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Sunday’s Washington Post contains a long article by Scott Wilson about “new historian” Benny Morris. Morris gained fame (or notoriety) by arguing that many Palestinians were deliberately expelled by Israel in the 1948 war. The article argues that Morris has moved to the right, and indeed includes remarks critical of Morris by extreme left-wing anti-Zionists Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappé.

The article does a fair job of presenting Morris’ point of view, although I suggest that little weight should be given to the comments of Shlaim and Pappé. Indeed, I think that Morris’ basic outlook hasn’t changed much over the years, but rather he has become aware of some inescapable facts.

You should read the whole article, but here is how it ends:

“Two states is the only solution with an element of justice,” Morris says. “But there are two other realistic solutions — one is that the Jews will kick out all the Arabs across the river, and the other is that the Arabs will throw the Jews into the sea. I’m not sure one of them won’t happen.“

“The problem that existed here in 1947 remains today — the Arabs don’t accept Israel’s presence,” Morris says. “A major switch in mind-set must occur for peace to come. That is the sine qua non of any peace agreement. All the rest — the road map, the peace process — is just footwork.” [my emphasis]

I couldn’t agree more.

Technorati Tags: Benny Morris, Palestinians, Israel

This is the attitude you get if you are a member of a royal family:

Saudi Arabia criticised Israel on Tuesday for setting preconditions to Middle East peace talks and urged it to accept an Arab initiative first proposed in 2002 and discuss details later.

“We only hear of conditions from Israel about everything, but no acceptance. You cannot have negotiations like that, you accept the proposals then you talk about this,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said.

A 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut adopted a Saudi initiative offering Israel normal ties with Arab countries in return for full withdrawal from land it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war [and the estalishment of a Palestinian state as well as a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem acceptable to the Arab nations — ed.] — Ha’aretz

The text of the Saudi/Arab League initiative is here. My primary objection to it is that even if the ‘details’ of full withdrawal to 1967 borders and ‘return’ of Palestinian refugees to Israel could be worked out, the initiative, which calls for Israel to make concrete security concessions in return for a promise of normal relations and peace — but significantly, not ‘recognition’ — totally accepts the Arab story, in which Israel bears all responsibility for the conflict and therefore must take all the risks in ending it.

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