mentioned the years of shelling of southern Israel by Qassams for minimal balance) to Tel Aviv’s Centennial Festivities by pointing out that the history of Tel Aviv is part of the expropriation of 1948. In doing so, they time and again raise the question whether Israel’s existence is legitimate. Instead of working towards the realisation of the two-state solution, they keep the option in public discourse that Israel will disappear from the map.
Full column here.
