A federation between Israel and Palestine, with or without Jordan, will have to find its own character, according to its unique circumstances.
But the main point is timing.
Since Burg likened his proposal to a building, it follows that it must be built floor after floor, from the bottom up. That's how I see it too.
The first floor is the two-state solution. This must be implemented first of all. Any idea about what may come after is meaningless without it.
This means the foundation of the State of Palestine along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as a free, independent and sovereign nation-state of the Palestinian people.
As long as this basic idea is not implemented, and the solution of all the connected problems ("core issues") agreed upon, nothing else has much meaning.
The occupation is a bleeding wound, and it has to be healed in the framework of peace before everything else. There can be no meaningful talk about federation between oppressor and oppressed. Federation presumes partners of equal status, if not of equal strength.
The two-state solution promises peace -- at least the formal peace that puts an end to the hundred-year old conflict. Once this peace is achieved, one can -- and should - think about the next stage, the deepening of the peace and turning it into a day-to-day reality that shapes people's lives.
LET'S ASSUME that this round of negotiations, or some future round, will lead to a formal peace treaty, and an end to all mutual claims, as John Kerry puts it. It's then that the idea of federation should be considered.
What do we have in mind? A close federation or a loose confederation? What functions are the two sides ready - of their own free will - to transfer from the national to the federal level?
Most probably, Israel will not give up its freedom of decision-making concerning its relations with the world-wide Jewish Diaspora and immigration. The same is true for Palestine's relation to the Arab world and the return of refugees.
What about foreign relations in general? I believe that in all existing federations and confederations, the central authority is in charge of these. In our situation this constitutes a problem. Military and security matters are even more problematic.
As I see it, a federation will be mostly concerned with economic matters, matters of human rights, freedom of movement and such.
But the main point is this: the negotiations between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine concerning a federation must be free of pressure, conducted in good faith between equals.
WILL THIS be the end of the road to real peace? I like to think that these are only the first few steps.
If the two-state solution is the first floor, and the federation is the second, one may imagine that the third floor will be a regional union, on the lines of the present European Union.
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