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A State Without Delusions

(Times of Israel) Martin Peretz - In the War of Independence in 1948, Israel's armed struggle was not against the Arab locals of Palestine; it fought instead against Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. In the Six-Day War, it was ditto minus Iraq. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, only Egypt and Syria fought. The Palestinian war against the Jews was fought by the armies of others who wanted Arab Palestine for themselves. Had Israel lost in 1967 or 1973, it would not have been Palestine in its place; the land would have been divvied up by the countries which had entered the fight to add turf to their own national cartographies. The fight for Palestine by the Palestinians began late, winning all kinds of battles in international arenas where the reward was only ecstatic verbiage. Over the years the Israelis have made so many conciliatory proposals to the Palestinians - two at the urgent behest of Washington - that they literally cannot grasp why Arafat and his successors turned them down. Arafat's successor and the Palestinian Authority were supposed no longer to be in the grip of fabrication.
2012-03-27 00:00:00
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