...When the Oslo peace process fell apart in 2000 and a Palestinian uprising erupted,
It did not fall apart. Arafat refused the Clinton parameters, a very, very generous offer.
the common wisdom that quickly developed was that the two nations needed not greater intimacy but complete separation. Israel built a barrier,
That was intended to keep terrorists and especially suicide bombers from reaching their targets.
barred most Palestinians from entering (replacing them with Asians on temporary visas) and made it illegal for Israeli citizens to enter Palestinian cities. At the same time, a movement took hold among Palestinians aimed at cutting off contact with Israelis. This has grown into what is known as boycott, divestment and sanctions, or B.D.S., which seeks to isolate Israel internationally.
...Israelis — especially in the heartland around Tel Aviv, where two-thirds of the country lives — can now go weeks without laying eyes on a Palestinian or ever having to think about one. In Gaza, Israelis do not exist except in a kind of collective nightmare. In the West Bank, the Israelis are mostly settlers and soldiers. Apart from a few pockets of industry and shopping where Palestinians are employed, interaction is highly limited.
And if an independent "Palestine" is established, we'll see more of its citizens in our country???
...The relationship between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas is one of mutual loathing, according to Martin S. Indyk, who resigned last month as American envoy for peace negotiations after nine months of futile efforts. The two sides and their leaders have become total strangers. Each vilifies the other and imagines its own people to be morally superior, forced to defend itself against the cruel predations of the other.
To compare officially-sponsored incitement of the Pal. Authority to anything any Israeli does, is really incomprehensible.
A generation ago, there were plenty of causes for tension and concern. But Palestinians building what they hoped would become their state, and Israelis working with them, had an often moving sense of shared purpose. Some discovered that they liked one another and looked forward to working together. Today, those feelings are virtually dead. And while mixing the populations in those years was no panacea, divorcing them has only made things worse.
Didn't Israel divorce --- disengage --- from territory? Didn't, under Oslo, it create Areas A and B? Did it help?
More non-thinking from the NYTimes.
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EG prompts me:
"he doesn't say that all along it has been Israel's "peace camp" or "left" that has called for separation"
^
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