Meron Benvenisti died last week on Rosh Hashanah at the age of 86. He was a passionate, brilliant, and charismatic iconoclast, a bold and energetic researcher, and a prolific and powerful writer. His visceral attachment to the whole country, his knowledge of and sense of responsibility for Palestinian suffering, and his comfort with confronting conventional wisdom with inconvenient truths, gave his work a compelling urgency that sometimes obscured its lack of nuance.
He was a political organizer, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem in the 1970s, an archeologist, a scholar of the Crusaders, a land dealer, a public policy researcher, and a journalist. But he will be remembered primarily as a prophet a tormented, hyperbolic, anguished, but, in the end, undeniably accurate prophet. Prophets only need to be right about some things to be remembered for their prophecy.Meron was right about one big thing:that the future of Palestine, the future of the Land of Israel, will grow out of a one-state reality from the river to the sea a reality he identified as such earlier than almost any Jewish Israeli.
Merons life, as he described it, was a long process of disillusionment with the conventional Zionism that he absorbed as a youth. His father, who cared not a whit for the countrys Arab inhabitants, was a distinguished geographer who was obsessed with the Zionist principle of Yediat Haaretz (knowing the land). Meron took that principle to its logical extension, loving not only the land but the Palestinian Arabs inhabiting it. Their natural comfort in the landscape and their tenacious human attachment to the places of their habitation not simply to the map image of a politically designated space was his model for what it meant to be what he claimed to be: a native of the country. Intimately exposed to Palestinian suffering and the injustices imposed upon them, he came to see the Zionist project not as building the land, but the obliteration of the landscapes of my childhood.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Israeli scholars and journalists covering the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank began talking about approaching the point of no return echoing the warnings of their Palestinian counterparts. The savviest observers, such as Danny Rubinstein, Yehuda Litani, and Amos Elon, contended that within a few years, or even months, the Gush Emunim settlement movement, and the right-wing parties and governments that supported it, would make the establishment of a Palestinian state impossible.
Meron was the most articulate, most fervent, best informed, and most effective voice among them. Armed with detailed plans and information about this strategy made available to him by the Land Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency, which worked hand in glove with the settlers and Likud government ministers, Meron was able to stimulate a vivid and, for liberal doves, terrifying sense of closing opportunities for peace. It was, he told journalist Thomas Friedman in 1982, five minutes to midnight.
At first, his warnings were hailed by Israeli politicians such as Abba Eban and Lova Eliav. But as time passed, as settler leaders and government ministers praised his findings as proof of the success of their project, and as the number of settlers passed threshold after threshold, Merons former political allies turned on him. Suddenly, he was vilified for supporting the settlement of the entire Land of Israel, secretly hoping to unite the country under a Jewish government by undermining the will to resist annexation with his thesis of irreversibility.
View of the separation wall and Al-Aqsa compound in the background on February 2, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
When I was a young professor at Dartmouth College, I hosted Meron and was in contact with him irregularly over the decades. He found my approach irritating, focusing as it did on the implicit theories undergirding his idea of a point of no return, and on whether the data gathered from Gush Emunim and government planners was reliable. We were, in that sense, intellectual rivals, but I greatly respected him. While other analysts and politicians would regularly forecast the passing of a point of no return as a way to mobilize support from worried doves (only to renounce the existence of such a point after it had passed), Meron was faithful to his analysis.
Without any attractive alternative to a two-state solution available, and therefore without being able to reassure his audience that their fondest dreams would not be dashed, he was, except for one brief period during the First Intifada, consistent in his argument that there never would and never could be an independent Palestinian state. He believed that the peoples living in the land, trapped in an intercommunal conflict, would simply have to find a way to live with one another in the same country and in the same state.
I grieve Merons passing. He was not only one of the most dynamic and interesting people I have ever met, but also, even from a distance, one of my most important intellectual and political interlocutors. In the early 1970s, we were both shocked at the hubris and shortsightedness of Israeli policies toward Palestinians. We each developed interests in British rule in Ireland as a case holding warnings and opportunities for Israel and Palestine. His arguments and data gave urgency and definition to my work in the State Department in the Carter administration, on whether the Camp David Accords could be used to advance a land for peace deal or not. In a series of articles and books, I sharpened my thinking on his arguments, which always provoked and deserved rigorous evaluation.
