Barın Kayaoğlu

Barin Kayaoglu
JTW Columnist

The Iran Letters – Part III: A Survey of ‘Iran Profound’
Wednesday, 13 August 2008

The Iran Letters – Part II: Questions and Answers on Iran’s Nuclear Program
Monday, 14 July 2008

The Iran Letters – Part I: From the Inside, Iran Looks Much Bigger
Saturday, 28 June 2008

The Iran Letters – Part I: From the Inside, Iran Looks Much Bigger
Saturday, 28 June 2008

How Senators Obama and McCain Can Help Iraq Before the Elections
Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Drawing Borders with Other People’s Blood – Part II
Monday, 4 February 2008

Will Turkey Repeat America’s Mistake in Iraq?
Thursday, 15 November 2007

For All Turks and Armenians: An Analysis and Manifesto
Wednesday, 17 October 2007

(Re)Creating America’s ‘Empire of Liberty’ in the Twenty-First Century
Wednesday, 19 September 2007

How to Salvage U.S. Prestige in Turkey and the Middle East?
Tuesday, 28 August 2007

An Analysis of the Turkish Election: Prime Minister Erdoğan on Top of the World
Monday, 30 July 2007

An Open Memorandum On Solutions Other Than a Military Operation Into Northern Iraq
Wednesday, 4 July 2007

The Turkish Military’s Operation to Northern Iraq: Solution or Problem?
Monday, 11 June 2007

Is democracy a luxury for Turkey?
Thursday, 31 May 2007

Why Does the Turkish Presidency Matter? What Should Turkey Do?
Wednesday, 2 May 2007

No Armenian Genocide Resolution from the House of Representatives: Lessons for the Future
Tuesday, 1 May 2007

Seeing the Bigger Picture in Iraq
Monday, 16 April 2007

The Timetable Wars and the U.S. Presidential Election
Sunday, 1 April 2007

Defending YouTube or Defending Atatürk?
Saturday, 17 March 2007

How to Stop Loving and Worrying About the Bomb: The View from 2057
Sunday, 4 March 2007

The Recent Crisis Between the Erdoğan Government and the Military: What Crisis?
Sunday, 18 February 2007

Thinking Strategically in Northern Iraq and Cyprus
Monday, 5 February 2007

‘Damn If You Do, Damn If You Don’t': The Moral Dilemma of the New Bush Plan
Thursday, 18 January 2007

“Damn If You Do, Damn If You Don’t:” The Moral Dilemma of the New Bush Plan
Wednesday, 17 January 2007

On Presidents, Protracted Wars, and Negotiating With the Adversary
Saturday, 13 January 2007

Iran’s Nuclear Program and Security Council Resolution 1737: In Search for a Middle Ground
Tuesday, 26 December 2006

Praying for the Imperfect Storm: The Implications of a Coup d’Etat in Turkey
Sunday, 3 December 2006

What is Turkey’s Importance All About?
Monday, 27 November 2006

Last War for Oil? Inshallah!
Monday, 20 November 2006

An Open Letter to Mr. Michael Rubin
Sunday, 12 November 2006

Turkey’s Allies are Common Sense and Freedom of Expression
Wednesday, 25 October 2006

Thinking More Loudly on Turkey’s EU Bid
Monday, 16 October 2006

The Armenian Question Between Genocide, Tragedy, and Hypocrisy
Thursday, 12 October 2006

The Armenian Question Between Genocide, Tragedy, and Hypocrisy
Wednesday, 11 October 2006

Thinking Aloud on Turkey’s EU Bid
Monday, 9 October 2006

The Paradox of the United States and the World Five Years After September 11
Saturday, 30 September 2006

‘The Army Is Not a Place for Slacking’: Turkey’s Choices Between Mt. Kandil and a Hard Place
Monday, 11 September 2006

Turkish Troops in Southern Lebanon: Will and Should They Go?
Friday, 1 September 2006

Is Iran a Threat to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime?
Monday, 21 August 2006

Israel’s Current Paradox in a Historical Context
Friday, 11 August 2006

Fear and Loathing in the Middle East: What to Do?
Friday, 11 August 2006

Drawing Borders with Other People’s Blood: A Brief Comment on Ralph Peters’s ‘Blood Borders’
Wednesday, 19 July 2006

Sharing Vision, Structuring Dialogue (At Last): Are Turkish-American Relations Improving?
Thursday, 13 July 2006

Barın Kayaoğlu is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Virginia and a regular contributor to the Journal of Turkish Weekly.

