Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 03:23:59 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Mandela v. Friedman




Bush's First Memo
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Memo to: Yasir Arafat
From:  President George W. Bush
Dear Yasir, I know you're hoping to visit Washington
soon, but before 
we set 
a date you need to know what's on my mind. Where to
begin? How about 
with 
the March 21 Reuters article they put in my
intelligence briefing. It 
quoted 
the Palestinian minister of state for parliamentary
affairs, Nabil Amr, 
as 
saying, "We demand that the U.S. begin to play an
active role as the 
main 
sponsor of the peace process."
"We demand . . ." Hmmm, that's an interesting way to
talk to me.  Six 
months 
ago President Clinton risked his reputation to convene
a peace 
conference 
between you and Ehud Barak at Camp David. By the end
of that process 
you 
were offered - by Clinton - a concrete U.S.  proposal
for a Palestinian 
state in the West Bank, half of Jerusalem, restitution
for Palestinian 
refugees and a slice of land from Israel in return for
West Bank land 
that 
Israel would retain for settlements. You rejected that
(without even a 
thank 
you to Clinton), because it didn't also include the
right for millions 
of 
Palestinian refugees, from the 1948 war, to return to
Israel.
Now your minister "demands" that I resume an active
U.S. role.  Well, 
Yasir, 
I agree. And the proper "active role" for me right now
is simple: to 
tell 
you the truth.
Yasir, you made a historic blunder in launching this
second intifada 
against 
Israel, after the most serious U.S.-Israeli peace
overture ever. Look 
where 
you are now: The world is fed up with you, CNN has
moved on and you've 
lost 
all the good will and credibility you had built up
with Israel's silent 
majority, which was ready to deal with you as a
partner for peace. The 
Israeli public is going to vote on how much land to
give up or not, and 
by 
sending them the message that you think the only thing
they understand 
is 
force, you've undercut all your allies in Israel and
gotten Ariel 
Sharon 
elected prime minister by the largest margin in
Israel's history. Nice 
work.
And now you want us all to behave as if nothing has
changed. You keep 
insisting that the peace talks resume where they left
off.  Well, they 
left 
off with you saying no! If you now want to accept the
Clinton plan, 
that's 
one thing. But if you just want to resume talking
about it, so you can 
say 
no again, so that we'll chase you with even better
terms, forget it. I 
was 
born at night, Yasir, but it wasn't last night. I saw
the way you 
chewed 
Clinton up and spit him out. You will not get that
chance with me. 
You're 
the one with something to prove, not me. It's
interesting, Yasir, you, 
Clinton and Barak all flamed out at Camp David. The
Israelis ousted 
Barak.  
The American people elected me. Only the Palestinian
people didn't get 
to 
change their leader after this debacle.
Nevertheless, while you may not have to answer to your
own people, you 
do to 
us if you want us involved. We're now operating on the
assumption that 
you're not up to signing an end-of-conflict,
comprehensive peace with 
Israel. You certainly haven't even begun to prepare
your people, in 
Arabic, 
for the historic compromises such a deal would
require. When you insist 
that 
all Palestinian refugees from 1948 be able to return
to Israel, or that 
the 
Jews never had a temple in Jerusalem, then you're in a
never- never 
land we 
can't reach.
We do believe, though, that you and Sharon may have a
mutual interest 
in 
another smaller, interim settlement - one that gets
you more land, gets 
Israel more security and rebuilds some cooperation so
that one day you 
can 
talk about something larger. We can help with such a
deal, but you're 
going 
to have to take the initiative.
Don't think I'm giving the Israelis a free pass. I
made clear to Sharon 
that 
just because you've behaved recklessly doesn't mean he
can. The 
Palestinian 
leadership may be in disarray, but Israel still has to
find a way to 
live 
with the Palestinian people, so Israel must behave in
a way that makes 
clear 
to Palestinians that it's still worth taking a risk
for peace.
Yasir, I'm not abandoning Mideast diplomacy. But I'm
not going to 
indulge 
you the way Clinton did. If you want to reverse the
outcome of the 1967 
war, 
and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, we will
help you. If you 
want 
to reverse the outcome of the 1948 war, we will not
help you. If you 
want to 
reverse the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which first
supported a modern 
Jewish 
homeland in Palestine, we will oppose you. When you
figure out what 
you're 
about, give me a call.
MANDELA'S MEMO TO THOMAS FRIEDMAN


To: Thomas L. Friedman (Columnist New York Times)
From: Nelson Mandela (former President South Africa)

Dear Thomas,

I know that you and I long for peace in the Middle
East, but before you 
continue to talk about necessary conditions from an 
Israeli 
perspective, 
you need to know what's on my mind. Where to begin?

