With the twentieth anniversary of Yizhak Rabin’s assassination evoking so much debate and speculation about what might have happened had he lived it is as good a time as any to reflect on the future of Israel in the Middle East and the hope for peace in this conflict torn area. There are so many ways to look at it all. On the one hand Israel have in the past two decades become a power to be reckoned within the Middle East. (Blog: Powerful Israel Needs A Paradigm Change). But on the other hand they are as far away from the establishment of a two State solution as they have ever been.
No reasonable person could expect such an eventuality with Hamas not remotely interested threatening death and destruction. While Abbas would have to be dragged screaming into a settlement as his behavior has shown. Since Rabin’s death the hope of peace appears to have been abandoned by Palestinian regimes, if they were ever there, but they have been provided with more than enough plausible assistance from the Israeli side to appear as the victims. Netanyahu seems only too comfortable in the cycle of insurgency and insurgency crushed and in the process giving Hamas and Arafat the public relations victories they seek. So the realities that Israel face twenty years after the tragic demise of Rabin are:
* Israel’s existence and role in the Middle East is as secure as ever with the Jewish State being a key partner with the fundamentalist Gulf Sunnis and Egypt against Iran and its Shia allies and radical ISIS.
* Israel faces a conflict against mainly Hamas and with its over riding fire power and impeccable intelligence raises it to the ground each and very time. Hamas has two objectives - periodically making life very uncomfortable for the Israeli population and by the way it fights its wars to see to it that there are enough of its own young dead amongst the rubble photographed for the world to see.
* For the Israelis this means living in constant fear of terrorism punctuated by periodic wars with peace and normalcy an ever distant hope. Mothers still have to send their sons and daughters off to war and far to often nobody can venture out of home. Rabin’s hope for peace is all but forgotten and the Netanyahu administration barely pays lip service to the concept.
So no one argues with Israel’s right to exist and their right to defend themselves. The question on the mind of many is what has been done to bring to peace?
IT MAY BE UNFAIR BUT THE TERRORISTS ARE THE CLEAR WINNERS OF THE PROPAGANDA BATTLE
So much has happened since that fateful bloody day giving justification to both sides of the Israeli political divide. Whatever the two sides may argue there is one clear winner - the Palestinian terrorists. Twenty years later when they have no conceivable hope of winning a conventional war they are garnering increasing world wide and political support from a coalition who are condoning their obscenities in view of their plight and the mistaken belief that Israel is solely responsible for it. It has now become fashionable in intellectual and even political circles to boycott, disinvest and sanction Israel. Something even Abbas feels uncomfortable about as he recently asked the activists to just apply this to settlements. While Abbas can do whatever he believes is tactically the best for his cause the fact that the International Court of Justice can seriously weigh charges against Israel for its war conduct when put plain and simply the charges are directly related to the manner the Palestinians conduct war with women and children first - first to be bombed that is - is outrageous.
So while Hamas quietly and systematically prepare for the next bout of terrorism and Israel do nought to counter this propaganda surge by attempting to change the perception among everyday Palestinians, the purveyors of death gain more and more traction in the public relations battle. No one in the Netanyahu administration is out there making initiatives for peace. No Netanyahu operatives are thinking outside the box to make inroads to change the ever worsening status quo. Who is encouraging NGO's to make contact and form liasons for example? There are private initiatives and poignantly the most visible is the group of Palestinian and Israeli parents who have lost a child in the conflict. The anti Rabinians just bluster along while Hamas and Abbas bide their time believing that if they stick it out forever they must win.
That so many of the verbal attacks and abuses laid on the Jewish State are hypocritical and biased is reflected by the fact that half the motions that the United Nations Committee on Human Rights have ever passed have been condemnations of Israel’s abrogation of Human Rights. This while the world has seen unholy genocide, widespread torture and real abrogation of human rights and the rule of law and violence towards woman and children on an unheard of scale. That it is all based on double standards and is not fair is not the argument. Firstly, Israel proudly claims that it is a transparent democracy and that is the way it should hope to be judged. Secondly, it is the reality and the onus, rightly or wrongly, is for Israel to change the paradigm of its current approach to the problem.
WHAT WAS RABIN’S OPPONENTS GAME AND ITS OUTCOME?
As an ardent believer and supporter of Israel with the firm conviction that Israel has never been the aggressor and have had an ongoing battle to survive bloody onslaughts, first from the surrounding Arab States and subsequently and to this day by terrorist organizations, Jay H. Ell is still more than uneasy about what the end game is of those that opposed the Oslo Accords then and to this day. Put another way what have those, who pilloried Rabin as a traitor, done in the past two decades to resolve the Israeli Palestinian crisis?
