For Israel, a New Year, and a new left
There are signs the Jewish New Year could signal the beginning of a new alignment of pro-peace forces.
By Bradley Burston Tags: Bradley Burston Barack Obama Israel news Avigdor LiebermanClick here for more articles by Bradley Burston
Outside of outright wartime, seldom have the vital signs of Arab-Israeli diplomacy read more bleak. Israel's ruling coalition hinges on a foreign minister so incendiary that his recent prediction that Mideast peace is at least 16 years distant, is as close to moderation as he has yet managed. The Palestinians are rent, geographically, politically, governmentally and religiously, between the West Bank and Gaza. The Israelis are likewise torn, with a minority clinging to the settlement flag, and the majority having opted for an exhausted resignation.
Washington, meanwhile, has precious little to show for efforts to spur Arab diplomatic openness to Israel in return for self-imposed Israeli curbs on West Bank settlement expansion.
A decade of diplomatic paralysis and brutal military confrontations, coupled with a parallel degeneration of the structures and ideology of Israel's peace camp, have been accompanied by mounting calls by leftists abroad - and to a lesser degree, by leftists in Israel - to mount anti-Israel boycotts as a desperate resort amid stalled domestic Israeli efforts to combat occupation.
Is a permanently broken peace process, then, a foregone conclusion?
The fact is, there are signs that the Jewish New Year now dawning could signal the beginning of a new alignment of pro-peace forces, one that could spell fundamental progress toward an eventual two-state solution.
1.A new realism on the Israeli left
For the left in Israel to function as more than an insulated elite of the supremely self-admiring, it must take into account the realities of Israeli society, in particular those strengths which can translate into a consensus for a future peace deal. One of the more striking recent examples, one which prompted surprise and even consternation among many of Avneri's followers, is a response by veteran leftist activist Uri Avneri to Ben Gurion University Professor Neve Gordon's widely publicized call for a boycott against Israel.
While maintaining his strong opposition to occupation, Avneri takes issue with condemnations of Israel as an apartheid state, and with the anti-Israel boycotts as a political weapon.
2. Mounting restiveness in Labor and Meretz.
Another positive sign is an intensive search for new leadership to replace the bullying and the bipolar politics of Labor leader Ehud Barak, and to transfuse and transform the halting and marginal Meretz. Paradoxically, the dismal showing of the two parties in recent elections is likely to be the most effective leverage for new blood in key positions.
3. J Street and the political realignment of U.S. Jewry
For the first time in decades - in sharp contrast to a reality in which many left-oriented Jewish groups were little more than vestigial burial societies or conduits for Israeli fund-raising - a new coalition of groups which are both explicitly pro-peace and pro-Israel is beginning to coalesce, its current centerpiece the national conference of J Street in Washington DC in late October.
The gathering is being held jointly with an unprecedented number of like-minded groups, including Ameinu, Brit Tzedek V'Shalom, and the Israel Policy Forum.
J Street, which has both aided and ridden the Obama wave, is also taking steps to expand its reach and organizational clout.
Significantly, the nascent coalition also coincides with:
4. The graying of the Zionist Right
The settler revolution, and its client movements in world Orthodoxy and Israeli politics, has been falling victim to a loss of vigor at a critical time. The watershed 2005 disengagement from Gaza, which pro-settler forces point to as the best proof of their ideology, nonetheless did tremendous damage to the settlement movement's aura of invincibility. Despite the apparent one-off success of Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu [which, despite its anti-Arab rhetoric, has long flirted with out-of-the-box territorial compromise], pro-Greater Israel factions fared poorly in the 2009, with the Jewish Home winning only three votes, and the National Union only four.
Hamas' curtailing of rocket attacks [see 6., below] has, for the present at any rate, robbed the settlers of the most effective of their selling points in fending off calls for a future withdrawal in the West Bank.
One of the most telling indications of the declining vitality of the right are the shopworn, impotent mantras of the pro-settler right ["Settlements are not an obstacle to peace - there were no settlements before 1967 and there was no peace then, either"; "There is no Palestinian people"; "Jews should be able to settle anywhere in the Land of Israel (though Arabs should not)"].
