Israel and the Palestinian Authority have resumed peace talks for the
first time in three years, but the two sides appear as far apart as ever
on the key issues of borders, settlers, refugees and the status of
Jerusalem. We’re joined by scholar and author Norman Finkelstein and
Yousef Munayyer, executive director of The Jerusalem Fund and its
educational program, the Palestine Center. Munayyer says the talks hinge
on a major reversal of the longstanding U.S. role in the conflict.
"Instead of acting as an enforcer of international law, as an enforcer
of Israeli obligations in previous commitments, the United States has
only acted instead as an enforcer of Israeli positions," Munayyer says.
"If you’re on the Palestinian end, there’s really no interest for you to
keep going back to negotiations that only act as a cover for Israel’s
continued colonial activities in the West Bank." Finkelstein says the
true hope for peace lies in a nonviolent Palestinian movement that can
force enough global pressure on Israel to obey international law and
abandon its West Bank settlements. "The Palestinians are not
demonstrating any power, so of course they’re going to be clobbered by
the United States and Israel," Finkelstein says. "The question is: Can
you change the power equation? And I think there are realistic
possibilities for changing that equation. Number one, use the instrument
of international law to isolate Israel in public opinion. And number
two, you need massive Palestinian civil disobedience with,
unfortunately, the force and repression that Israel unleashes to
galvanize international opinion. That was exactly the strategy of the
civil rights movement."
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Source: democracynow.org
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Source: democracynow.org
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