by
Ami Isseroff
The actual beginning of the third millennium in the Middle East it is not auspicious. Most of the people in our
region live in poverty under repressive regimes of different types, most do not as yet benefit from freedom from want
and freedom from fear, promised by the United Nations over half a century ago. In Israel and Palestine, the sides seem
farther from peace than they have been since the signing of the Oslo Declaration of Principles.
The preoccupation of the media with acceptance or non-acceptance of President Clinton's bridging proposals may be
entirely beside the point. The Israeli government has agreed to accept those proposals as a basis for further
negotiations - with reservations. This acceptance has provoked much controversy in Israel. Everyone is willing to offer
an opinion on why the proposals are good or bad, or why Israel or the Palestinians should accept them. However, very few
people know what the actual substance of the proposals might be. Many Israelis reject the proposals because they do not
want to grant Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Palestinians oppose the proposals because they will not
give up on sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
Assuming that both sides agree eventually that the proposals are "a basis for further negotiations - with
reservations," what does this mean? Anything after all, can be the basis for "further negotiations with reservations."
It is not even certain that the sides agree on what the proposals actually say. In the current atmosphere, and
given the brief amount of time remaining to President Clinton, and most likely, to the government of Israeli PM Ehud
Barak, there is small likelihood that the "further negotiations" will lead to any solution, or even to a restoration of
relative peace and quiet.
The West Bank and Gaza have suffered from closure and a limited siege since the beginning of the violence in late
September. The IDF has killed hundreds of Palestinians and wounded thousands. Israel has also suffered dozens of
casualties and terror attacks, including repeated firing on neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Both sides have learned to
tolerate the intolerable and to justify that which is unjustifiable. The economy of Palestine is in ruins. Nonetheless,
there are those mad enough to insist that the violence must go on. Indeed, on the Palestinian side, there are almost no
voices calling for an end to the violence, or considering non-violent protest as an alternative.
Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz Rantissi vowed, "Hamas will not support any new move towards barren negotiations which aim to
defuse the intifada and grant the enemy the right to exist."
So the only kind of negotiations that will be supported by the Hamas, which now have a say in the negotiations, are
those which would not grant Israel the right to exist.
Professor Edward Said, perhaps, the dean of Palestinian intellectual leadership, recently called for a "mass
movement," similar to the Indian liberation movement led by Mohandas Gandhi, the American civil-rights movement and the
South African liberation struggle. Amazingly, Said omitted any mention of nonviolence. Said himself participated in a
symbolic incident where he threw rocks at the Israeli border from the Lebanese side, joining the violence organized by
the Hizbullah in defiance of the U.N.
Every day brings its toll of dead and sows the seeds of new violence. In the West Bank yesterday, Benjamin Zeev
Kahana and his wife were murdered in a car ambush by Palestinians. Kahana was the son of the late Meir Kahana, founder
of the outlawed racist Kach party. Benjamin Kahana led his own Kahana Hai movement, which has enjoyed a renaissance of
late. Kahana's death provoked demands by the Israeli right for revenge. His funeral was the occasion for random acts of
violence against Arab passers-by. Settlers have already established a new settlement outpost in his name. Right-wing MK
(Parliament member) Michael Kleiner wrote to Attorney General Rubenstein, requesting that Rubenstein reconsider the
outlawing of the Kach and Kahana Hai parties, because they "are acting for the strengthening of the Jewishness of the
state."
MK Kleiner's letter gives us a chilling portent of the kind of Judaism and Jewishness are increasingly accepted as
the norm in Israel. The violence of the last months has wrought incalculable damage to the cause of peace and decency on
both sides. In Israel, we look forward with resigned trepidation to the election of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister, as
polls show PM Barak trailing Sharon by over 20 percentage points. In Israel, peace activists greet these results with
equanimity, and insist they will not vote for Barak because he has not made sufficient concessions to the Palestinians,
and because of the violent and repressive measures being used against the Palestinians and against Israeli Arabs. There
are those who like to fool themselves into believing that Ariel Sharon will not really be different from Barak. One
fears they will be sorely disabused.
Ami Isseroff
Rehovoth,
Israel
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