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Palestine Is Flat. Or the World Is.

Tomorrow’s Thomas Friedman column today!

by
Marc Tracy
May 31, 2011
Thomas Friedman.(Thomas Friedman)
Thomas Friedman.(Thomas Friedman)

An anonymous tipster sent us tomorrow’s Thomas Friedman op-ed, which are known to occasionally leak. And by leak, I mean I made this up.

“No one has the power to stop the decision to recognize a Palestinian state in the United Nations General Assembly in September,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday. “It can also be possible to make the decision there that the world is flat.”

Mr. Prime Minister, we may have our disagreements, and there may be shades of nuances, but there can be no denying: The world already is flat, whether or not the U.N. General Assembly says it is. If you were smart, you would get out in front of history—not to mention the nearly 200 clamoring voices of the member-states in Turtle Bay—and declare it yourself.

Now, understand, I don’t mean this literally: I am aware that one cannot fall off the edge of the earth, and indeed that explorers have circumnavigated what is indeed our globe for several centuries. But, metaphorically, thanks to the lightning changes wrought by technology, the Internet, people in India who speak English, international gatherings such as the Davos Conference, the Internet, cloud computing, social media including but not limited to the one depicted in the Aaron Sorkin movie The Social Network, email, e-commerce, e-books, and e=mc², the world may as well be flat, what with the way people and ideas and new editions of my books can transport from continent to continent in the blink of an eye, the click of a mouse, or the slow drag of my finger across my beautiful new iPad 2.0 that Steve Jobs signed-engraved for me.

And, likewise, thanks to the changes wrought in the West Bank by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as well as the voices of ordinary Palestinians, inspired by their fellow Arabs throughout the region who have demanded new personal and political rights, a Palestinian state already exists.

Now, I know there are some problems with saying such a thing about a Palestinian state. I read the same things you read. I know that the new reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas makes it unlikely that Fayyad will be around to continue his ambitious state-building project, because Hamas hates him because they see him as an American and Israeli lackey. Certainly being Palestinian prime minister is not a job for the faint of heart—and Fayyad did just have a heart attack. I know. I know Palestinian President Abbas has had to beg the new leadership in Egypt to allow Fayyad to stay on as PM. Moreover, I know that, if last week’s polls are any indication, your insistence on rigid demands while not putting forth any new proposals of your own or even suggesting a re-start of negotiations, even in the face of the looming September U.N. vote, serves your political purposes perfectly. I know I have to keep typing now to get to 750 words. I know a lot of things. Really.

But that is why you should take this bold step: Come to New York and declare Palestinian statehood. Back home, to shore up your domestic support, you could even make a persuasive bumper sticker outlining your plan. It could read: “Support Palestinian statehood. Why? Because a Palestinian state already exists, and besides, the status quo is bad for us and worse for them. It is the only humane solution, and it is the only workable solution, and therefore it is the only one that combines the values of idealism and realism, neither of which is superior to the other, but each of which can only exist with the other.” This would fit on your bumper stickers, because it could be in Hebrew, and you can leave the vowels out, like you people do.

The bottom line, Mr. Prime Minister—may I call you Bibi?—is that change is coming, and you can’t stop it. You can only get out in front of it, and let the wind fill your sails as you roll downhill toward the sunset and a just and lasting peace. Except the sun never sets on what is, after all, a world that is flat. And the world is flat.

Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs columnist of the New York Times, and he didn’t actually write this. Yet.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.