Paul Lookman
Trump’s Deal of the Century, if adopted, would have ended the Palestinian right to self-determination. Palestinians in Israel are treated as second-class citizens, in the occupied territories - where settlers have free reign - virtually as slaves. The situation of the Palestinians in Gaza is intolerable. Intriguingly, there are compelling options that do respect international law. Arguably, Israel is not acting like a loyal American ally. It did not shy away from an attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. And several sources hint that the Israeli Secret Service may have been involved in 9/11 and in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the US president who in 1963 was embroiled in a bitter conflict with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion over Israel’s nuclear weapons programme. For the author, the Zionist project is a dead end. Israel’s right to exist is not at all in jeopardy. A state that entertains two legal systems is an apartheid state. An unlivable complex of Israeli-controlled bantustans is not a Palestinian state within the meaning of international law. A binational solution in which Jews and Palestinians join hands is a win for Israel. It may not be a purely Jewish state, but don’t most of us live in multi-ethnic and multicultural societies? If things are not headed in that direction, the country will succumb to socio-economic and demographic problems, and/or evidence of Israel’s involvement in JFK’s assassination will be decisive.
