Israel’s opportunity to stop a train wreck

Instead of a train wreck, a peace train. Against its critics, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat insisted last week that the UN bid “will preserve the peace process and the two-state solution.” Why not see it that way? A means of moving the two parties out of stalemate, and toward the well-understood endgame of compromise and co-existence. “Now that you are recognized as the state you are,” Israel could say, in effect, “Let’s make it real by promptly settling the outstanding issues.”

Last week, the Arab League voted to support the Palestinian application for full-member status at the United Nations. But Arabs weren’t the only ones. In Jerusalem itself on Friday, about 4,500 Israelis and Palestinians mounted a solidarity “March for Independence,” as a banner put it. Last month, 5,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv, calling for the creation of an independent Palestine. Members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, joined both demonstrations. The Israeli press and blogosphere are full of voices raised in support of the Palestinian UN move. (The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz editorialized in favor of Friday’s march.) For these Israelis, the issue is a simple one of justice, the long-overdue reckoning with the aspirations of an occupied and dispossessed people. But the issue is also purely pragmatic: as a demonstrator’s sign said in Tel Aviv, “A Palestinian state is in Israel’s interest.”