Mick Hartley

Benny Morris, the Israeli historian who wrote “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem”, has recently revised his position on the question of Israeli-Palestinian relations. There’s an interesting interview with him here (via Blog of a Bookslut):

I want to ask you about the recent change in your politics, from a highly critical to a more pro-Israel view. How do you explain that?

Let me just say something up front: I don’t really regard my views as having changed much.

I still believe that a territorial compromise is necessary, that a two-state solution is the only equitable solution here, and that Israel must withdraw from the territories. What has changed in my views is my perception of the Palestinian side during the past decade. Whereas in the 1990s I was fairly optimistic that the Palestinians had accepted in their hearts the need for a compromise and for a two-state solution, now I’m very doubtful. I don’t think the Palestinians really want to agree to a two-state solution. They want a one-state solution, which means Israel’s destruction and the turning of all of Palestine into one Arab majority state. That’s what has changed in my thinking.

How has this influenced your thinking on the subject of transfer?

From my realization about the Palestinians stems a number of conclusions. If it is true that the Palestinians—historically, monolithically, continuously and probably forever—are disagreeable to a two-state solution, to the acceptance of Israel’s existence, then one has to think afresh about the problem of demography and territory. And what this has led me to conclude is that in 1948, it would probably have been better for everybody to have had all the Palestinians cross the Jordan River rather than having many of them stay on the Israeli side at the end of the war. In other words, if Israel had been established on all the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River and the Palestinians had crossed the river and turned Transjordan into a state of their own, both peoples would have probably been happier, and the Middle East would certainly have been a pleasanter place over the next fifty years. […]

What is your outlook for Israel’s future? Are you depressed?

I think I’m basically depressed. I think unless there is a basic change of heart and mind—a change of mindset—among Palestinians and in the Arab world in general about Israel, we’re in for a continuous struggle over the coming decades. Basically what is needed here is a compromise based on two states, and that in effect requires Arab acceptance of Israel’s legitimacy. But so long as there is this view of Israel as a cancer in the Middle East—which like a Crusader’s stake must be uprooted and will be uprooted—there will be no compromise here. It doesn’t matter what agreement is signed or what temporary ceasefires occur. In the long term of history, it’s meaningless. So long as Israel’s legitimacy is questioned, its existence is not assured.