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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Is This the Season For Recognition? Statehood

Nadene Goldfoot
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.    A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot the planted; A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to wreck and a time to build; A time to weep and a time to laugh.  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

"This is not the time for making peace with the Palestinians.  In fact, it's impossible" said former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Israel from the Yisrael Beiteinu Party.  Why?  Look what's going on right now in the Muslim world..

1. The Arab Spring :Rebellion from a monarchy and its replacement by the Muslim Brotherhood Dictum
2.. Tunisia's opposition leader was just assassinated
3. Iraq's murder of dozens of people by terrorists
4. Syria with the killing of 117 more people on Friday, now over 60,000.

Liberman said it was not  realistic to think it possible in this environment to reach a comprehensive peace accord with the Palestinians.  "It is impossible to solve the conflict.  It needs to be managed."  Lieberman also said that he was in favor of negotiations with the Palestinians "at any time and in any place in the world, without preconditions.   However, these negotiations should be over "a long term interim agreement."  He feels it all rests with the Palestinians.  "The ball is in  President Mahmoud Abbas alias Abu Mazen's  court." Abbas will be 78 years old on March 26th, when Obama may be speaking with him  as Obama plans to talk to Abbas as well as Netanyahu.

Danny Liberman's former deputy, Danny Ayalon,also of Yisrael Beiteinu Party who was not included in his party's Knesset slate, said Saturday at a cultural event in Holon, that Israel should recognize Palestine as a full member of the UN.  Israel will give the Palestinians sovereignty and independence and in return, they will recognize Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and will guarantee security arrangements," he recommended.  Ayalon continued with wanting Abbas to state in Arabic, rather than in Hebrew or English.

This is a big if.  Has it suddenly become the season for Palestinians to recognize Israel?  If so, what has brought that about?   The Palestinians have been holding out on this one premise;  to recognize Israel.  They, however, have been most vocal about wanting the UN to recognize them.

Remember the book, "The Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield?  The book centers on something called synchronicity.  Things happen not by coincidence or accident but by plan.  There is a big plan in this world that people are just starting to discover.  In Judaism, things have always thought to be synchronistic..Events that continually  happened on the date when the Temple fell, a time we remember called Tisha b'Av,  is a good example.  David Klinghoffer, with the Intelligent Design movement,  wrote, "I believe in synchronicity, the idea that juxtapositions of time and events not only may seem meaningful but do in fact convey real meaning. See Jung on that."  Carl Jung is a Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist.  

So it is a coincidence  or a planned event that Obama is coming to visit Israel around March 20th, making way for the USA's new US Secretary of State John Kerry to come and continue negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.    Of course Obama is saying that he is not coming with any plans, and that's not the point of his visit.

At this point, Netanyahu has to select a new Foreign Minister, and it might be Lieberman, who is going through a trial.  Danny Ayalon left his position as deputy foreign minister on Tuesday, said he expects there will be an attempt to jump-start the diplomatic process with a 3-way summit meeting with Netanyahu, Abbas and Obama, or even a 4-way meeting with  Jordanian King Abdullah II.  Ayalon feels that if Obama's visit doesn't produce results in the peace talks, it will raise a lot of doubts and criticism.

So we have both Israelis and Palestinians expecting more out of Obama's visit than just a first time tourist visit.  Will this be a time for more from him?  Is this the season for recognizing each other?

Ecclesiastes is in the Tanach and is a part of Writings.  It's thought that King Solomon wrote them.  In the Tanach are the 5 Books of Moses, Prophets and Writings.  

Resource: Jerusalem Post: Liberman says peace with Palestinians impossible by Herb  Keinon.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Abbas.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avigdor_Lieberman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Ayalon
http://blog.beliefnet.com/kingdomofpriests/2009/07/synchronicity-and-tisha-bav-amid-record-breaking-heat-for-seattle.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Klinghoffer

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