By Robert S. Siegel
On Tuesday and Wednesday I wrote about an opportunity to use the concept of La Convivencia, the golden era of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cooperation that occurred in Spain from 711 AD to 1492, as a map to guide Israel and the Palestinians toward a promising future. I explained that President Obama is uniquely qualified to launch La Convivencia II by virtue of being the President of the United States and a visionary with exceptional oratorical skills.
Yesterday I wrote that the challenge of achieving peace can be broken into two issues; creating the Desire among Palestinians for peace and enabling Israel to Trust that the Palestinian’s Desire is genuine. The Palestinians will have to convince the Israelis they Desire long-term peace.
Convincing the Israelis they want lasting peace will be the first truly self-centered action the Palestinian people have taken in their entire existence as a people.
I suggested that the President reach out to the American Muslim community to enlist their support in communicating directly to the Palestinian people and urging them to choose peace and put aside war.
I am sure Palestinian supporters will respond to the suggestion that they need to make the first move toward La Convivencia II by expressing a litany of complaints against Israel. Palestinian supporters have reasons, that they believe are valid, to explain why the Palestinians need to retain violence as a negotiation tool. I believe that President Obama, with the right map, can steer Palestinians onto a new course.
For my final article in this series I want show how La Convivencia II can be a map through the trickiest issues that exist between the parties. I recognize that nothing as big as Israeli-Palestinian peace can be easy. The reason that I believe in La Convivencia II is because La Convivencia II makes peace desirable to both parties. Causing the parties to want peace will make achieving peace far more realistic. Here is how the La Convivencia II approach creates the Desire and Trust needed to overcome the current barriers to peace.
Fundamental Fact: Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis have any place else to live other than where they are currently living. Once both parties fully understand and accept this fact, the rest of the plan sounds reasonable and plausible as an option to violence in perpetuity.
I could write pages of history covering who did what to whom and which people’s ancient texts make the most valid claims to what land. But when all those facts are laid out, argued over (with no one agreeing to the other’s perspective) we still have Palestinians and Israelis living next to each other. Neither party is going anywhere.
Hardliners/Extremists/Terrorists
Both sides have people that are willing to die for their cause. One group won’t leave land and the other won’t stop launching rockets (I don’t equate the two). The extremists from both sides will need to be marginalized. This will take a joint effort based on the promise of the kind of life that will occur under La Convivencia II and the popular support from people wanting that better life. The people have to stigmatize their extremists. Demand an end to violence and imprison violators. The Palestinians have to stop their own from committing terror. The Israelis need to stop settlements. It can’t be the Israelis trying to stop terror and Palestinians protesting settlements. That only reinforces the extremist’s image in their own community.
Palestinian Right of Return
The two parties should be able to exist, even thrive as neighbors. However, everyone needs to understand and accept that they are too far apart ideologically to live together. There can be no Palestinian right of return to Israel. More than a thousand years of Jewish history have taught the Jews not to lose control of their destiny ever again. The Palestinian right of return is loss of control.
It is one thing to encourage people to go to work together, quite different to ask two groups that have such deeply imbedded issues to live together. President Obama and every leader and organization on the planet can try to change the Israeli’s opinion on right of return, but they will be wasting valuable time. The Jews can’t and won’t give on that point.
To the Palestinians, not getting the right of return makes La Convivencia II nearly impossible to accept. The American Muslims, led by President Obama, need to rally the Palestinians around the understanding that their future, under peace and La Convivencia II, is far better than their future under continuous war.
The Palestinians will need the world’s help. Once the Palestinians are on the path to peace the world needs to help them with investments of money, job training, education, and establishing a representative government including the peaceful transfer of power.
Settlements
I understand the Palestinians issue with Jewish settlements. However, I also believe that the settlements would have been turned over to the Palestinians long ago had the Palestinians Desired peace.
Just as I have presented facts the Palestinians must accept, a fact the Jews must now accept is that to achieve region-wide peace most of those settlements have to go. The settlements should be turned over to the Palestinians little by little as peace continues and as trust between the two sides builds.
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is the hardest to solve because the old city of Jerusalem is at the center of the larger Arab-Israeli conflict. Jerusalem has been fought over since Roman times because it is a holy city for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
The Israelis control the overall city. Palestinians control their sites. Jews, Christians, and Muslims live in the city in what is a sort of tense peace. The Muslims are angry about Jewish control of the city and the Jews are nervous about Muslim violence.
The Jews are not going to give up Jerusalem any more than the Palestinians are going to give up their claims to Jerusalem. Right now, Palestinians control their holy sites amidst the Israeli controlled city. The arrangement has plenty of problems but at least both Jews and Muslims have access to their sites.
Final status talks, as the discussions over Jerusalem are often called, are a barrier to progress because no side can give up their claims. These talks need to be put off until La Convivencia II takes hold. With La Convivencia II, discussions of who goes where and controls what will be far easier. In fact, the only realistic answer to Jerusalem is La Convivencia II because anything less than full cooperation on a solution means anger. Anger means fighting in the future.
Jerusalem can be a wonderful tool for lasting peace because it is at the center of La Convivencia II. I hope that the religious freedom that will come with La Convivencia II, can, over time, bring about a new understanding among Jews, Muslims, and Christians. I envision a region of economic, cultural, scientific, and artistic greatness. I also envision the religious battles evolving from battles between soldiers and terrorists, to great debates, lively arguments, and incredible learning among rabbis, imans, and priests. Maybe La Convivencia II is a dream. Maybe La Convivencia II is a lot more than a dream.
In Conclusion – Hope for Change Led By President Obama
The first La Convivencia effectively ended in 1492 when the Jews were expelled from Spain, though most scholars would say La Convivencia’s collapse began much earlier in the century. I hope that the La Convivencia II will be longer lasting. But it is hard to find fault when the ancient hatred of Muslims for Jews was set aside for 700 years.
That is my vision for peace. Perhaps if enough people forward the links to these three articles to others, they will eventually reach President Obama. I have included the links to the two previous articles below so that they are easy to copy/paste.
Maybe La Convivencia II is a dream. Maybe La Convivencia II is a lot more than a dream.
Obama, Israel – Palestine, and A Dream Leading to Peace
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Can Be Broken By a Dream
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