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A monument to a lost time and lost hopes By Meron Benvenisti Tags: Arabs, Israel News, Jews  Shimon Peres did it in style, as usual. The marking of the 10th anniversary of the Peres Center for Peace was a glittering event, full of international celebrities and famous artists, and of course included the poem written by the principal guest, beginning, "Oh, My Lord, it is time to pray." The high point of the festivities was the dedication of the Peres Peace House in Jaffa, a magnificent building of huge green blocks, which cost $15 million, three times the original estimate. The building is windowless and air-conditioned throughout and blocked off from its surroundings, which are home to a poor Arab population. Its faces the sea, as though its builders were hinting that the chance for peace lies in the West, beyond the sea, and not in the East, where neighbor enemies dwell. The magnificence and elegance cannot, unfortunately, blur the sense of missed opportunity. The events surrounding the establishment of the Peres Center for Peace in October 1997 powerfully demonstrated the political culture that favored peace; that was suffused with confidence in the possibility of achieving peace; and defied the approach of Benjamin Netanyahu, who defeated Peres and did everything possible to torpedo the Oslo Accords. The festivities today cannot hide the fact that the only a meager vestige of the peace camp remains, the peace industry functions by the power of inertia and those involved in it must invent excuses for their activity, and that suggests they are turning peace into a tool for achieving their own personal ends. Advertisement Only in hindsight are we able to see the fatal damage done by the Oslo Accords, which inspired Peres to establish the center: The accords, instead of bringing about a change in the status quo, have become the pillar of a de facto binational regime (called "the occupation"), which has become institutionalized as a permanent regime. The Oslo Accords are the legal infrastructure for the division of the West Bank into cantons, which allow for direct Israeli control over 60 percent of the territory (Area C), as well as a constitutional infrastructure for the existence of a virtual Palestinian Authority. The plethora of titles assumed by its leaders and the official uniforms of its soldiers make it possible to maintain the false illusion of the temporary nature of the regime of Israeli control, and thus to perpetuate it. In the activity of the Peres Center for Peace there is no evident effort being made to change the political and socioeconomic status quo in the occupied territories, but just the opposite: Efforts are being made to train the Palestinian population to accept its inferiority and prepare it to survive under the arbitrary constraints imposed by Israel, to guarantee the ethnic superiority of the Jews. With patronizing colonialism, the center presents an olive grower who is discovering the advantages of cooperative marketing; a pediatrician who is receiving professional training in Israeli hospitals; and a Palestinian importer who is learning the secrets of transporting merchandise via Israeli ports, which are famous for their efficiency; and of course soccer competitions and joint orchestras of Israelis and Palestinians, which paint a false picture of coexistence. There is no chance that the activists and administrators of the peace center will participate in the daily struggle of the Palestinian olive pickers; in the frustrating efforts to transport critically ill people via the checkpoints; or to breach the economic siege and sea blockade of Gaza. The Peres Center for Peace does not publish reports about the catastrophic economic situation of the Palestinians and does not warn about Israel's responsibility for this situation; after all, it is not a club of Israel-hating anarchists but one of respectable people, who mostly contribute to peace in the generous funding of glittering events and participation in them. It has always been maintained that the principal, and perhaps revolutionary contribution, of the Oslo Accords did not lie in the "declaration of principles," but in the mutual recognition between the Palestinian national movement and the State of Israel. But this mutual recognition, which turned the Palestinians from a terrorist entity into a legitimate entity in the eyes of the Israelis, was erased in the wake of the suicide attacks and the violence of the Al-Aqsa intifada, after which the pre-Oslo viewpoint returned. Now the Jews are giving the Arabs a bill of divorce, turning their backs on them, imprisoning them behind sealed walls and checkpoints, willingly keeping to themselves and praying that the Mediterranean will dry up or that a bridge will be built that will connect them directly to Europe. This mentality has created two monumental structures in the past decade, whose symbolic significance is greater than their functional value: the separation fence and the new Ben-Gurion International Airport terminal. The former is designed to hide the Palestinians and erase them from our consciousness, and the latter serves as an escape hatch and the basis for an aerial bridge to the West. The third monument that was built in this decade, the Peres Peace House in Jaffa, joins them as a memorial to a time and hopes that have been lost, and the only thing that remains is to join in Peres' prayer: "Then send a Ray of Hope for a new way." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Young Republicans Poll: Young U.S. Jews are more likely than their elders to vote GOP. Designing an icon Ten years ago, two students asked Israeli Ruth Kedar to design their new company's logo.   1.   A combination of apartheid South Africa and the unemntionables 08:37  |  Natallie Durson 30/10/08   2.   Hmmmm...what do you want to say,Mr.Benvenisti? 08:49  |  Hastaroth 30/10/08   3.   LEFTIST Dialectic taken to new heights.A whole essay of nothing 08:53  |  PETER SM 30/10/08   4.   Loopy 08:59  |  Star of David 30/10/08   5.   Let`s play devil`s advocate 09:19  |  Ilan 30/10/08   6.   #1, Hasteroth 09:24  |  Josh 30/10/08   7.   lost time and hopes 09:52  |  baruch 30/10/08   8.   The harsh truth 10:03  |  Jasmine Murphy 30/10/08   9.   Benvenisti tells it as it is... 10:58  |  Esther 30/10/08   10.   Bravo Benvenesti 11:14  |  Sylvie 30/10/08   11.   JOSH "Zionism is finished" 11:27  |  PETER SM 30/10/08   12.   #4 Josh 11:29  |  Hastaroth 30/10/08   13.   ILAN Hope this one isn`t terrorised away by the "resistance". 11:55  |  PETER SM 30/10/08   14.   The Thrill is Gone 12:18  |  FOX 30/10/08   15.   Josh, I understand your angst #4 12:25  |  FOX 30/10/08   16.   Mr Benvenisti 12:59  |  Ben 30/10/08   17.   If it sounds good at Davos, then . . . 13:01  |  Zev Davis 30/10/08   18.   Barqan works well too 13:51  |  Ilan 30/10/08   19.   Benvenisti hates everything and everyone 14:03  |  Shalom Freedman 30/10/08   20.   Benveniste asks for Dhimmitude 14:16  |  Herbert Kaine 30/10/08   21.   Trot Them Out For Show 14:44  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/10/08   22.   Palestinians can only get better, sooner or later 14:48  |  mehmet 30/10/08   23.   Mindless ramblings 15:10  |  Yakov 30/10/08   24.   mr. Benvenisti speaks with forked tongue 15:21  |  bob 30/10/08   25.   Yaakov Sullivan, change your name, again. 15:28  |  FOX 30/10/08   26.   FOX Is Still Sturggling 16:17  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/10/08   27.   Every action has a reaction 16:18  |  Joe 30/10/08   28.   Nothing fragrant about Jasmine No6 16:20  |  Sean 30/10/08   29.   One Oslo Criminal criticises another Oslo Criminal 16:33  |  Feiglin for PM 30/10/08   30.   More self delusional tales from Meron the Moron 16:35  |  Udi 30/10/08   31.   Thank you! 16:42  |  peter 30/10/08   32.   agreed but... 16:52  |  C 30/10/08   33.   Mr. Benvenitsti should emigrate to the U.S. 17:18  |  Lou Medel 30/10/08   34.   `We screwed the Palestinians` 17:39  |  Palestinian in UK 30/10/08   35.   "Israel-hating anarchists" 17:46  |  Realist 30/10/08   36.   Friedman #19... excuse me, but you talk "bull"... 17:50  |  Esther 30/10/08   37.   PUKE 17:50  |  x-ray 30/10/08   38.   Sean what precisely was a lie? 17:55  |  Jasmine Murphy 30/10/08   39.   Yaakov, a hanging effigy 18:07  |  FOX 30/10/08   40.   Facts are facts, they are inferior... 18:29  |  Max 30/10/08   41.   PALESTINIAN IN THE UK: SAME FUTILE ANGER 18:37  |  Brant 30/10/08   42.   Shame on Benvenisti who should write for MAAN 18:46  |  Arthur 30/10/08   43.   The true enemy of the Jewish people are the Jews 19:18  |  alan the real one 30/10/08   44.   Fox Is right about one thing 19:40  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/10/08   45.   Pyschcology not politics 19:44  |  Scharker Yid 30/10/08   46.   Merons kind of mentality is the main reason 20:08  |  TOMY 30/10/08   47.   Alan, come visit soon 20:21  |  Sylvie 30/10/08   48.   Exactly right Brant...#41 20:21  |  Jordan 30/10/08   49.   Poor Arabs with 22 countries 21:09  |  Ken Jurist 30/10/08   50.   Ken Jurist, cut the crap! 21:23  |  Yaakov Sullivan 30/10/08   51.   Questions for Sylvie 41 22:41  |  Realist 30/10/08   52.   Accept - what? 22:48  |  Gene 30/10/08   53.   There is one, single ray of hope: The Saudi Plan 23:40  |  Ivar 30/10/08   54.   Inferiority and superiority 00:40  |  A 31/10/08   55.   It`s shameful Peres has become an agent for the occupation 01:21  |  Dutch 31/10/08   56.   IVAR Hurry! Shine the ray at Hamas. 01:30  |  PETER SM 31/10/08   57.   DORIS the occupation is a result of Arab terror and rejection 01:33  |  PETER SM 31/10/08   58.   Talk is cheap! 02:38  |  Harry 31/10/08   59.   The premise is absurd 02:53  |  Mark Lincoln 31/10/08   60.   #55 dutch goes INTO another TRANCE - this time as CHICKEN LITTLE 05:38  |  CK Tan 31/10/08   61.   #53 IVAR WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TELL US ALL HOW 06:39  |  victor hardman 31/10/08   62.   if you do not embrace your enemy, you are the enemy 06:44  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 31/10/08   63.   superiority mentality is nonsense 06:47  |  B.Saleem 31/10/08   64.   To Mr. Joe 27 07:03  |  B.Saleem 31/10/08   65.   #58, Harry 07:06  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 31/10/08   66.   To Mr.Mehmet 22 07:09  |  B.Saleem 31/10/08   67.   MrBeenvenisti 07:22  |  B.Saleem 31/10/08   68.   Benvenisti is condesending towards Palestinians 08:31  |  Ehud 31/10/08   69.   Well, Cipora #62... now we know.... 08:38  |  Esther 31/10/08   70.   A Temple of Subjective Truths... 10:31  |  sh 31/10/08   71.   Saudi Plan is workable, as Peres and Barak have indicated 11:31  |  Ivar 31/10/08   72.   #65, Esther 17:58  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 31/10/08   73.   Jasmine 8: What world do you live in? 13:15  |  Spider 01/11/08   74.   Ehud, I second your motion 00:27  |  Zev Davis 02/11/08   75.   68 & 72 The Palestinians don`t want Israel`s crumbs 08:45  |  Dutch 03/11/08   76.   Meron, you may appreciate this.... 09:17  |  Dutch 03/11/08

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