His Other Articles

http://www.turkishweekly.net/previous.asp?id=5

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Barın Kayaoğlu

Barin Kayaoglu
JTW Columnist

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Saturday, 24 January 2009

The Mission

The Israeli invasion of Gaza and its horrific toll on Palestinian civilians demonstrate that, so long as this self-destructive conflict goes on, the innocent people of Israel and Palestine will wallow in their suffering.

It is time to stop this bloodbath. And the creation of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is the only way to reach that goal.

The question of Palestine remains the biggest chasm between Israel, the Arabs, and non-Arab Muslims. Since the first war between Arab states and Israel in 1948-49, there has been no end in sight to the conflict. For sure, Israel managed to sign peace treaties with, and gain recognition from, two of its neighbors (Egypt and Jordan). But because Israel does not take the bold steps necessary to create the Palestinian state, most Arab and Muslim countries refuse to recognize it. Israel, without recognition and security, refrains from normalizing relations with the Palestinians. And without the prospects of a viable Palestinian state, groups like HAMAS gain prestige in the eyes of Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.
(Tragically, HAMAS’s rocket attacks had prompted Israel to attack Gaza over three weeks ago. And this deadlock has played out disastrously: more than 1,200 Palestinians – many of them innocent civilians – lie dead. Over 5,000 are wounded.)

So, how do we create a Palestinian state; convince Israel that it is in its interest to do so; and move forward to a new order in the Middle East?
How, in other words, do we accomplish mission impossible?

The Task

The trick to creating a viable Palestinian state can come about by addressing the “people problem.”
At the moment, of the West Bank’s population of 2.5 million, nearly 200,000 are Israeli settlers. An additional 175,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, the venue that Palestinians hope will become the capital of their state. Resettling unwilling Israeli civilians into Israel’s pre-1967 lands will be a troublesome task (just as it was in 2005 when Israel withdrew from Gaza).

An even larger problem will be to accommodate the return of Palestinian refugees, a large body of 5 million. Truth be told, since the State of Israel would not allow the return of former residents of Mandate Palestine into its territories, probably not all Palestinian refugees would come into what would become the Republic of Palestine; at least not immediately.

The third hurdle is the status of Jerusalem. Jerusalem houses the Western Wall of Solomon’s Temple, the Church of Sepulcher, and the Masjid al-Aqsa/Qubbat as-Sahra, the holiest sites for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, respectively. Israelis and Palestinians contest this city fiercely for its great symbolic value. Currently, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and the Palestinians will never accept statehood without Jerusalem as their own capital.

The Possible and the Necessary Mission

Aside from Jerusalem, the “people problem” is one that can be solved by careful planning and a price tag. Building decent housing for the nearly 5.5 million people in question (5 million Palestinians and a total of 375,000 Israeli settlers) will be a gargantuan task but it is not an impossible one. (A feasibility study commissioned by the World Bank would probably be the best way to start this project.)

For years, the major players of the Middle East conflict – indigenous and foreign – have wasted their resources on warfare – clandestine and open. In its stead, if the wealthy countries – oil-rich Arab states, the United States, and the European Union – can channel their energies to relocate Israelis and Palestinians, peace can be within reach.

As for Jerusalem, two alternatives – neither of which will be pleasant, it must be said – exist. The city can be divided into Israeli and Palestinian sectors and United Nations (UN) peacekeepers can monitor the holy sites. Alternatively, Jerusalem (old and new) can be administered as a single unit by a UN commission, although experience with “free cities” (Danzig/Gdansk had given Hitler the pretext to start a world war in 1939) does not bode well for this option.

The Substitute

“There is no substitute for victory” said General Douglas MacArthur upon Japan’s capitulation in 1945. In the case of Israel and Palestine in 2009, the only substitute for solution is the current situation: HAMAS gains political strength (for merely surviving the latest Israeli onslaught); Israel fails to succeed in its political objective (annihilating HAMAS and keeping moderate Palestinians on its side); and radical Islamists everywhere have another excuse to engage in anti-Western propaganda (Western support for Israel and distance to Palestine).

This is the mission, should you choose to accept.—

Barın Kayaoğlu is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Virginia and a regular contributor to the Journal of Turkish Weekly.

E-mail: kayaoglu@virginia.edu

See his Other Articles in previous years (2009 yılı öncesindeki diğer makalelerine de) bakınız

Saturday, 24 January 2009

http://www.turkishweekly.net/columnist/3080/mission-impossible-ending-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-in-a-nutshell.html

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