This phenomenon is, in turn, a result in no small part of:
5. The new centrism in the Israeli consensus
Polls have shown that, with security guaranteed in a satisfactory manner, a majority of Israelis would accept, and in fact, support, a future two-state solution close to that proposed by the Clinton administration: A withdrawal from most of the West Bank, with exchanges of territory bringing the area of a future Palestine equal to that of the pre-1967 war West Bank and Gaza; a Palestinian capital in part of East Jerusalem; equitable administration of holy shrines; and return of refugees to Palestinian territory, with an Israeli declaration of an element of responsibility for the creation of the refugee problem.
6. A new realism among Palestinians
As Fatah has assumed greater independence and security responsibilities in the West Bank, with a commensurate resurgence of the economy in cities such as Ramallah and Jenin, it has recently signaled that some of the thorniest Israeli-Palestinian issues, including the right of return, could be worked out in the context of formulas like the Geneva Initiative.
Hamas, meanwhile, is under mounting pressure, with its polling numbers down and its problems of governance on the rise. While enforcing a near-complete and self-imposed ban on Qassam rocket attacks against Israel, with beleaguered Gazans loath to see a repeat of the war barely eight months past.
Hamas has had to contend with pressure from a new source: Islamic fundamentalists who view the Hamas government as selling out. Last month, Hamas forces attacked a mosque stronghold of the radical Warriors of God at the southern tip of Gaza, killing the group's leader and more than 20 of those inside.Finally, and potentially most importantly, there is:
7. The Lieberman window.
Prosecutors have said that an indictment against Lieberman on graft charges is now more a matter of when than if. But the "when" could be of paramount importance. If, as some sources suggest, the charges could be filed in a matter of six months, the result could be a major redraw of the Israeli political map. Lieberman's presence in the cabinet is the main stumbling block to a coalition between Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud and Tzipi Livni's even larger Kadima party, which is on record as pushing for a two-state solution.
Even if some Likud MKs made good on implied threats to bolt the coalition if territorial compromise were on the table, a Likud-Kadima-Labor alliance is Barack Obama's best hope for concrete progress toward an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
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Previous Blogs:
This Jewish New Year, let's put an end to hopeA straight's prayer for young Israelis shot for being gayMr. Obama, have a talk with these Israelis, and soonThe painful cost to Israel of its settler adventureWill Israel grant asylum to fascism?This is what is wrong with a Jewish stateSlapping Obama, or Please God, keep Israel from making peaceOutpost Watch: Obama's future minefield - and Netanyahu'sI never thought I'd be rooting for Iran In Iran, upheaval in the streets, but nuclear business as usual
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One thing is certain. There is nothing new about the Israeli left. The policies are the same diastrous failures. The cast of characters is mostly the same. So what is new? It's the same toxic left in a slightly new package. Nobody is fooled. Expect the left to continue it's steep decline at the polls. To irrelevance.
Don't tell me that it is the triple no of Khartoum that pushed our foolish leaders to allow the settlers' movement and Hamas to develop into such enemies of any peace initiative that they were perfectly capable together, each in its own way, of foiling it. I wouldn't believe you.
"The only reason Oslo has failed is that it came way too late, long after the settlers` movement and Hamas have both been allowed by our foolish leaders to develop into such enemies of any peace initiative that they were perfectly capable together, each in its own way, of thwarting it"(Zeev) Right after the 1967 war Israel offered to withdraw from ALL the land EXCEPT East Jerusalem but what was the response of the Arab League? - No negotiations - No recognition - No peace And they continued that stance for many years. So, subsequently, Israel too was entitled to make a few mistakes. Don't you think Zeev?
"The only reason Oslo has failed is that it came way too late, long after the settlers` movement and Hamas have both been allowed by our foolish leaders to develop into such enemies of any peace initiative that they were perfectly capable together, each in its own way, of thwarting it"(Zeev) Right after the 1967 war Israel offered to withdraw from ALL the land EXCEPT East Jerusalem but what was the response of the Arab League? - No negotiations - No recognition - No peace And they continued that stance for many years.
