Sixty years after the establishment of the State of Israel, Anthony David contributes to the Z Word web site a profile of Sari Nusseibeh, arguably the most important Palestinian intellectual alive today, which concentrates on the moral and philosophical aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Observes David:
“What dreams of perfect justice will never do is lead to real freedom. The political leaders and demagogues who like promising the moon might benefit from slogans. The “average, normal person” will remain in his squalid camp, or crumbling school or prison. The “average, normal person” gets lost in the pursuit of absolute justice.
Nusseibeh can accept Israel’s moral right to exist despite the events of 1948 because he interprets history through the real needs of the “normal, average person.” History has to serve life, not cripple it. The person, not the political paradigm, is what interests him. Because Israelis as individuals have the moral right to life and liberty, so does the state that represents them.”
Please do read the rest.
Anthony David is right - Nusseibeh is a mass of contradictions. Unlike him, however, I never felt that these contradictions resolve themselves. The book does not passionately advocate two states, indeed Nusseibeh seems to seesaw between one and two states. I never understood what the essence of Palestinian nationalism was all about. Neither did I feel Nusseibeh had much empathy for Jews - who were always described as Russian upstarts. He admired Abu Jihad who the Israelis would probably not hesitate to describe as a terrorist. I was no closer to understanding what made Nusseibeh tick at the end of the book than at the beginning.
Appropos for an article about Sari Nusseibeh’s antipathy to revanchist sloganeers is Hillel Cohen’s important book about the history of Arab collaboration with Zionists. Reviewed here by Benny Morris:
http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=0e100478-298c-438c-a994-e1800474ad19