Subscribe to Print Edition | Sat., October 11, 2008 Tishrei 12, 5769 | | Israel Time: 11:35 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File
Comments:  255
Last update - 09:41 29/09/2008
Prof. Sternhell: Supporters of occupation are not Zionist
By Akiva Eldar
Tags: settlers, Israel News 

Professor Zeev Sternhell's house on Jerusalem's Agnon Street is easily located by the iron gate with the broken glass. Sternhell says the bombing could have ended with him having to have both legs amputated.

Fortunately, last Thursday night he and his wife Ziva had returned from abroad and their suitcases, left in the narrow hallway, separated him and the pipe bomb that had been attached to the door.

The living room is filled with flowers and the telephone doesn't stop ringing. The news is quoting ministers' statements from the cabinet meeting.
Advertisement
Sternhell, while still in the hospital, drew a direct line between the state's surrender to the extreme right rampaging in the territories and the terrorist or organization that tried to kill him.

"What are those ministers talking about," he asks, when Vice Premier Haim Ramon blasts the government on the television news for fearing "those hooligans," as Ramon called them.

Sternhell: "Who has to deal with the outposts? Me? You? Who's to blame for the semi-autonomous state in the territories? Groups of settlers do whatever they feel like. Police officers and reserve soldiers go home with broken arms. How did they let things deteriorate to this lack of control in the West Bank? I told my students that not intervening for a weak child who needs help against a strong child is intervening for the strong child. Whoever fails to enforce the law and protect the Palestinians from the settlers who attack them is cooperating with the hooligans and lawbreakers."

The settlers argue that they are the weak child. Especially since the evacuation of the Gaza Strip.

"I understand exactly what it's like to be a refugee and I'm sorry the Gush Katif settlers were not allowed to build a new life within the Green Line. [But] every time the government takes a step in the right direction, like pulling out of Gaza, it hastens to console the settlers and promise them this will go no further.

"I'm suggesting an alternative to exclusive ownership of the land that justifies occupation. It would be based on a rational view of universal rights, especially the right to liberty and dignity, including for the Palestinians. This is the social-democratic approach that shaped 20th century Europe. It would strengthen Zionism, unlike the insistence on exclusivity over all the Land of Israel which rejects the other's rights, undermines the Zionist ideal, and is a proven prescription for disaster."

Are the extreme right wing and settlers anti-Zionists?

"Certainly. The right wing advocating the greater Israel is the real post-Zionist body. Whoever supports the occupation, i.e. a binational state, is no Zionist. This could also be said of politicians who drag their feet in negotiations intended to bring about a two-state solution for two nations. They're putting off this solution to the unforeseeable future, endangering the Jewish state's future."

Will you use the bombing to increase your influence?

"My job is to criticize. I have no intention of returning to politics. I'm glad my injury shocked the cabinet and Knesset. But what remains of [prime minister Yitzhak] Rabin's murder, which caused a much greater shock? A one-day annual festival.

The politicians must declare war on the extreme right and occupation - that's the swamp where those mosquitoes breed. Otherwise they won't even be a footnote in history."

As a member of the Zionist left and a historian specializing in 20th century fascism, are you pleased with the role of the Israeli left in the confrontation with the right?

"The Israeli left has made no political mark. It has good people, like [MK] Ophir Pines and [Education Minister] Yuli Tamir, but they have no impact on their party. No one is trying to shape the future of war and peace, or of social progress. Instead, the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker, even as the free market's mythology is crumbling around us and begging for state intervention to save it. This is the very moment when the left should rear up and proclaim its difference, remind us that the rightist ideology is a total failure and delivers only political, social and economic disaster. A left-wing party worthy of the name should be shouting from the rooftops by now."

In an interview with Haaretz six months ago you said your children's and grandchildren's future did not seem secure.

"I fear that unless an immediate change takes place, in 50 years my granddaughters will have no reason to live here. If we're doomed to be a minority in a multinational state, why live in Tel Aviv rather than California? For that I had to sacrifice so much? Our grandchildren will not understand the justification for the colonial reality here. That's the greatest danger to our society.

"Despite the difficulties my generation has experienced, we were always accompanied by the hope of a better future. My students don't have the feeling that next year will be better, they feel that tomorrow is not safe. We believed we were going in the right way, that justice was on our side.

