We were not born to govern another people against their will, and we want them to be free so we shall be free in our own beliefs and principles. We agreed to see a Palestinian state living in peace, in freedom as our neighbor, and wish them really well from the depths of our heart. [Israel Vice Premier Shimon Peres to CNN on Sunday]
Emulating Saul of Tarsus, PM Ariel Sharon’s conversion on the road to peace with the Palestinians is nothing short of a miracle!
When Ariel Sharon became Prime Minister in 2001, no one could have anticipated that this Zionist military veteran would take bolder steps for peace with the Palestinians than any other leader in the history of modern Israel. After all, in 1983 an Israeli tribunal (the Kahan Commission) found that he was “personally responsible” (as Minister of Defense) for the worst massacres of Palestinians (at Sabra and Shatila) in the Middle East.
Yet on Sunday, he gave notice that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) will forcibly evict all Jews remaining in the occupied territory of the Gaza Strip after midnight tonight “as an olive branch” for peace with the Palestinians.
However, many Jewish settlers there have vowed to defy Sharon in the name of their God (despite generous resettlement packages which, in material terms, make this exercise of eminent domain seem like a very charitable gesture indeed). And, so looms the ironic spectacle of Jews fighting Jews for the sake of honoring “Promised Land” to Palestinian Arabs.
How did the Jews come to this fate?
Thousands of years ago, according to the bible (upon which many settlers base their defiance), God commanded Moses to go into Egypt and tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go!” And thus began the tortured, conflicted and itinerant pilgrimage of the Jews to settle in their own Promised Land where today defiant settlers in Gaza believe they reside by the divine ordination of the Almighty God.
But even settlers who are motivated more by nationalism than divine right feel entitled to remain there because successive Israeli governments encouraged them to settle the territory as pioneers forming the front lines of defense for their besieged state. Therefore, to be fair, it is important to keep in mind this biblical / historical context as the confrontation between die-hard settlers and the IDF unfolds over their refusal to obey Sharon’s eviction notice.
The Jews seem to have been chosen by God to endure unrelenting hardships and fanatical challenges to their very existence (from bondage in Egypt to the Holocaust to self-inflicted strife – all of which are well documented). Yet they have not only survived but actually thrived under these adversities.
Indeed, after ending the 1967 Arab-Israeli (Six-Day) War in control of Gaza (as well as the Sinai Peninsula, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights), Israel declared it a matter of national security for Jews to occupy as much of these conquered territories as possible. And during the decades that followed, precious national resources were deployed to ensure the welfare of Jewish settlers (like the 8500 Jews who lived amongst 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza). (It is noteworthy that Israeli leaders implemented this national policy in defiance of UN resolutions which condemned the occupation and called for Israel’s immediate withdrawal.)
Therefore, notwithstanding the return of the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords with Egypt (which, incidentally, did not require evicting settled Jews), the very notion of exchanging “land for peace” with the Palestinians was considered by most Israelis an apostasy…until the 1993 Oslo Accords.
The Oslo Accords were negotiated to quell the unending cycle of violence that greeted Israel’s 1980 declaration that the whole of Jerusalem was its “eternal and indivisible” capital. This declaration ignited simmering resentment over the occupation and prompted Arabs throughout the region to fund a series of Intifadas (riots) – organized by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and affiliate groups – to undermine Israel’s control in the territories. And, there can be no doubt that this cycle of violence (featuring Palestinian suicide bombers and targeted assassinations by the IDF) led to a cognitive dissonance amongst an increasing number of Israelis on the security benefits of occupying Palestinian territories.
Therefore, by 1993, when President Bill Clinton pushed Israeli leaders to reconsider the viability of their policy of refusing to trade land for peace, there was considerable sympathy amongst a critical mass of Jews for such concessions. Consequently, the Oslo Accords established a framework for peace which called for mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, limited self-rule for the Palestinians in the occupied territories and the promise of a Palestinian state. And, this pullout from Gaza comes pursuant to those Accords (as amended by the Roadmap for Peace drawn up by the U.S., Russia, EU and the U.N. in 2003).
It is profoundly ironic, however, that Yitzhak Rabin was not only the general who led Israeli forces when they captured the Gaza Strip but also the Prime Minister who negotiated the Oslo Accords (with Clinton and PLO Chairman Yassar Arafat) to cede it back to the Palestinians. Unfortunately, Rabin also became the most prominent casualty on this road to peace when he was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish settler who, like those defying Sharon today, considered him a traitor for merely negotiating terms for Israel’s withdrawal from some of the occupied territories.
Defiant Jewish settlers demonstrating little faith that Sharon’s withdrawal method will give birth to peace.
Therefore, even though Sharon has declared the pullout from Gaza “painful but vital” to the long term security of Israel, he must be mindful of the extremes to which some settlers will go to express their holy disagreement with his policies. And, even though his Vice Premier Simon Peres says he’s “sure that history will justify our choice”, Sharon can only hope that aggrieved settlers will wait on history (or the Lord) to pass judgment instead of taking justice into their own hands by doing to him what they did to Rabin….
Peres is right, of course (in this and his sage quote that opened this article). Therefore, may God bless and protect Ariel Sharon. And may God grant leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians the wisdom to seize this peace offering to build the democratic institutions and infrastructure that will sustain the forthcoming independent state of Palestine.
Note: Hedging his bets (just in case Sharon is assassinated), former PM Benjamin Netanyahu – that incorrigible political opportunist – resigned from Sharon’s coalition government last week – ostensibly to protest his principled opposition to the pullout (even though he voted for it as finance minister in Sharon’s cabinet). But this is clearly a Machiavellian ploy to appease Zionists who comprise a very critical faction of the Israel electorate. After all, they facilitated Netanyahu’s election as Prime Minister after Rabin was assassinated and may prove equally instrumental if Sharon meets a similar fate….
News and Politics
Anonymous says
i’ve read everything from the ny times to the bbc and this is the most comprehensive, concise and interesting analysis of this story that i’ve read. i especially like the way you sized up netanyahu. he really gives me the creeps.
Anonymous says
jews have been exploiting the palestinians for decades and using american money to do it. they even had the gall to aks us for half billion to pay them for finally doing the right thing. talk about chutzpah.