Responses to Recent Political Events
In late July of 2003, some of us met to discuss the current political situation. Certain specifics have changed since then, for instance Abu Mazen is no longer in power, but most of the issues that we discussed are still very relevant. The following are highlights of the conversation:
CAROL: The thing that concerns me, is that with this state of madness
that I'm willing to call it on both sides, the Palestinians and the Israelis,
how, from what ever communications you've had with your families, do you think
they look at the road map?
| Comunication with Family Members and Responses to the Road Map |
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MAJEED: Right now under the cover of the road map, Sharon is building a monster
of a wall...
The road map talks about the illegal out posts, it doesn't say anything
about the illegal settlements. It's the same thing as Oslo; it's posponing
things for the future. They started saying we'll talk about settlements later,
we'll talk about right of return later...
BOB: In 200O they talked about settlements, they talked about Jerusalem, they talked about everything. Then the war started.
MAJEED: Sharon was elected. The negotiations at Taba were five months after Sharon was elected. It's not a war; it's a revolt against occupation, against aggression.
BOB: A revolt is a form of war. The American revolution was a war. The difference is to understand that it is a terrible, terrible, terrible war and that people are being killed, people are suffering and the alternative to war is peace. The road map is doesn't necessarily get us there. But what you had said was that the road map was a continuation of deferring that began with Oslo, I wanted to point out that there was a time when the culmination of Oslo was this close....
CAROL:
The road map is the only thing that is there. At some point you have to get
a foot in the door; you have to get a toe in the water. It gives the essentials
that both sides care about....What would you be encouraging the Palestinians
to expect?
MAJEED: If we are going to negotiate from the point of weakness we will get nothing. That's what the road map represents. This idea of putting your foot in the door is completely rejected, that's what we tried in Oslo. I am now with people who say we don't accept half measures; we don't accept phases; we already tried it. Since1948 we've been trying these phases waiting for the world to resolve the issues. Hell is here; we are going to stay in hell.
FARID: I'm willing to accept your logic if it could possibly work. People who make it say we've tried the road of Oslo, it didn't work, so let's go to something new--revolution. But we've been trying revolution since the '60s. We tried revolution in '48 in '36-'39. If you want a track record of failure, revolution has a much longer record of failure The only atempt at a revolt that had any record of success was the first intifada. It succeeded precisely in it's first year before it became violent, when it truly brought the attention of the world and the Israeli public to the problem....
RUTH: So, to move on, what would you recommend that Jews and Palestinians in the United States can do?