Judgment Day

Monday, September 1, 2003

Facing the hills painting by Silvia Rosenberg 50x70 cm on paper.

Some expect the Or Commission report, due out this afternoon, to become a watershed in Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, a touchstone reference point for any discussion of the status of the Arab minority in the Zionist state. Some expect the report on the riots of October 2000, in which 13 Israeli Arab citizens were shot dead by police, to resolve the question of former premier Ehud Barak's political future; some expect it to whitewash Barak while laying all the blame on a handful of policemen who were just following his orders to keep Israel's roads open at all cost. Others expect it to once and for all remove Barak from politics.

But one thing is sure: in a day or two or three, some other issue -- unemployment, single mothers, terrorism, corruption in high places -- will replace the discussion of the report, its recommendations, and their ramifications, in the media. In Israel in the fall of 2003, three years after the riots and after three years of warfare of both low and high intensity with the Palestinians, nothing seems capable of galvanizing public interest for longer than a few days, and there is very little confidence among Jews and Arabs that a dramatic change away from alienation and toward civic equality between the two communities is on the horizon.

Along with the Or commission report, other issues were on the agenda today: While the government kicked off its deliberations about the 2004 budget, which is expected to be between NIS 10-15 billion less than the 2003 budget, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was on his way to Morocco for meetings with top officials, including King Mohammed VI, about bilateral ties between the two countries. The Tunisian-born Shalom was hoping to return with an agreement for renewal of the diplomatic ties that were frozen with the outbreak of the intifada. Asked by Israel Radio if the Arab world is ready to open doors to Israelis considering the renewed policy of assassination and the collapse of the hudna, Shalom said "they understand our measures are only for self-defense."

Those measures, in the West Bank at least, included house demolitions and arrests in the last 24 hours, while in the Gaza Strip, armor and troops continued to wait outside the Strip for the order to move in. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told reporters yesterday that a land operation in Gaza is possible - but military analysts throughout the media were saying in recent days that despite army bravado about readiness to go into Gaza, the cost in lives - both Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians - is a deterrent. In any case, Israeli security services remains on high alert about Hamas retaliations for the assassinations of the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, American pressure is working to lift the danger of Mahmoud Abbas' government collapsing on Thursday, when the Palestinian Legislative Council meets. It is currently slated to hear an Abbas report on the first 100 days of his government but with no vote of confidence to follow. But the political clash between Abbas and Arafat continues.

Newspapers in Israel were reporting that Abbas supporters were warning that Arafat's behavior could yet lead the Palestinians to the same result that Saddam did to Iraq, as Maariv said, quoting a Palestinian official "close to Abbas" as saying "The homeland is not for the sake of one person. We're missing the opportunity again because of Arafat. Even though Sharon is in office, the American president is talking about a Palestinian state and that vision could be lost because of Arafat."

But others warned that as each day goes by and Abbas is identified more with the Americans, Europeans, Arab states like Egypt and Jordan and even Israel, he loses to Arafat, who built his career on declaring nobody will deciding anything for the Palestinians other than the Palestinians.

And in East Jerusalem, hundreds of residents of Abu Dis protested against government orders confiscating land for the "Jerusalem envelope" security fence - while MK Omri Sharon reportedly arrived at the headquarters of the police's National Fraud Squad, to be questioned about the various scandals connected to his father's campaign financing in 1999, which the prime minister says Omri organized.

Today's Situation || Yesterday's Situation