How about 1964. Let me quote my own words during my
trial. They are 
true  
today as they were then:
"I have fought against white domination and I have
fought against black 
domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic
and free society 
in 
which all persons live together in harmony and with
equal 
opportunities. It 
is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. 
But if needs be, 
it is 
an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

Today the world, black and white, recognise that
apartheid has no 
future.  
In South Africa it has been ended by our own decisive
mass action in 
order 
to build peace and security. That mass campaign of
defiance and other 
actions could only culminate in the establishment of 
democracy.  
Perhaps it 
is strange for you to observe the situation in
Palestine or more 
specifically, the structure of political and cultural
relationships 
between 
Palestinians and Israelis, as an apartheid system. 
This is because you 
incorrectly think that the problem of Palestine began
in 1967. This was 
demonstrated in your recent column "Bush's First Memo"
in the New York 
Times 
on March 27, 2001. You seem to be surprised to hear
that there are 
still 
problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important
component of which is 
the 
right to return of Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue
of military 
occupation 
and Israel is not a country that was established
"normally" and 
happened to 
occupy another country in 1967.  Palestinians are not
struggling for a 
"state" but for freedom, liberation and equality, just
like we were 
struggling for freedom in South Africa.

In the last few years, and especially during the reign
of the Labour 
Party, 
Israel showed that it was not even willing to return
what it occupied 
in 
1967; that settlements remain, Jerusalem would be
under exclusive 
Israeli 
sovereignty, and Palestinians would not have an
independent state, but 
would 
be under Israeli economic domination with Israeli
control of borders, 
land, 
air, water and sea.  Israel was not thinking of a
"state" but of 
"separation". The valua of separation is measured in
terms of the 
ability of 
Israel to keep the Jewish state Jewish, and not to
have a Palestinian 
minority that could have the opportunity to become a
majority at some 
time 
in the future. If this takes place, it would force
Israel to either 
become a 
secular democratic or bi-national state, or to turn
into a state of 
apartheid not only de facto, but also de jure.

Thomas, if you follow the polls in Israel for the last
30 or 40 years, 
you 
clearly find a vulgar racism that includes a third of
the population 
who 
openly declare themselves to be racist. This racism is
of the nature of 
"I 
hate Arabs" and "I wish Arabs would be dead". If you
also follow the 
judicial system in Israel you will see there is
discrimination against 
Palestinians, and if you further consider the 1967
occupied territories 
you 
will find there are already two judicial systems in
operation that 
represent 
two different approaches to human life: one for
Palestinian life and 
the 
other for Jewish life. Additionally there are two
different approaches 
to 
property and to land. Palestinian property is not
recognised as private 
property because it can be confiscated.

As to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza, there is an 
additional factor. The so-called "Palestinian
autonomous areas" are 
bantustans. These are restricted entities within the
power structure of 
the 
Israeli apartheid system.  The Palestinian state
cannot be the 
by-product of 
the Jewish state, just in order to keep the Jewish
purity of Israel. 
Israel's racial discrimination is daily life of most
Palestinians. 
Since 
Israel is a Jewish state, Israeli Jews are able to
accrue special 
rights 
which non-Jews cannot do.  Palestinian Arabs have no
place in a 
"Jewish" 
state.

Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has
deprived millions of 
Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has
perpetuated a system 
of 
gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has
systematically
incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians,
contrary to the 
rules 
of international law. It has, in particular, waged a
war against a 
civilian 
population, in particular children.

The responses made by South Africa to human rights
abuses emanating 
from the 
removal policies and apartheid policies respectively,
shed light on 
what 
Israeli society must necessarily go through before one
can speak of a 
just 
and lasting peace in the Middle East and an end to its
apartheid 
policies.

Thomas, I'm not abandoning Mideast diplomacy. But I'm
not going to 
indulge 
you the way your supporters do. If you want peace and
democracy, I will 
support you. If you want formal apartheid, we will not
support you. If 
you 
want to support racial discrimination and ethnic
cleansing, we will 
oppose 
you. When you figure out what you're about, give me a
call.




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