Interview – Dr. Emmanuel Navon
Shock and Awesome – Dr. Emmanuel Navon Interview
We spoke to Dr. Emmanuel Navon this week about the Palestinian push for statehood at the UN in NYC. While Dr. Navon was staunchly against the attempt he did reiterate that the Israeli delegation has been willing to sit with the Palestinians to further peace talks. I think his most important comment came from a question I asked him about the interdependency of the economies of Israel and the West Bank where he said, “On the ground there is no real separation between Israel and the West Bank… On the ground people live with each other, work with each other and go to each others weddings.” As in most political conflicts, the people on the ground who are most affected are far ahead of their respective governments when it comes to peace.
About Dr. Emmanuel Navon:
Dr. Emmanuel Navon is a consultant, and an academic and lecturer at Tel-Aviv university specializing in international relations.
He is the founder of The Navon-Levy Group (founded in 2007) – a consulting firm that opens market opportunities for Israeli companies in Africa to the mutual benefit of Africa’s economic development and of Israel’s international outreach.
He is also a contributor to David Frum’s political op-ed site FrumForum - where he offers insight on Israeli politics and foreign relations.
From his last article on FrumForum:
“The true reason why Abbas has opted for unilateralism is that he has come to realize that Israel will not sign a peace agreement that includes the so-called Palestinian “right of return.” Abbas also knows that Western governments stand with Israel on that issue, because the Palestinian definition of the so-called “right of return” would turn Israel into a bi-national state with an Arab majority, while the Palestinian state will not tolerate a single Jew (Abbas explicitly said so recently). The “two-state solution” and the “right of return” are mutually exclusive. Unilateralism will enable the Palestinians to obtain statehood (even virtually and illegally) without having to pay the price demanded by Israel and the West, i.e. making peace with Israel and abandoning the so-called “right of return.” Unilateralism, then, will perpetuate the conflict and will legitimize the idea that accepting and recognizing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people is no longer a condition and a requirement for the establishment of a Palestinian state. UN members who will vote in favor of the Palestinian move at the General Assembly will in effect be accomplice to the perpetuation of the conflict and to the de facto denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.”