"The Left gave us Oslo." (Pupik #9) The Oslo Accords were signed in Washington D.C. on Sep 13, 1993, in the presence of PM Yitzhak Rabin and U.S. President Bill Clinton, with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres signing for the State of Israel, Sec. of State Warren Christopher for the United States and Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev for Russia. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords 1- Anyone implying that these people were "leftists" must have fallen on his head. The fact that Yossi Beilin, before he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs by Shimon Peres, had been involved in the negotiations with the Palestinian representatives - is irrelevant. 2- The only reason Oslo has failed is that it came way too late, long after the settlers' movement and Hamas have both been allowed by our foolish leaders to develop into such enemies of any peace initiative that they were perfectly capable together, each in its own way, of thwarting it.
"25 years ago when the earliest seeds of Oslo were being sown, a clever writer would have seen the futures clearly." (netsp) A clever writer saw the future clearly, and warned us. 29 years ago. " ... the attempt to rule over [the Palestinian] Arabs against their will may bring about a demoralization which will disgrace our finest dreams of spiritual and national renewal. Not only will the effort to annex the territories not provide security; it will weaken the capacity to protect ourselves from our neighbors' hostility and the opposition of the Nations." in Prof. Jacob Talmon's Open Letter to then-PM Begin, 1980. www.fmep.org/analysis/analysis/a-prophetic-message-from-the-past In 1980, when our settlement project was still in infancy, and Hamas was still an unknown little welfare organization, whose name no one had yet heard - until the first Palestinian uprising, seven years later.
"...security guaranteed in a satisfactory manner,..." That's been the crux of the issue all along with Israel and ostensibly what prevents them from moving forward with the Palestinians. No matter how strong (militarily and economically) Israel grows, she should recognize that there simply are no guarantees in life. It could be argued that Israel's sense of security/superiority has actually made it less willing to compromise. Israel will eventually have to summon the courage to take something of a leap of faith if she wishes to enter into an agreement with the Palestinians.
Now is the time for Western intellectuals who claim to be antiracists and committed to human rights to stand with the witnesses to Islam's darker side. To do so requires that we adopt a universal standard of human rights and abandon our loyalty to multicultural relativism, which justifies, even romanticizes, indigenous Islamist barbarism, totalitarian terrorism and the persecution of women, religious minorities, homosexuals and intellectuals. Our abject refusal to judge between civilization and barbarism, and between enlightened rationalism and theocratic fundamentalism, endangers and condemns the victims of Islamic tyranny.
Note that Hamas will note even allow the Holocaust to be taught in Gaza, while Israel teaches in events of l948, including from a Pal perspective. Where are the "human rights" obsessives? Meanwhile the Pal Authority is headed by a Holocaust denier as a "moderate". Try getting real.
for common sense. They lose the trust of the people so quickly.
Our naive,deluded peaceniks, haven't grasped that "peace" with the Arabs is a fine goal, but Israeli CAPITULATION to each and every maximalist Arab demand in the mistake belief that will lead to peace will only lead to further wars.
I must have fallen on my head? What was Rabin, a right winger. Besides, the architect of Oslo was Yossi Beilin, perhaps another of your right wingers? Further it was embraced by the left and opposed by the right. Palestinian supporters still claim Netanyahu subverted it. BTW, childish insults are just that, childish.
Some Israelis have argued that the last election results and the current government's approach to the peace process and its wavering to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, indicates that Israelis and their leadership are not ready for substantial concessions stipulated in the Road Map. But it's possible that the right-leaning political establishment in Israel will moderate their perspectives once they're convinced that a new era in relations between Arabs and Jews has evolved over the last 61 years of conflict. Let's say half of the population is already ready to make peace, which is a good start and would agree to the terms of Burston's Point #5.
Some Israelis have argued that the last election results and the current government's approach to the peace process and its wavering to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, indicates that Israelis and their leadership are not ready for substantial concessions stipulated in the Road Map. But it's possible that the right-leaning political establishment in Israel will moderate their perspectives once they're convinced that a new era in relations between Arabs and Jews has evolved over the last 61 years of conflict. Let's say half of the population is already ready to make peace, which is a good start and would agree to the terms of Burston's Point #5.
