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5763: Articles posted from September 2002-September 2003
Get the real situation in Israel every day.
The nightmare is the intertia
By Robert Rosenberg
September 18 2002
There are dreams -- usually nightmares -- that go on and on without any end in sight, and no matter how hard one tries to end them, the inertia of sleep keeps them going, so much so that it becomes the inertia itself that is the nightmare even more than the unsavory details viewed on the eyelid's interior.
That's what it feels like here nowadays.
It began as an ordinary nightmare. It was a nightmare to find Ariel Sharon as prime minister after the nightmare of hysteria that broke out when the Camp David talks broke down. It was a nightmare when the suicide bombers began showing up and it was a nightmare when the army led the government into a war against the Palestinians. And now, Iraq is becoming part of the nightmare -- whether the nightmare is the war American president George Bush seems to eager to pursue, or the nightmare is the thought of Saddam Hussein with nuclear weapons.
All that is frightening, of course. But the biggest part of the nightmare is that it just goes on and on, that there's no end in sight, that no matter what happens, those in control insist that nothing has changed, and nothing will change, until the other side changes -- and both sides repeat the same mantra, blaming the other.
The biggest part of the nightmare is the inertia, the inability to wake up from it, end it with a blink of the eye or even a long haul out of the deep sleep. It's as if we've been drugged, made into zombies who go to work at jobs that pay less and less, see friends, watch our children grow, and all the while, in the back of our minds, know that something terrible is happening, approaching inexorably, and since there is nothing that can be done to stop it, so there is nothing we need to do.
Some, of course, believe that there are things that can be done -- demnstrations, protests, writing to Bush, faxing Sharon, sending money to Palestinians (or, for that matter, Israelis who support a peace effort). Yes, Margaret Meade's quote: ""Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world: indeed it's the only thing that ever has," which for a long time appeared on all Ariga peace pages, is inspirational.
But to be frankly realistic, part of the nightmare is its utter illogic and the sheer ineffectiveness of logic and rational thinking to end the nightmare. Thoughtfulness and commitment can make change -- but it is incremental, tiny steps that affect one life after another, while this darkness affects masses, millions of people, who do the best they can to get by another day without losing their minds.
In this darkness, there are some pinpoints of light, of course. Amram Mitzna's candidacy is one, and contradictorily, so is the possibility that Fuad Ben-Eliezer will be re-elected as the Labor Party candidate for prime minister, which would split the party and result in the creation of a new social democratic party in Israel. The Palestinian Legislative Council's moves against the Arafat cabinet is a pinpoint, as is the draft agreement between Sari Nusseibeh and Ami Ayalon, which supposedly is going to turn into a petition for signature collection on the streets of both Israel and Palestine.
But the American president's insistence on a regime change in Baghdad -- something it is very difficult to oppose in principle, even if his tactics and strategy are so simplistic -- have raised the stakes. It is obvious that under cover of an American action against Iraq, the warmongers closer to Tel Aviv will move into play. The Hezbollah will undoubtedly use it as an opportunity to shoot rockets at Israel, and Sharon will undoubtedly use that as an opportunity for havoc in Lebanon -- and possibly Syria. As for what he will try in the West Bank and Gaza -- and what Palestinians will try -- well, you can see how dark this nightmare goes.
At the risk of sounding Marxist, perhaps things will have to get much worse before they can get much better. Perhaps. But that raises the fear of how much worse is needed before things do get better.
My apologies for such a depressing outlook at the start of the new year.
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