Plan for Arab-Israeli Reconciliation
- The P.A.I.R. Initiative -

CONTENTS OF PART FIVE:

V-A Creating a new Palestinian Arab self-identity.
V-B An inspiring national purpose to go with the new Palestinian national identity
V-C  New energy sources, the missing ingredient
V-D A just place among the nations for the Jewish people
V-E Reducing the causes for big power intervention

A true Arab-Israeli reconciliation will require far more than just physically resettling the Palestinian Arabs as described earlier. It will also require a radical transformation in their self-identity and mindset.

The present Palestinian Arab self-identity was manufactured and imposed by  Arab leaders intent on distracting their peoples from their actual problems and needs by focusing their resentments on a supposed external enemy. It was intended to become a political weapon in opposition to the existence of Israel, but it was not based on historical truth. This Palestinian Arab identity has, at its core, an unquenchable sense of grievance, humiliation and victimization. There is a seething resentment towards Israel and a determination, intensified by an urge to satisfy violated honor, to create a ‘Palestinian State’ no matter what the cost or how much conflict and suffering it generates, even upon themselves.

This perpetual obsession with their national grievance deflects creative energies into endless and sterile conflict which blocks the way to a normal life and a better future. The PAIR Initiative holds out the prospect of the Palestinian Arabs finally letting go of that monumental hatred in exchange for another, more positive, identity. For the first time these Arabs could choose their own identity - one that was not imposed by Britain or Arab exploiters - one that is free of hatred and which incorporates a positive, ennobling, national purpose.

History demonstrates that new self-identities can be acquired. The countries of Iraq and Jordan for example, along with some of the Gulf States, were created by Britain in pursuit of British national interests. The American identity was formed only a few hundred years ago by people migrating to a new continent. Today that American identity comprises peoples of many diverse backgrounds and is as durable as any other nation. The Jewish identity also evolved over time. In the book of Exodus we learn how the Israelites became transformed from their being slaves in Egypt to becoming a free people with a unique identity including people-hood and religion.

The Palestinian Arabs will find problems in simply looking to Arab governments for their future identity. Those governments may profess solidarity with them against Israel but they are still rejected by every other Arab country and denied permanent settlement. Hundreds of thousands were cast out of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait following the 1991 Gulf War because Yasser Arafat supported Saddam Hussein. Egypt wanted no part of them and kept them bottled up inside Gaza. Syria and Lebanon keep them severely confined inside refugee camps. Even Jordan, which is mostly Palestinian Arab, still has refugee camps for fellow Palestinian Arabs who are not allowed to settle permanently. It is Israel alone where 1.3 million Palestinian Arabs are voting citizens with human and political rights that do not exist for them in any other Arab country.

Despite the constant reinforcement of anti-Israeli hatred by their own leadership there are younger Palestinian Arabs who are starting to question the old hatreds. They understand very well the oppression and corruption of the Palestinian Authority and its effect on on their lives, and are aware of their rejection by the Arab governments. Some are now calling for more freedom and democracy, an end to the hostilities and even for beneficial economic cooperation with Israel. Under PNA rule expressing such views can be risky and requires personal courage. This demonstrates that there is indeed potential support for fresh thinking, which must be encouraged.

Without the constant reinforcement of anti-Israeli hatred by their leaders, the Arab peoples would be less inclined towards conflict.

So much depends on this radical change in self-identity. If the Palestinian Arabs were to abandon their old enmity, it would then be very difficult for other Arab and Muslim countries to use this pretext to sustain their anti-Israel posture. Then these countries and their leaders would lose their main excuse for delaying much-needed internal reforms.

Once inside their new country, located in the Arabian Peninsula, the Palestinian Arabs’ old sterile hatred could be replaced by a forward-looking and noble national purpose. Once that purpose takes hold it could be possible to heal old wounds and elevate the Palestinian Arabs’ entire society. They could apply their talents and energies to becoming a model Arab society, with the added advantage of having a fresh start.

A fresh start in a new country is an opportune time to undertake bold initiatives. One initiative would be to begin greening the region with the new Palestinian Arab state, setting an example for the Arab world. It would mean starting a vast project to turn the desert green with grasslands, agriculture, forests, industrial crops, etc. That effort would evolve into a vast project over the next century while productively employing millions of workers. The entire landscape would change from desert brown to lush green, along with a more benign climate replacing the harsh desert environment. When people heal the soil they also heal themselves. This happened when Jewish pioneers built a vibrant society by healing their neglected homeland and making the desert bloom.

