I have now been subjected twice by the CBC to one Ali Abunimeh, a Palestinian-American who somehow picked up a posh English accent in the course of his studies. This gentleman is currently promoting a book titled “One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Credulous interviewers seem to accept him, at his word that he offers some new, perhaps helpful, view toward resolving the conflict but they mistake his purpose.
Abunimeh’s tone and his accent serve to mask his extremism. He is in fact urepresentative of the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza who advocate a two state solution, while he takes us back to the older, more militant demand, of one secular, democratic Palestinian state. Of course he never tells us on which planet his model of Arab democracy exists. He never tells us why even the most moderate Israelis would trust their lives and that of their children to his vision of a shared state in which Jews would soon be subject to a Muslim majority. More seriously, he never tells the Palestinians why they should enlist in perpetual conflict, for most of those who live in the West Bank and Gaza would recognize that Abunimeh offers a recipe for perpetuating the disaster of their current lives.
Abunimeh is offering a made in the diaspora solution that partakes of the same brand of extremism as that of those diaspora Jews who would fight to the last Israeli for all the lands of ancient Israel. We in diaspora communities can, at no personal cost, enjoy the luxury of extremisms which may further our own political or ideological goals. So, if Abunimeh offers nothing new, one must ask what his book and current promotion tour are all about, what is he seeking?
Ali Abunimeh is vying for leadership of the Palestinian diaspora. It is in their diaspora communities of North America and Western Europe that his message will resonate; it is in these communities that the so-called “right of return”, a non-starter for almost all Israelis,” is still cherished as an almost Koranic injunction. The Palestinian-American Professor Edward Said, who died in 2003, in his later years also advocated a one state solution and denounced the Oslo agreements because they did not embrace the right of return. Said’s death left a leadership vacuum, at least in the diaspora’s intellectual ranks and Abunimeh is attempting to fill it.
Thus, with his book of recycled early Arafat, with a Said veneer, Abunimeh launches a leadership campaign. Of course, on the way to his goal, he may snare some of the gullible who swallow his dubious logic. The more wary will understand that he offers not conflict resolution but conflict enhancement, with a program that Israelis can never accept, thus promoting more years of personal insecurity for Israelis and economic disaster for his Palestinian brothers and sisters.