Resurgence of the Left: All this may be too late since Palestinians are already beginning discussion of a One State solution. Soon it may hit mainstream internationally. For Israel, this refutes the adage: good things come to those who wait. There have been far too many missed opportunities.
minister and so long as Abbas and Dahalan are more important to Pines than the chairman of the Knesset the "Left" in Israel is dead. Israel is the nation-state of a people, of the Jewish people, and until and unless the "left" in Israel comes to terms with this reality, one that can be wiped off the face of earth in no time, few in Israel will follow the "Left's" leadeship.
Lincoln plays the old 'lets compare the Jews to Nazi's trick'. It's the worst kind of anti semitism, plain and simple Mark. If you weren't so ignorant you could actually cause offence.
Israel, poor little tiny country whose only ally in this world is the USA, whose President is, for the second time in a row, a "suicidal delusionism at best, or a lamentable leftist traitor at worst." Your words. See for yourself, "Mr. President, thank you for coming. Yesterday, in my speech to the United Nations, I said that you're a man of peace who believes in a two-state solution. And after our conversation today, once again you confirmed that." " ... the vision that so many Palestinians long for, and that is a society in which they can raise their children in peace and hope. And I know that society is possible. And I appreciate your vision along those lines." President GW Bush to Chairman Abbas, Sep 20, 2006. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/bush092006.html
People that stand for peace can come from the left,right,or center.Yet bradley can only see it on the left.Also the definition of left is impossible.Leftish in Israel the US,or Europe are not the same.In the US just a wish for Kupat-Holim make one a commonist.The only thing the international left has in common is if they are not in power,they will not work for their country's best,but for the party.Nothing is more importent for them,not even their home land.Remember the commonist parties in western Europe,they all worked for the soviet and against their country.
The remaining left are fringe groups of extremist who support Israel's enemies. There is no "new left". The "new left" are the old right who want peace and know that only by being strong will this be achieve. The policy of appeasement has proven itself to create more violence and war which is what the Left brings.
only a paranoid judeophobe would believe that israli jews, or any other jews, believe in a "master race." it is most convenient, however, to claim that israeli jews are like nazis. that is the arab narrative, and indeed, the muslim narrative. if israeli's are like nazis, then they are subhumans--untermenschen. the arabs are simply the unique victims of this new, reborn nazi pestilence. in this narrative, the victims become perpetrators. arab rejectionsim and incitement, arab and muslim terror are explained and excused. if the jews are the new nazis, one can hardly expect the arabs to be reasonable. their acts of terror are heroic "resistance" against these jewish nazis.
the tables on the left. The terrorism just got worse when Arafat unleashed his pre arranged intifada taking all confidence out of the so called peace intentions of the Pals so naively held as an article of faith by the left. The coup de gras for the left was their own pushing the envelope to breaking point by mouthing the most extreme leftist slogans
...tends to say everything... and nothing...
Peace to most Jews and the Western world and other parts of the world is a Jewish-majority state and a Palestinian state. What peace is it that you would realistically expect Israel to accept? Do you really believe Israel is just going to self-destruct because that's what its enemies want?
"Check and balance," It's a proper respond should be reflected by Israel authority. It means. hardliners who attacks Israel civilians might be encountered by force! Israelis since 2nd world war has suffered a series of intimidation and spread out any where. Meanwhile, mostly Arabians feel like a landlords and inherit the world and religions. As a matter of facts, suicide bombers, rapes, in humiliations and slavery used to be happened among their countries. Meanwhile, no religions taught to heart each others. I am as moderate Muslim disregards to mostly Arabians manner in line with retaliation conflicts in the middle east. As an individual, nation is not belonging to those felt inherit the lands. The arrogance performs by Arabs will not generate sympathy from world any longer, unless Arabians admit Israeli existence and live shoulder to shoulder with the neighbor: ISRAEL. The endurance of Israeli since the world war II has been acknowledged by ethics human beings. Scrape Arab hypocrites
where is the war that requires peace ?? what has been discussed for so long is concessions to arabs instead of moving them to arab lands ! there will never be equilibrium whilst islam exists !
non realistic bubble. come on get real. j street is dying. As of June 2011 it wil nearly cease to exist. It will have a lot of members doing almost nothing.
