Ali Abunimah, a disciple of Rashid Khalidi, is out with a new book
calling for an end to the Israeli—Palestinian conflict. He has constructred a clever argument that sounds reasonable to many. But the inevitable consequence of what he argues, his real goal in my opinion,  is an end to Israel.

He masks the real goal by describing a bi—national state, where Jews and Palestinians lives in peace together, as blacks, whites and mixed races live together in modern South Africa. Abunimah's message to the Jews is not to be afraid — after all, in South Africa, blacks did not massacre the white minority after an end to white minority rule. The same fate(no massacre?) can await Israel's Jews if they just agree to share the country (with what Abunimah believes are its rightful owners). I already see glorious visions of Jews and Hamas members sitting around a campfire singing kumbayah together. I also await the Palestinian version of Nelson Mandela.

But this is not a joking matter. Abunimah is a skillful Propagandist — I have debated him — and he is one of the other side's best spokespeople. He will undoubtedly launch a nationwide speaking tour associated with the book, and become a rock star on college campuses with his message of "peace and reconciliation" .

He will make his approach sound reasonable, and the alternative two state solution seem like an idea whose time has come and gone. He will argue that Israel can not be a democracy while denying Palestinians their national rights.

I, too, have difficulty with a two state solution at the moment, since I think the second state, would be committed to the destruction of the  
first state. The Palestinians today are committed to the destruction of Israel, rather than building a state of their own (not counting Jordan, which they already have).

The Abunimah approach is a call for a surrender of Jewish identity and a Jewish future in Israel. Abunimah and most Palestinians fully expect that in a bi—national state, most of the Jews would leave.

There is no country in the Arab world with any history of treatment of minorities in anything remotely resembling post—Mandela South Africa.  And a minority is what Jews would quickly become.

A bi—national state is a way station to a state with few Jews in it. We would be back to 1939. Jews would be without a state of their own, but our numbers would have been diminished by a third due to the Holocaust, and the consequences of intermarriage, low birthrate, and secularism, which have wreaked havoc on the Jewish communities in the Diaspora.

Richard Baehr  11 12 06