too, bear a part of the responsibility for that. We have not been thinking enough, we have not identified the reasons for the failures. When was the last time a thorough discussion of the strategies and tactics of the fight for peace took place?
We have not succeeded in connecting with the Oriental Jewish community. We have remained strangers to the Russian immigrants. We don't even have a real partnership with the Arab-Palestinian community inside Israel. We have not found the way to touch the hearts of the general public. We have not succeeded in creating a unified and efficient political force that would be able to exert an influence on the Knesset and the government. We must examine ourselves.
It is not enough to point out that the one-state solution cannot be realized. This "solution" is also very dangerous.
1. It diverts the efforts into a mistaken direction. We see this already happening. It both results from despair and produces despair. It causes people to desert the battlefield in Israel and creates the illusion that the real battlefield is abroad. That is escapism.
2. It causes the loss of irreplaceable time. Tens of years, in which terrible things can happen to the Palestinians, and also to us. Anyone who is afraid of ethnic cleansing (and rightly so) must be conscious of this danger and this urgency.
3. It divides the peace camp and deepens the gap between it and the public. It strengthens the right, because it frightens the sane public and causes it to lose sight of a sensible solution.
4. It pulls the rug from under the feet of those who fight against the occupation. If the whole country between the sea and the Jordan is to become one state anyhow, then the settlers can put their settlements anywhere they like.
5. It strengthens the argument that there is "no solution" to the conflict. If the two-state solution is wrong, and if the one-state solution is not realizable, then the right is correct in claiming that there is no solution at all-an argument that justifies every evil, from the eternal occupation to ethnic cleansing. No solution means an endless occupation.
Let us be clear: there will be no end to the occupation as long as there is no peace agreement.
As for the distant future, perhaps we shall meet at unexpected places.
When we reach the station that is called peace between two states, everyone will be free to choose what their next station should be.