topic by
real watcher
6/26/2002 (16:38) |
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Bush Offers Nothing Real to the Palestinians--but Plenty for the Terrorists=
--a response to Bush's Mid East speech June 24th, 2002.
by Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor, Tikkun
George Bush might be a nice guy, but he sure knows how to miss
an opportunity. For the first time since 1948, Arab states have offered
to give Israel full recognition and peace if Israel withdraws to its
pre-67 borders. The leadership of the Palestinian Authority has just
announced that it would accept the terms of an agreement as
defined by President Clinton in 2000 in the months after Camp
David.
But there are two substantial obstacles to all this:
First, the Israeli political Right, which currently runs the Government
of Israel, has no interest in withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza.
Many religious Zionists believe that giving up West Bank settlements
would be a violation of Godís will.*
Second, Islamic fundamentalists have no interest in the creation of a
secular Palestinian state living in peace with Israel. They would
much prefer to see an Israeli occupation which will be worn down
over the course of the next thirty to forty years of guerilla struggle
against Islamic forces than to see a secular state that would restore
hope for Palestinians and lessen the appeal of the fundamentalists.
So both have entered into a de facto alliance to prevent any such
development. Ariel Sharon says that he will not reward terror by
allowing any substantial steps toward withdrawal from the West
Bank and Gaza as long as Israelis face terror. Hamas, Hezbollah
and Islamic Jihad understand the covert invitation, and respond by
acts of terror against Israel , particularly at moments when the
Palestinian Authority seems to be moving toward accommodation
with whatever is the lastest American or Israeli demand.
Instead of responding by attacking Hamas, Hezbollah or Islamic
Jihad, Sharon responds by repressive measures against the
Palestinian Authority and the entire Palestinian people. Those
measures increase despair, generate new recruits for the terrorists,
and demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the Palestinian Authority. A
perfect reward for the terroristsóexactly what they are seeking.
Now George Bush has joined Sharon in endorsing the notion that
any small bunch of fundamentalist extremists can veto a peace
process. Of course, had the US insisted as a precondition for
withdrawal that the Vietnamese end acts of violence against
Vietnamese civilians who supported the US, weíd still be fighting
that war. Or if the South African whites had demanded an end to all
acts of anti-white violence as a precondition for majority rule, there
would still be apartheid in South Africa. And since the Palestinian
terrorists do not seek peace with Israel, but the destruction of Israel,
George Bush has given them massive incentive to keep going with
acts of terror.
Bushís call for democratic reform of Palestine might have more
credibility if it had come from a President who had won the popular
vote in the U.S., but it frames a direction which almost everyone can
embrace. The Palestinian people would certainly benefit by replacing
Arafat and other criminal elements who have supported terror against
Israeli civilians. But as long as Israeli tanks roll into Palestinian citi=
es
every week, few Palestinians will believe that it is possible to have a
democratic process that is anything more than a ratification of whatever
Israel seeks to impose on themóand if they vote at all, it will be for
those who express the most extreme anger at Israel (just who we
don't need in power if we want to negotiate for peace).
If the US wants peace, George Bush is going to have to summon
the courage that allowed his father to stand up to the American
friends of Israelís Right wing. In 1991 that meant demanding a
settlement freeze, but in 2002 that will mean support for an
international intervention to separate and protect the two sides from
each other and to impose a settlement which minimally requires an
end to the Occupation and the settlements, reparations for the
Palestinian refugees(and to Israelis who fled Arab lands) as well as
an end to the terror.. One way to reassure legitimate Israeli fears:
offer Israel membership in NATO or a mutual defense pact with the
US to guarantee protection from assault by neighboring states.
But there is only one path to mobilize Palestinians to join in a
serious effort to crush Hamas and other fundamentalist terrorissóand
that is for the Palestinian people to feel Israel has had a fundamental
change of heart and is now ready to treat the Palestinian people with
the same respect and sensitivity to their needs and their fears that
we Jews rightly demand for ourselves. And that will never happen
as long as we punish an entire people for the outrageous acts of a
few. In my view, both sides need to do real teshuva--repentance for
the terrible cruelty and pain each has unnecessarily inflicted on the
other. But in the actual reality of Israel's far superior military power, i=
t
must be the more powerful force that starts this process without
demanding that it be reassured from the start that the other side will
reciprocate. If the Jewish people were to not only end the Occupation
and provide reparations, but also do it in a way that demonstrated real
repentance, and we kept up an attitude of generosity and open-
heartedness for many years, the justifiable Palestinian rage would
eventually melt enough so that most Palestinians would be willing to
stop, villify, and imprison those (and there are certain to be some)
who will want to keep up violence no matter what Israel does. This is
the only way to isolate the fundamentalists--every other approach
guarantees their survival and future acts of terror.
Bush's vague promises of a state without territory, and without
protection from further Israeli incursions, and conditional on
overthrowing Arafat and stopping all violence, is a
non-starter ñexcept perhaps as a temporary respite of pressure
from the Saudis who may use the Bush speech as a pretext to
claim that the US has demonstrated good intentions, and therefore
deserves the go-ahead for USís desired war against Iraq. But for
those of us who want peace and reconciliation in the Middle East,
George Bush never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
All the more reason why we need to build a social movement
capable of pushing US policy in a different direction. We call it
The Tikkun Community--and our goal is to be
is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, a movement that calls
for both a new social policy and a new spirit of
compassion and generosity.
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