Gaza reading list (updated)
Some instructive items that I came across over the weekend: Here is a link to the full column by Uri Avnery that I excerpted earlier. Here is Tony Karon (Rootless Cosmopolitan) arguing that Israel has in fact lost this war. Here is Israeli historian Avi Shlaim’s analysis of the origins of the conflict, from the ...
Some instructive items that I came across over the weekend:
Some instructive items that I came across over the weekend:
Here is a link to the full column by Uri Avnery that I excerpted earlier.
Here is Tony Karon (Rootless Cosmopolitan) arguing that Israel has in fact lost this war.
Here is Israeli historian Avi Shlaim’s analysis of the origins of the conflict, from the Guardian.
Here is a long post by Jim Sleeper from TPMCafe, offering a sympathetic defense of Israel’s existence, questioning the moral posturing of some of its critics, yet concluding that there is urgent need for some "tough love" from its friends. TPMCafe also has some nice posts from Todd Gitlin, Sam Bahour, and MJ Rosenberg.
And finally, here is a link to a Washington Post column by historian/journalist Tom Segev. It’s in many ways the most interesting and the most depressing. Segev is a thoughtful man whose past work showed an admirable ability to get beyond the usual patriotic pieties that afflict many writers dealing with sensitive issues of their own country’s past. Yet here Segev is describing (and seeming to endorse) a growing Israeli sense that peace is no longer possible, a two-state solution is now beyond reach, and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should just be "managed." Money quotation:
The friendliest thing that President Obama can do for Israel in the long run would be to induce her to return to her original purpose: to be a Jewish and democratic country. Rather than design another fictitious "road map" for peace, the Obama administration may be more useful and successful by trying merely to manage the conflict, aiming at a more limited yet urgently needed goal: to make life more livable for both Israelis and Palestinians."
I’m not sure what Segev means by that, because "managing" the status quo will just allow further drift in the wrong direction, and the only acceptable way for Israel to remain both Jewish and democratic is a two-state solution. Segev’s account suggests a growing sense of fatalism, as if there is simply nothing that can be done about it. If someone with Segev’s background really believes this, it does not augur well for the future. (And on this note see Gershom Gorenberg’s latest piece for FP‘s new issue on the crucial role the settlements play in this equation in "The Other Housing Crisis.") Remember what Ehud Olmert said: "if the two-state solution fails, Israel will face a South-Africa style struggle." And if that happens, he warned, "the state of Israel is finished."
Stephen M. Walt is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University. Twitter: @stephenwalt
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