"Today young people's conviction of that is crumbling. Occupation is rotting our society. The terrible violence in the territories is spilling over the Green Line. This is inevitable - different standards and laws for different people cannot exist without affecting all of society. I'm not seeking absolute justice, only an end to building a de facto apartheid, only to ensure the creation of a society that future generations will not be ashamed of."
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
The Iranian patient
Israel grants rare entry to cancer-stricken Iranian boy to receive care in Tel Hashomer.
Nazi comedy
German filmmaker Atze Schroeder says it's an honor to make Nazis look foolish.
  1.   FUNNY! 03:49  |  kivi 29/09/08
  2.   Peace and the Settlers 03:56  |  Giora 29/09/08
  3.   right on kivi 04:09  |  Emilio 29/09/08
  4.   Such a fool 04:10  |  HRH 29/09/08
  5.   Supporting Arab occupation is anti-Zionist 04:10  |  Joseph.E 29/09/08
  6.   The end of the extreme right 04:11  |  Northern 29/09/08
  7.   Sternhell Sings Road Map perfidy . 04:13  |  Joseph.E 29/09/08
  8.   Isreal Prize 04:15  |  Bob 29/09/08
  9.   You know this is starting to get Old 04:19  |  Ralph Levy 29/09/08
  10.   zeev sternhell i am very sorry indeed 04:23  |  judah 29/09/08
  11.   sternhell should follow his own edicts 04:25  |  Arie 29/09/08
  12.   Something to cherish, love and appreciate. 04:25  |  Joseph.E 29/09/08
  13.   leftists really milking the frenzy 04:33  |  Arie 29/09/08
  14.   Settlement Activity Streghten Zionism, Undermines Arab Terror-Exp 04:35  |  Joseph.E 29/09/08
  15.   response to silly northern 04:44  |  kivi 29/09/08
  16.   what a bunch of blind hens you all are...clucking away 05:04  |  eric 29/09/08
  17.   lol--"positive steps" like leaving Gaza 05:05  |  A Nice Fellow 29/09/08
  18.   I Think Both The Left And The Right Should... 05:18  |  Yosemite 29/09/08
  19.   And September 11 was an inside job (right-wing) 05:18  |  AlexK 29/09/08
  20.   Dumb Move 05:27  |  Jeff Northridge 29/09/08
  21.   NO aliyah 05:39  |  David F 29/09/08
  22.   A Jewish State is not an Apartheid State 05:52  |  Meir Weinstein 29/09/08
  23.   He is right 05:57  |  Slibovitz 29/09/08
  24.   Response to Arie - BaGolan 06:01  |  Roland 29/09/08
  25.   occupation 06:02  |  colin 29/09/08
  26.   To Jeff Northridge (#20) - Pogo at work 06:06  |  Morris Valentine 29/09/08
  27.   to silly Kivi 06:16  |  Northern 29/09/08
  28.   To Joseph E. 06:39  |  Otto Rand 29/09/08
  29.   Sternhell is 100% right: 2-state solution lost..... 07:34  |  David 29/09/08
  30.   Sternhell is right on the money. 08:02  |  DkS 29/09/08
  31.   All palestinian charters call for all Israeli land to bec. muslim 08:05  |  Johnny 29/09/08
  32.   Hamas charter, otto rand #24, read this 08:08  |  Johnny 29/09/08
  33.   # 24 to otto rand re: wisdom, insight, & empathy 08:14  |  eric 29/09/08
  34.   Hypocrites 08:36  |  Choni Davidowitz 29/09/08
  35.   Is Ramon a hooligan 08:43  |  Nimrod Tal 29/09/08
  36.   \\\\\\\\An Abomination of Zionism 08:48  |  Tzfonit 29/09/08
  37.   # 24 Otto Rand 08:55  |  Joseph.E 29/09/08
  38.   A Step in the RIGHT Direction....... 09:05  |  Dagma 29/09/08
  39.   Wonder why those `Jewish Terrorists` picked on Sternhell 09:13  |  Natasha 29/09/08
  40.   The "settlers" ruin the original promise of Zionism... 09:15  |  BBSNews 29/09/08
  41.   According To Sternhell 10:10  |  DM 29/09/08
  42.   "colonial reality"...and decolonisation 10:24  |  Fritz T. 29/09/08
  43.   Notice his language- He calls people `mosquitoes` 10:29  |  Shalom Freedman 29/09/08
  44.   Who ever will not support of the expel Arabs to Jordan is Anti-Zi 10:32  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 29/09/08
  45.   Israel will eat itself. 10:49  |  Michael 29/09/08
  46.   to Emilio #3 - 2nd try 10:53  |  zeev 29/09/08
  47.   to Arie #11 - 2nd try 10:54  |  zeev 29/09/08
  48.   Those who wish to cede Jerusalem are not zionists!!! 10:54  |  Ben Yeppi 29/09/08
  49.   to Meir Weinstein #22 - Supporting a Jewish State ... 10:55  |  zeev 29/09/08
  50.   DkS, What do you know about Zionism?! 10:59  |  Zev Davis 29/09/08
  51.   Sternhell correct: Jewish homeland lost by overreaching fanatics 11:01  |  Ivar 29/09/08
  52.   They are not only "non-Zionists", they are traitors...... 11:05  |  Swiss (Dino) 29/09/08
  53.   a de facto apartheid 11:14  |  Abu Firas AL Qudsi 29/09/08
  54.   Jews believe in this nonsense, is Jew against Jew is the new G-d? 11:29  |  Harvey 29/09/08
  55.   Nataha, what makes you think that! 11:34  |  Zev Davis 29/09/08
  56.   Morris Valentine #26 - Pogo at work - Well said! 11:42  |  S 29/09/08
  57.   Shallow statement 11:43  |  Gilad 29/09/08
  58.   A Tale of Two World . 11:54  |  Akram Zekaria 29/09/08
  59.   Sternhill: CORRUPTION destroyed the Israeli Leftist democracy 12:13  |  Alicia 29/09/08
  60.   You disagree with Professor Sternhell 12:24  |  Chris Linthwaite 29/09/08
  61.   On DM #41 12:25  |  zeev 29/09/08
  62.   Sternhell is full of Hate 12:26  |  sam 29/09/08