No way Mark! That's not our Model. I am not alone in my thinking that this Middle East situation could be solved with the correct financial incentives. There are some religious kooks out there but no real leaders among the Jews in that regard, who can make Jews agree on anymore than, "Never Again." I think a lot of the Jews Only Ideology is based on a misconception that Jews are richer and a lot smarter than everyone else so "Let's gather them together." God's Chosen and so forth but why'd he let us die? Anyone with a nickel of intelligence today can tell you that it's the Chinese primarily, that can claim the position being the brightest and the richest. That's why I think we should sell our label to lots of different people out there, like many Chinese, that would like to be considered Jewish and not go through all this religious nonsense. God isn't going to sort us out at the end. The Anti-Semites will. They'll roast us again if we don't change the equation.
The idea of a Likud / Kadima / Labour coalition is about as likely as the idea of a coalition between Yisrael Beitanu and Meretz. Livni has said she won't join any coalition unless she is PM or it is a rotating premiership & Bibi won't go for that. Bibi, Barak & Livni all care about their political careers more than ideology. Meretz might be all ideology but for the big parties its political careers first everything else later. Bibi is no fan of the peace process anyway so why would he risk Likud getting rid of him as leader for an ideology he doesn't support? He also wants to destroy kadima not form a coalition that will save them The mood of the country is leanng to the right & the public doesn't want a centre left government thats not what they voted for. The peace camp & left must accept the people don't want them. Also Obama & his obsession with the peace process is helping turn Israelis away from the left even more because this champion of the left is trying to hurt Israel.
A "new realism"? That Uri Avneri woke up one day and saw that Neve Gordon is a putz, that caused "consternation" among Avneri's followers? This is Burston's new realism? The good sign would be if Avneri's followers had agreed with Avneri, but they didn't. In fact, an even better sign would be a wide-ranging condemnation by the left of Gordon, but that didn't happen either. There wasn't much of a narrow-ranging condemnation either. The left is disappearing because they got sucked into political correctness. It's the same movement that says Israeli Jews do not have human rights, so it's ok for Palestinians to "resist" the "occupation" by killing Israeli civilians. No, Bradley, there is no resurgence on the left, and all signs are that the death watch should continue. Meretz may disappear from the Knesset in the next election or two, and Labor will replace it with 5 or 6 seats. There is no new realism on the left. Just the same old knee-jerk reactionaries.
I just had a dream. I mean I snoozed off and saw this thing. It's no secret that I read a lot but let's see if my mind predicts well. I just had a dream that Stephen King (Not Really A Surprise) will write a Superman novel. His own take or version entitled 'Superman.' Okay we'll see.
We were told, back in the early 1950s, about the 'good Germans.' You know, the ones who did not support Hitler but were too craven to oppose him. As Germany had become the 'front line' of the 'cold war' we were to forgive Germany for the horrors of WWII, the Holocaust, everything. What are tens of millions of people murdered for the Nazi dream of a Master Race when there is a Cold War to fight? Now Mr. Bradley Burston tells us there are 'Good Israelis' on the verge of opposing the Master Race Israelis. I hope he is right. But I see no evidence in the actions of the state of Israel, or it's citizens to show that those israelis who are decent are willing to oppose those who see themselves as the Master Race. Nor do I detect the slightest sign of those decent Israelis acting to stop the Master Race from achieving it's goal of conquest of Judea and Samaria. The stakes might be smaller than Hitler's, but the goals are the same, the morals are the same, and the followers are the same
My analysis tells me that Iran under Ahmadinejad will seek to provoke Israel as soon as they have nuclear weapons. The game will be to demonstrate to the Russians and the Chinese that Iran can tilt the Middle East away from the Americans. This despite whatever progress we Jews and Israel make in peace negotiations with the Arabs.
The settlers have won. 25 years ago when the earliest seeds of Oslo were being sown, a clever writer would have seen the futures clearly. Should the settlements movement continue, they would reach a point of no return in the next generation. This is no longer a prediction but an observation. Imagine a boycott came to be. What would it demand? Any different from the face value demands of the Saudi initiative? Complete withdrawal to the 67' borders? Impossible? So, what then? A negotiated agreement? You cannot boycott in favour of a negotiated agreement. Yossi Beilin remains the only one who ever tries to reverse this.