Although I do not believe Meron was right in the late 1980s that the failure of the two-state solution was inevitable, I have come to the bitter but liberating conclusion that, in the world as it did develop, that option is no longer available. That acceptance of the one-state reality, and of the fact that the future will be determined by its dynamics, not by negotiations, required a long and wrenching process of disillusionment and learning. In that way as well as in others, I feel that, with age, I have come to understand Meron better. For as he emphasized in his later writings, throughout his intellectual, political, and spiritual journey from fervent Zionist to a quasi-Canaanitish democrat, he too learned via processes marked more decisively by disillusion than enlightenment.
Continued here:
Saying goodbye to the Israeli one-state prophet - +972 Magazine
- The Lives of Others - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Aliens and Spiritual Enlightenment - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dreams - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Open Your Eyes - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Spiritual Enlightenment and Grizzly Bears - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- I’m Alive! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Seeing the World - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- First Taste of Spiritual Enlightenment - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Pause - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Welcome - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Resurrection Needed for the Catholic Church, not Jesus. Christianity, Islam ... - American Chronicle - April 5th, 2010 [April 5th, 2010]
- The Secret of Kells - Harvard Crimson - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- Taylor: The true Easter within - Lake County News - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- CHOICES! Your Go To Source for Enlightenment! / Spiritual Movie Morning - WCNC (subscription) - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- Sex Swami duped firangs in the US - NDTV.com - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- Girls' school defies Taliban terror - Times Online - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- Shen Yun Performers Present Spiritual Connotation with Life - The Epoch Times - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- Yoga Draws Criticism - TopNews United States - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- Banjamin Bratt: 'I Wanted to Be Anything But an Actor' - Palm Beach Post - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- The History of Buddhism - MPBN News - April 6th, 2010 [April 6th, 2010]
- Secrets of the Catholic Church - The National Law Journal - April 9th, 2010 [April 9th, 2010]
- U-Theatre of Taiwan dance troupe's West Coast debut spotlights its virtuosity - OregonLive.com - April 9th, 2010 [April 9th, 2010]
- Religion Calendar - Montreal Gazette - April 10th, 2010 [April 10th, 2010]
- Siquijor conducts recollection for parolees - Philippine Information Agency - April 10th, 2010 [April 10th, 2010]
- Prayer for guidance - Inquirer.net - April 10th, 2010 [April 10th, 2010]
- East Bay Buddhist temple strives to maintain relevance in new land - San Jose Mercury News - April 10th, 2010 [April 10th, 2010]
- Spiritual Journey: Stay-home mom Melody Melvin - The Huntsville Times - al.com (blog) - April 10th, 2010 [April 10th, 2010]
- What Does The Buddha Have To Do With Jesus? - Huffington Post (blog) - April 10th, 2010 [April 10th, 2010]
- Laura Dern and William H. Macy Heading to Cable - Inside TV (blog) - April 10th, 2010 [April 10th, 2010]
- American Guru Steven S. Sadleir brings Shaktipat to Spain and Italy - PR Web (press release) - April 11th, 2010 [April 11th, 2010]
- Who and What Is Buddha, Really? - Huffington Post (blog) - April 12th, 2010 [April 12th, 2010]
- The ACLU works to sap our spiritual strength - The Free Lance-Star - April 13th, 2010 [April 13th, 2010]
- Christ Enlightened, The Lost Teachings of Jesus Unveiled by Best-Selling ... - PR Web (press release) - April 13th, 2010 [April 13th, 2010]
- All About Kundalini Yoga - EmpowHer (blog) - April 14th, 2010 [April 14th, 2010]
- Catholic leadership's image tarnished by recurring scandal - Staunton News Leader - April 16th, 2010 [April 16th, 2010]
- Iowa Swami Who Beguiled the Jazz Age - New York Times - April 16th, 2010 [April 16th, 2010]
- More than a spiritual exercise - Nagaland Post - April 18th, 2010 [April 18th, 2010]
- Despite media smears, world and faithful have warmed to Benedict - Irish Times - April 18th, 2010 [April 18th, 2010]
