(60 minutes) Time Running Out For A Two-State Solution?

[moobu2]

(CBS) Getting a peace deal in the Middle East is such a priority to President Obama that his first foreign calls on his first day in office were to Arab and Israeli leaders. And on day two, the president made former Senator George Mitchell his special envoy for Middle East peace. Mr. Obama wants to shore up the ceasefire in Gaza, but a lasting peace really depends on the West Bank where Palestinians had hoped to create their state. The problem is, even before Israel invaded Gaza, a growing number of Israelis and Palestinians had concluded that peace between them was no longer possible, that history had passed it by. For peace to have a chance, Israel would have to withdraw from the West Bank, which would then become the Palestinian state.

It’s known as the "two-state" solution. But, while negotiations have been going on for 15 years, hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers have moved in to occupy the West Bank. Palestinians say they can't have a state with Israeli settlers all over it, which the settlers say is precisely the idea.


Daniella Weiss moved from Israel to the West Bank 33 years ago. She has been the mayor of a large settlement.

"I think that settlements prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel. This is the goal. And this is the reality," Weiss told 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon.

Though settlers and Palestinians don't agree on anything, most do agree now that a peace deal has been overtaken by events.

LINK

[Idealism]

1. It is hard to believe that a fair account of the conflict made it to US airwaves

[madamesilverspurs]

3. I'd have to be willing to overlook

a whole lot of history to consider a quarter-hour on 60 Minutes to be a "fair account." It's a nasty business, to be sure, but the complexities are far too deep to cover in that limited amount of time.

[Idealism]

4. True, perhaps I used a bad choice of wording

The account on 60 minutes tonight was about the West Bank more so than the current operation in Gaza, which is incredible given how many Western media outlets have chosen to completely ignore what is and has happened in the West Bank. The West Bank situation makes one view Israel in a harsher light, for sure, which is why this is so under-reported. There is no "we oppress these people to stop the rockets" defense when it comes to the West Bank, they have taken the occupation lying down for the most part. I was simply surprised to see a story that depicts Israel is a negative way on prime time US television. I wonder what the backlash will be like... perhaps they will fire Mr. Simon for reporting on it like Dan Rather was fired for trying to look into Bush's past?

[DesertFlower]

2. i was greatly troubled

by the report.

[Poll_Blind]

5. Worth the time to watch!

PB

[GrannyK]

6. Rec'd

I was stunned to see this reported on M$M tonight. It was a true expose on the conditions on the West Bank. Though nothing on Gaza. Still was a factual, though limited, report on what is happening to the Palestinians. I've seen many documentaries but this was a first I've seen on M$M. There were a couple of other posts about this tonight, but they got locked pretty fast. Hopefully this a trend into truthful journalism?

[classysassy]

7. Our

grandchildren will answer for our blind support,of Israel.

[DCKit]

8. IBTB2IP and the eventual lock.

Watch this show. I'm leaving it on my DVR until I can transfer it to DVD.

60 Minutes destroyed forty years of propaganda in less than half an hour.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Bob Simon from 60 Minutes under attack by Israel Lobby

Here is this e-mail alert I received yesterday:

----- Original message -----

From:

Sent: Fri Jan 30 2009 03:01:42 PM EST

To: brooklynpeace(REDACTED by Poster)

Subject: (Iraq Committee - Bklyn Peace Mobe) Bob Simon from 60 Minutes under attack for Israel report


Please forward widely!


Bob Simon from 60 Minutes under attack.


Fight back with a letter of support.


Nicolas --


This past Sunday, 60 Minutes aired a powerful and thoughtful report on the danger that Israeli settlements pose to the chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace. If you haven't watched the segment, it is must-see journalism. Watch it here.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/23/60minutes/main4749723.shtml

All week long, 60 Minutes' Bob Simon has been under attack for supposed "anti-Israel bias." CAMERA (the Orwellian-named Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) alerted their activist network - flooding the 60 Minutes' offices and their advertisers with angry phone calls charging media bias. (1) Jewish community leader Abe Foxman fired off a letter calling the piece a "hatchet job on Israel." (2) Journalists - as well as rabbis, professors and elected officials - know that if they raise questions about what Israel does - they'll often get attacked as anti-Israel. It's one way the forces of the status quo constrain debate and discussion on what's really best for Israel and the United States.

It's time for a reporter like Bob Simon to know that those of us with balanced views value balanced reporting - and we know how to write letters too! If he's getting an earful from CAMERA and others, then the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement should be showing him support.

Send Bob Simon a note of support for his accurate and thoughtful report on Israeli settlements and the occupation.

We hear plenty from American media about the threats that Israel faces from terrorism, rockets, and a nuclear Iran.

While those threats are real and should be covered, Americans also need to hear about another threat that is just as real: that time is running out for a two-state solution with the Palestinians in part due to Israeli settlements and the occupation of the West Bank. Without a two-state solution soon through assertive American diplomacy, Israel's future as a Jewish, democratic homeland is at risk.

During Sunday's 60 Minutes segment, anchor Bob Simon interviewed pro-settlement activist Daniella Weiss who readily admitted that she thinks "settlements prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel. This is the goal. And this is the reality."

Simon also restated what Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been saying for years (3) about what would happen if the two-state solution peace process falls apart.

"Demographers predict that within ten years Arabs will outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Without a separate Palestinian state the Israelis would have three options, none of them good. They could try ethnic cleansing, drive the Palestinians out of the West Bank, or they could give the Palestinians the vote. That would be the democratic option but it would mean the end of the Jewish state. Or they could try apartheid - have the minority Israelis rule the majority Palestinians, but apartheid regimes don't have a very long life."

Simon also interviewed Israeli Foreign Minister and Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians Tzipi Livni who said that evacuating the settlers in the West Bank is "not going to be easy. But this is the only solution."

But groups like CAMERA are opposed to mainstream media reporting that Israeli extremists, in addition to Palestinian extremists, undermine efforts to achieve a two-state solution. CAMERA resorts to claims of anti-Israel bias - when the reality is that Israeli extremists on the West Bank make real peace and security for Israel and the Palestinians more difficult to achieve.

We can't let fringe groups like CAMERA define what it means to be pro-Israel through intimidation and fear tactics.

Bob Simon should receive support from the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement for his accurate and thoughtful assessment of the threat that Israeli settlements pose to the two-state solution peace process.

Thanks for all you do.


- Isaac


Isaac Luria

Online Director

J Street

January 29, 2009