Greening the region means pursuing self-sufficiency in food and farm-based industrial products. True wealth cannot be based primarily on oil production alone, which employs a small, select work force along with foreign experts and foreign entanglements. The future of oil is also limited because reserves are finite and the resulting carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is posing a growing threat to the global climate. The future is not with oil.

True wealth must include productive and fertile land that can provide food and a good living for many people. This is contrary to the western model with its over-industrialization, exploitive factory farming practices, huge non-farm population and unstable economic and political cycles produced by excessive concentration of power and greed. Some of the finest members of a society come from the land rather than from those occupations far removed from nature and basic labor. Let those positive sentiments found in Islam be implemented, in combination with restoring the land. Industrialization yes, but not to the point of plunging into the excesses of western societies. This is only to offer a concept from the outside. The Palestinian Arabs will have the opportunity to work all this out for themselves.

To economically green large areas in the region will require vast amounts of agricultural water at very low prices. There are advanced energy technologies now in the process of research and development that could desalinate the sea far cheaper than the best technologies available today. Once an area becomes green, the natural hydrological cycle begins to function by producing normal rainfall to sustain further growth. The watering operation can then shift to greening new desert areas. Think of the Amazon rain forest that is self-watering while sustaining a treasure of plant and animal life.

These technologies have been suppressed for decades to benefit the special interests in the Middle East and in the west. The losers have been the western public and millions of Arab people who do not share in the oil wealth and who will lose again when the oil runs out. The Palestinian Arabs, along with Israel and other peoples in the region, could now exert intense pressure to finally end this suppression and allow a new era of clean, cheap, abundant energy to emerge for the benefit of all humanity. This is a struggle that must be fought and won because it is also a global necessity. Pursuing effort would do great honor to the Palestinian Arabs who could lead the region in this noble cause.

Eliminating the debilitating conflict with the Palestinian Arabs would free up huge material resources and human energies inside Israel that were previously consumed by conflict. Israel could accelerate her development to achieve even greater success in the arts and sciences and, even more significantly, in the realms of social progress and of the spirit. Throughout the centuries, and despite often-severe persecution, Jewish talent and creativity still made an immense contribution to human progress. With more space to grow, and with increased security, Israel’s progress could become truly astounding, enabling Israelis to strive to fulfill the prophetic dream of becoming ‘a light unto the nations’.

As long as humanity remains trapped inside the current primitive mindset, there will be no peace and no security for anyone. If allowed to do so, Jewish spirituality, thriving in an expanded and secure Israel, may yet offer the key to a more sane and peaceful world. Israel’s potential should not be judged by her tiny size. In the realm of the spirit and of the biblical prophetic vision the Jewish people have already demonstrated that being both few and of small size is no limitation.

There would also be an opportunity for a more secure Israel to undertake major internal political reforms. Israel needs to resolve the conflict between the religious and the noni-religious elements within its population, and to reduce the widening gap between rich and poor. Israelis also need to reform a corrupt political system that empowers the few, denies full representative government and contributes to the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Peace would at last give the Israeli people the time, space and security they need to address these urgent domestic problems.

There have been at least two main reasons for outside powers to meddle in the Middle East. 

1. The quest for Middle East oil has drawn outside intervention for decades.

2. The conflict between Jews and Arabs has been exploited and exacerbated by outside powers in pursuit of their own national interests.

A reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs would remove the excuse for outside powers to meddle in Middle East affairs and exploit local conflicts. Jews and Arabs could then press for an end to the suppression of advanced energy technologies and eliminate oil as the object of contention by the grat powers including America, Europe, China and India. Making oil obsolete will also deprive local dictators of their oil wealth, which they have often misused to fund terrorism, accumulate weapons, oppress their own people and retain power.

Ending the suppression of advanced energy technologies would make cheap, clean energy available to everyone. The peoples of the Middle East would be better off and be able to afford to green the desert. The oil importing powers could now have all their energy needs met internally and without competing one against the other. The PAIR Initiative envisions these possibilities which would contribute to regional tranquility and to world peace.