Baskin in moderation
In “Hamas the Pragmatic” Gershon Baskin boasts about his extensive efforts at peace making.
In 1976 together with a small group of Zionist students in New York I had a clandestine meeting with the PLO ambassador to the United Nations attempting to convince him to support the two-state solution and to recognize Israel. His response was “over my dead body.” At that point I realized that until the PLO made the decision to support the two-state solution there was no basis for dialogue. In March 1988 shortly after the outbreak of the first intifada, reading the flyers of the Unified Leadership of the Intifada which called for ending the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, I came to the conclusion that the PLO had changed.
And 18 years later is he still convinced that the PLO has changed? And who did he turn to for help in building Palestinian support for his efforts?
During my early efforts to build Palestinian support for IPCRI, the late Faisal Husseini arranged for me to meet with one of the leaders of the radical Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine one of the member organization of the PLO.
Faisal Husseini. Remember him?
… our ultimate goal is [still] the liberation of all historical Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, even if this means that the conflict will last for another thousand years or for many generations.”
Yes that one. So given Baskin’s history how are we to accept his conclusion?
Facing the reality that Hamas is now in power in Palestine, it is important to accelerate their transformation from a radical pariah into a potential interlocutor. The Likud used to always claim that “only the Likud can do it” because the Likud represented the most hard-line positions and because it had no real opposition to their right. In the same way perhaps “only the Hamas can do it” and perhaps it is in the interest of Israel to sit across the table from Hamas leaders.
Technorati tag: Hamas.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.
