Daoud Kuttab at PostGlobal

Daoud Kuttab

Princeton, NJ

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. He was born in Jerusalem in 1955. Presently he is a visiting professor at Princeton University in the United States. Mr. Kuttab is the former director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah, Palestine and the founder of AmmanNet, the Arab world's first internet radio station. His personal web page is www.daoudkuttab.com Close.

Daoud Kuttab

Princeton, NJ

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist. He was born in Jerusalem in 1955. Presently he is a visiting professor at Princeton University in the United States. more »

Main Page | Daoud Kuttab Archives | PostGlobal Archives


Between Security and Nationalism

The latest violence in Gaza has created de facto Islamic (i.e. Hamas) security-based control over Gaza and nationalist (i.e. PLO) control -- along with a new emergency government -- in the West Bank. As international funds flow to the PLO, a Palestinian state in the West Bank becomes a real possibility -- depending on what that state must look like.

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All Comments (10)

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civicduty:

Remove every Israeli settlement. Tear down the wall and build it on the green line. Send in a largely arab peace keeping force to keep the IDF and settlers out of Palestine and the Palestinians out of Israel. Maintain this until Palestine settles into a stable nation. It will minimize the attacks on both sides.

The UN and US can pay for all of this, and we would all save money and lives in the long run, even if it takes 2 more decades before the international force could leave.

The real enemy here are the settlers and their backers. They are the enemy of Israel, the enemy of Palestine, and the enemy of the US. They could care less how many more people die as the result of their disgusting cause (whether US, Palestinian, or Israeli) as long as their objectives are met. More suicide bombings? More 9/11s, More massacres, genocide, and apartheid?
They could care less.

Denis Drew:

Had a billion American Indians inhabited the million square miles of America's Midwest, our settlers would faced the same population density -- one thousand per square mile -- encountered in the West Bank by Israeli settlers -- that is, before Israeli first worlders battered West Bank third worlders back into half the space (affluent moderns needing more room to breath -- and swim).

To fill out the billion Indian comparison: 150 million American settlers would have to have carved out -- extra -- room for themselves.

Israel could adopt the ultimate sane option (practiced by successful first-worlders everywhere): no more "dozerkrieging" next-door neighbors, no-choice returning misappropriated land and homes and no fair waiting until resistance ends before doing both (it works the other way around). A growing Arab consensus can assure Israel that withdrawing the unbearable occupation would do more for her genuine security than embarking on mutually assured destruction.

It does not take a Solomon to calculate that a nation of 5 million who occupies a neighbor of 4 million -- to park a few hundred thousand of her own on half their ancestral land -- will be condemned to exist always half-concentration camp and half-free.

MASS:

The whole world will never see peace as long as the crime of the 20th century is not handled adequately.A legitimate country was removed from the world map to be replaced BY an illegitimate country with new immigrants from all over the world.Palestinians,being moslems or christians,were kicked out into refugee camps to be replaced by jews from Europe,Russia,Ethiopia etc.
Repercussions of this heinous crime are behind all turmoil and bloodshed in the Middle East including Iraq,Lebanon,Palestinian occupied territories,Syria,Iran etc.
The unlimited support of US to Israel is encouraging the latter to reject all UN resolutions on the Palestinian Issue including Resolution 194 which calls for the return of all Palestinian refugees home.It is time for the US admin to wake up to the real cause of all problems in the area and to change its foreingn policy categorically.

SAM:

PALISRA COULD BE THE MAGIC WORD.
It is a sad situation that both Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting and killing each other for more than 60 years now and unfortunately, no light could be seen at the end of this dark tunnel.
The geography and demography of the area that extends between River Jordan and the Mediterranean indicate the complexity of the current situation. Every party is trying hard to grab by mere force what is in the hand of the other. Many wars have been staged and thousands of innocent lives have been shed for this purpose.
Nowadays, almost everybody is talking about setting up two countries for both Israelis and Palestinians. This simply means that the land of historical Palestine will be divided between the two parties, Israelis and Palestinians.
I doubt very much that either party will be satisfied with his share of the cake. There are chronic problems like Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders, water resources that nobody on earth can sort out to the satisfaction of both parties.
The short vision of setting up two separate states could sow the seeds for more bloody conflicts in the future. Nobody can guarantee or secure permanent and lasting peace under this proposition.
A far better viable solution that should satisfy both parties and put an end to all complicated issues is available. It is the establishment of one secular country for all on the whole territory of historical Palestine that includes the West Bank and Gaza besides Israel. Jerusalem will remain united for both parties, settlements could remain where they are now provided an appropriate compensation is made to the original land owners, natural geographical borders are already in place for the whole country, and the issue of refugees could be settled by allowing refugees to return home and to be compensated for the 60 years of misery they had to spend at refugee camps.All citizens of the new state, PALISRA (Palestine +Israel), would enjoy equal rights and bear the same responsibilities.
The newly established state, PALISRA will emerge as a prosperous and safe country within a very short period of time, and citizens of this state will learn how to respect and even cherish each other. PALIRA will become a key player and an integral part of the Middle East as yesterday's enemies will become today's friends and allies for ever.

Raghu Saxena:

We can never have peace in MidEast. The reason, Muslim radicals say that Islam teaches not to "compromise". It is beyond dignity. And what state they are talking about. The radical Muslims which are growing in numbers as their societies are not progressing simply because they don't want to modernize with times and still stuck with implementing things like Sharia law, etc. It's the very radical and hateful mindset.
Jews were driven out from their homeland by force in the past centuries and they are justified to live in a small strip of land called "Israel" and all Muslim radicals want them out of there alltogether and not ready to compromise and negotiate. If Israel leaves all that land demanded, they would not have a viable country. Palestinians already have a country called Jordan.
They would have to learn to sit down together with prominent Arab counties and Prominent Western countries to settle with compromise in mind. I don't see that happening with Hamas, Hizbollah,etc.
All Islamic counties where radicals are on March, they are destined to be totallt destroyed just like Somalia, Sudan. Look at Afghanistan, most people are opium addicts there; you do expect that. As you sow, so shall you reap.

Rick:

The Palestinian people will never accept a state led by the collaborator Abas, who is quite happy to live under the rule of the occupying forces of the Israelis and the US.

His meeting with other Arab leaders from the region in Sharm el-Sheikh next Monday highlights the eagerness of these "leaders" to undercut the Islamic political movements represented by Hamas and Hezbollah, which are soon to appear in their own countries with the backing of their citizens of the Arab Street.

Anonymous:

Daoud,
What Palestinian state? Do u live on Mars? There was never a hope for such a Israle controlled 78% of historic Palestine in 1947 after in ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and ocuppied the remaining 22% in 1967; in settled over 5o% of the 22%-West BAnk/Gaza since 1967.So where on God;s earth are u going to esablish a Palestinian state ??
The only solution is one state for all: Arabs (Christians and Muslims) as well as jews who can prove residency in Palestine at or before 1914-the rest should peacefully go back to where they came from.
In the meantime,don't blame HAmas for being an obstacle to a Palestine state-Why did Israel backed by the West not allow a Palestinian state for the past sixty years.

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