- The Fool's Story in the Major Arcana - I-Newswire.com (press release) - April 19th, 2010 [April 19th, 2010]
- Pakistan's pre-Islamic art goes on show in Paris - DAWN.com - April 20th, 2010 [April 20th, 2010]
- New author shares emotional enlightenment - The Trinidad Guardian - April 20th, 2010 [April 20th, 2010]
- The theft of yoga - Washington Post (blog) - April 20th, 2010 [April 20th, 2010]
- Enter the Realm of the Buddha - Georgetown University The Hoya - April 22nd, 2010 [April 22nd, 2010]
- Indian guru arrested over sex scandal: Police - Montreal Gazette - April 22nd, 2010 [April 22nd, 2010]
- Life Out Here: Tea Party with a twist - Imperial Valley Press (subscription) - April 22nd, 2010 [April 22nd, 2010]
- April 25: A Turning Point for Today's China - The Epoch Times - April 22nd, 2010 [April 22nd, 2010]
- Nityananda bound devotees with non-disclosure agreements - Sify - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- Buddhist Extremists in Bangladesh Beat, Take Christians Captive - Pakistan Christian TV - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- Liberty and the Death of God - American Thinker - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- A Commentary on Religious Intolerance & the Dalai Lama - Subversify (blog) - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- The Fool's Story in the Major Arcana - BigNews.biz (press release) - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- Review: Seeking Life's Meaning - New York Times (blog) - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- An Analysis Of I Corinthians 15 - Blogger News Network (blog) - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- Luxury in spiritual Ladakh, India - Times Online - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- JD Salinger: A 'Selfish Old Goat,' But Not a Perv - Politics Daily (blog) - April 24th, 2010 [April 24th, 2010]
- Sorry, your patent on yoga has run out - Washington Post (blog) - April 25th, 2010 [April 25th, 2010]
- Leggo my ego - Winnipeg Free Press - April 25th, 2010 [April 25th, 2010]
- Church Set to Regain Museum Treasures - The Moscow Times - April 28th, 2010 [April 28th, 2010]
- The multiple sides of Ricky Williams - San Diego Union Tribune - April 28th, 2010 [April 28th, 2010]
- The Dalai Lama, Buddhism, and Tibet: Reflecting on a Half-Century of Change - Student Pulse - April 28th, 2010 [April 28th, 2010]
- The Kumbh Mela: what can it teach us about mental health, consciousness and ... - Psychology Today (blog) - April 28th, 2010 [April 28th, 2010]
- THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (DVD) - Film Threat - April 28th, 2010 [April 28th, 2010]
- A Leg Up on “THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE” - FANGORIA (blog) - April 28th, 2010 [April 28th, 2010]
- The hottest docs at Hot Docs - Globe and Mail - April 29th, 2010 [April 29th, 2010]
- Florida Dems shut down state House - Politico - April 29th, 2010 [April 29th, 2010]
- Reading Energy Fields with Tanis Day - The Barrie Examiner - April 30th, 2010 [April 30th, 2010]
- Book flights to India for a luxury mountain retreat - Southall Travel - April 30th, 2010 [April 30th, 2010]
- In death, mass murderer sees freedom - Citizens Voice - April 30th, 2010 [April 30th, 2010]
- Author Becky Walsh on enlightenment through sex - Dscriber - April 30th, 2010 [April 30th, 2010]
- Is Western Christianity Suffering From Spiritual Amnesia? - Huffington Post (blog) - April 30th, 2010 [April 30th, 2010]
- The Road That Leads to Nowhere - The Road That Leads to You - New York News Today - May 2nd, 2010 [May 2nd, 2010]
- In Their Words: Her path to inner peace - Times Herald-Record - May 2nd, 2010 [May 2nd, 2010]
- Rielle, Oprah, and Zen America's Truth-Off - Politics Daily (blog) - May 3rd, 2010 [May 3rd, 2010]
- CathBlog - Newman's reasoned faith outshines postmodernism's dark stars - CathNews - May 13th, 2010 [May 13th, 2010]
- Light of the Sufis exhibit explores Islam's mystical side - Houston Chronicle - May 13th, 2010 [May 13th, 2010]
- The last word: In search of enlightenment, mindfulness and nirvana in Silicon ... - Financial Times - May 14th, 2010 [May 14th, 2010]
- 'Light in the Wilderness,' by M. Catherine Thomas - Mormon Times - May 14th, 2010 [May 14th, 2010]
- Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive-Fascist Distinction - U.S. News & World Report (blog) - May 14th, 2010 [May 14th, 2010]
- Are You Praying to the Only True God? - WEBCommentary - May 14th, 2010 [May 14th, 2010]
- Haunting 'Lourdes' Revels in the Poetry of Ambiguity - HollywoodChicago.com - May 14th, 2010 [May 14th, 2010]