Purists on both sides are unhappy.
Smotrich and Democracy Today! are already out there, bright and early, seeing it all as very bad
Most others are cautiously (very cautiously) pleased.
Of course, we have been here (or close to here) before.
Everyone blames someone else for the failure of those earlier attempts.
And the 20 points do not say the magic words "Palestinian statehood." Rather, a "path" to "discussions" may, at some later point, "be in place."
And yes, there was no real Palestinian representation in the process. (Given that there is no real Palestinian representative government that would be difficult.)
And, yes, all hangs by a thread, as in the past, all we need is some new West Bank settlement, targeted assassination, terrorist attack, or a new "evil text book," etc etc for all to crumble, thus continuing the perpetual war.
And yes, both sides will have to contend with their purists who just want to fight on to "total, final victory" whatever that might mean.
And yes, those who have spent the last two (one hundred maybe?) years immersed in their assertions of the other team's "total and forever evil," will have to find a new rhetoric to assert their eternal victimhood.
But given all the mutual traumas and given all the players, and given all the thousands of Israeli dead and wounded and given the tens of thousands* of Palestinians of all ages killed or maimed, it seems to me that this is a small step away, i'H, from mutual suffering.
Yes, we recall Arafat, Rabin and smiling Bill on the White House lawn which, in the end, didn't go anywhere.
And, we recall Camp David 2000 with Barak, Arafat and, a no longer smiling Bill, all blaming each other for their failure.
And those with longer memories will recall the First Earl Peel's** Report of 1937 and the UNSCOP Partition Plan of 47 neither of which made everyone happy. Well, they certainly didn't make the Arab world happy.
But, on the much smaller other hand, I recall the day, during my first year in YHSQ, when we all went down to the lunchroom*** to watch Anwar's visit to Menachem in Jerusalem. And, despite Egyptian Islamic Jihad killing Sadat for his efforts, those efforts have (bli ayain horah) born fruit for close to half a century.
So, let us all "pray that we don't get fooled again."****
May the Almighty grant the New Year be a sweet and blessed one for all.
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* "Thousands?! Who says? All Palestinian and UN lies!" As many of my co religionists like to say.
** The Lord was originally a Liberal Unionist and, later, a Conservative (when that word meant something other than welcoming Pakistani conquest of England.)
*** This was also done for the Camp Seneca Lake reunion, held in YHSQ in January of 1979. Irv Bader wanted the Steelers/Oilers playoff game to be watch-able during the festivities.
**** Townsend lyric. Prompted by Pete's angry meeting with Abie Hoffman at Woodstock and what he saw as phony hippie revolutionaries. Seems like a good analysis in retrospect. Theodore Roszak's "wasteland" really never did end