Now before Jay H. Ell is jumped on everyone take a deep breath and firstly analyze what the objectives were of those that opposed the deal. One does not have to speculate too much as the guy who was Rabin’s chief opponent and has been in power almost continuously since, Bibi Netanyahu, is still around and calling the shots. While Rabin’s assassin was a loner and no sane person condoned the behavior it is fair to say that the opposition and the environment surrounding Rabin’s deal was toxic and BIbi was the cheerleader in chief. It can be even argued that the opponents did not trust Abbas but what was their alternative? Well, they have had twenty years to put it forward and it is hard not to argue that whatever they have done has been counterproductive to peace and the two state solution that Israel signed onto seventy years ago. Netanyahu can hardly take credit for Barak and Sharon’s efforts although he can argue that they went nowhere. The alternative policy has been to build settlements. Rabin’s opponents cannot contend that by building and defending settlements they have contributed to peace. It is nonsense in this day and age's weaponry and assymetric warfare to believe any longer that it actually contributes to security.
NOW WHAT AND WHERE ARE WE NOW ?
All this begs the question as to what in the past twenty years has Netanyahu put forward to resolve this conflict and what does he propose doing in the next twenty? If the narrative is accepted that, “What can anyone do with such savages”, then let it be said once and for all. Then the solution is an ongoing fight to the death with the Palestinians so get on with it. But that is not what Netanyahu is saying nor has he ever said that. Instead he has added to the argument of those that believe that the Palestinians are the sufferers as he has allowed and encouraged settlements to be built by those who opposed Rabin’s two state peace talks and answered the attacks on them and Israel never convincing anyone that the Israelis are the sole victims. The retaliatory measures, viewed on every medium, of blowing up the homes of Palestinian terrorists as the pathetic families stand by with their few pathetic belongings has not helped and just provided more prime time footage for a press hungry to portray the Israelis as the barbarians. Likewise the flattening of Gaza after each war is welcomed by Hamas who are standing on the rubble next to the dead bodies for photo ops with the Associated Press.
WHERE TO NOW?
So Netanyahu and his followers answer to the Palestinian “problem” is settle on the land that could reasonably be argued that should have been ceded in a two state solution so that it can never be part of a solution. For argument sake let us assume that the opponents of Rabin’s initiative believe they have enough settlements what do they advise next?
Do they advise a one party state where the Palestinians will be in the majority in no time? If all they are doing is legitimizing and institutionalizing the status quo they then support a one party state with no rights for Palestinians? If this is the end game it would lend even more support to those who are cynically calling Israel an apartheid state.
Or do they believe, while every so now and then reaffirming the concept of the two State Solution, as Netanyahu has just done at his meeting with Obama, that the status quo should continue and they will just wing it? Nothing that Netanyahu and the inheritors of the opposition to Rabin do give any reassurance that the policy is anything other than to increase the settlements and remain in constant war. Put another way unless this policy changes the inheritors of the Rabin opposition are committing their own children and grandchildren with the children and grandchildren of others that do not support this policy to permanent war and death. If the belief is on the basis of a biblical injunction, it cannot be from My God. Ironically, the Israeli political leaders that have been war heroes and have kept Israel safe are those that have made the peace moves. They have been opposed inter alia by those who don’t get drafted for religious reasons as well as ideologues like Netanyahu.
WHAT NOW
In this new Middle East that Netanyahu and the opponents of Rabin find themselves where Israel has garnered Gulf Arab support and is flourishing economically what can be done? It is fair to say that for the moment a two state solution is out. What needs to be done for now is set into motion policies to change the hearts and minds of the Palestinians. Netanyahu is doing just the opposite with regard to the Palestinians that are Israeli citizens and nothing for those that are not. Netanyahu has done nothing to deny his settler class any of their demands. They need to compromise within the Israeli context.
True to his twenty year bull in a china shop style he has appointed a Press Secretary that has called Obama an anti semite. What is he trying to do? In case no -one has told him over fifty percent of the American Jewish population agreed with Obama on the Iran deal and that by his arrogant, intrusive, aggressive approach to the nuclear talks he has turned Israel into a bipartisan issue. The President still has a large Jewish following and this will not sit well with them. Netanyahu still needs Obama otherwise he would not have gone off to Washington with his begging bowl in hand. Seriously, maybe it is time for Bibi to call it quits or show some bold initiatives that may in the years to come change the dynamics of the Middle East.
For the moment the Israeli Premier’s end game is the same game he has played for twenty years and Israel on a day to day basis does not sleep any easier than it did on the day Rabin was murdered. So all those cynics who shrug their shoulders and say there is no hope should stop complaining that there is no hope. The onus is on the Jews and Israel in this situation like it or not. It would be a long long process to change attitudes and for those looking for a biblical, philosophical and ethical explanation as to why they should, read Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s paradigm changing blockbuster “Not in God’s Name”. This giant intellect has put forward a rationale for regarding us all as one human family and more significantly in this context shown hope for peace. To simplify his message - We should all reach out to someone who is different and start a dialogue.
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