30 December 2009: Some Do's and Don't's for Peace

My friend and colleague Michael Lame and I usually don't see eye-to-eye. In fact we've made a small business of not agreeing with one another: we give lectures together called, "Disagreeing on Everything: An Arab and A Jew Discuss the Middle East.." We even have an agent booking us! Check out the debate series at Wolfman Productions. Of course that's on hold while I'm in Jordan but you can bet I'll have a lot more to say when I get back.

Meantime, I direct your attention to this article Michael just published on his website, "Rethink the Middle East.Com." (The cute nickname for the organization is, "Rethink ME." Michael's got some very good ideas. But don't tell our agent I said so ...

Pretty soon I'll post my own, dismal reflections on the peace process based on attending a Russian think tank meeting at the Dead Sea last week.

Here is a taste of Michael Lame's piece called "2010 in the Middle East Part 2"

What Not to Do

Let’s start with what not to do, or rather, what not to say:

1) Stop talking about 242 and 338. They are out of date and out of juice.

2) Stop talking about the Road Map. It’s a map that neither side wanted and neither

side has followed.

3) Stop talking about land for peace. The Palestinians need more than land in order

to build a state. The Israelis need more than a peace treaty in order to sleep soundly at night.

4) Stop talking about a commitment to a Palestinian state, but don’t stop working

towards it. It’s still unclear if that circle can be squared. To be so publicly committed to such an iffy proposition is not wise foreign policy...

What productive actions could the U.S. take in 2010?

Refugees

An unconscionably large number of Palestinians have no citizenship or passports. The United States should explore constructive ways to address this problem without waiting for it to be dealt with in final status negotiations. After all, no one knows if or when such negotiations will take place or prove productive. The Palestinian refugees and their descendants should no longer be held hostage to the “peace process”.

The United States could create a taskforce – completely separate from the Mitchell team – to work towards ending that condition of statelessness...

The West Bank

The settlement freeze issue was so mucked up by the administration this year that it’s probably best not to make it a focal point of its efforts in 2010.

Instead, insist (and verify) that the Israelis significantly accelerate the pace of reducing the number of roadblocks and checkpoints and take other measurable, substantive actions to ease personal travel and commercial transportation in the West Bank ...

Keep reading at Rethink the Middle East.