Except they were all unequivocally rejected by the state of Israel. The problem is the government (of Israel) does not want peace and will exterminate and drive all the Palestinians into the sea as long as greater Israel is achieved. Why would the government be approving settlements EVEN now when Obama is trying to bring the two parties closer together. But hey, if you want to keep chanting some charter from 20 years ago, be my guest - it's just the same the other way around - Israel's un-written charter is to WIPE PALESTINE OFF THE MAP
The only thing the left is good for....the only thing the left is good for...the only thing the left is good for...now let me see. Well I don't have all day to think up something so I will just say that the only thing the left is good for is to be "useful idiots" for the enemy. They reason from emotion,which is a dangerous thing,and they have no concept of who we are in the fight a our lives with. I am hoping the New Year brings peace but I am seriously in doubt that this will happen...you ask why...well it is simple..who is Israel going to make peace with?
The opressed and brutalized who lose more of their land on a monthly basis can do nothing to advance peace.When the occupier and land thief realizes that no people have ever accepted occupation and that Israelis are making the palestinians pay for the holocaust then we will have peace.
1. Left is as divided as ever. Avneri clearly disagrees with a more radical Gordon. All the left is waiting for Obama's comprehensive peace plan, while Obama can't even do the same for American health care. 2. Labor and Meretz were voted out and are struggling to survive. 3. J Street's influence is grossly overrated. Look at the list of invitees at their conference - Muslims and former somebodies from Israel's left. 4. There's been quiet for 6 months. Is that enough? 5. Polls change. Quickly 6, 7 ... and so on....
"the Left gave us Oslo." (Pupik) Rabin (a wise and brave man - peace to his soul) as a leftist?? You must have fallen on your head.
But if he were right, how could a man like Barak be the chosen leader of Labor?
The Left is dead. It is the young Jews that believe God and are building Israel. The Old tried Jew may be weak of spirit and willing to take the word of Jewkillers but the young Jews believe God and are building Israel in the Land of Promise. No Land of peace, ever.
for Mr. fish, #17. Self realizing prophecies tend to work only if enough people believe in them. Mr Fish's quote: "The will never be peace. The Arabs will never agree to a Jewish state in the Middle East. There wars will continue. And the harder the Israelis hit the Arabs in these wars, the periods in between will be longer. Thus spake Zarathustra". If he would allow the Arabs, in this case President Mahmoud Abbas, to speak his government, I am sure that the President could do without the the Prophet Fish, or the fishy prophet. p.s. Zarathustra is puzzeled, he lived some 1,600 years before Mohammad and before the Arabs became Arabs. He begs not to be misquoted.
The Left, New,Middle & Old. Forlorn & bereft of a fuhrer.The Left,not only in Israel are groping in the dark!
in the US. The gov is losing the trust of the people.
glad you have returned.
Lieberman is an optimist with his 16 year prediction. The will never be peace. The Arabs will never agree to a Jewish state in the Middle East. There wars will continue. And the harder the Israelis hit the Arabs in these wars, the periods in between will be longer. Thus spake Zarathustra.
Lots of red lines in the sand on all sides. Once I had a willow tree and an oak tree growing in my back yard; a real humdinger of a wind storm blew up and, when it was over, the willow tree was still standing.
When Barak was elected in 1999, there was much talk of "new realism" amongst Palestinians. Not sure how the old "new realism" compares with the new "new realism". The requirements for peace have not changed. Either there has to be a change in the Palastinian national story which makes Palastinain longing for pre-'67 Israel as off limits as German longing for East Prussia, or there has to be some strong force that makes Palastinian irredentalism ineffectual so that neithr conventional warfare nor terrorism is an option. Using force is only a short term solution and is inherently unstable. Changing the Palestinian national story is the only long term solution, but that will require a sea change in Palestinian opinion comparable to the civil rights movement in the U.S. or the evolution of the EU. It requires a solution to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, reduction in Islamic fundamentalism, Arab woman's rights, and economic development. You should check for progress in, say, 25 years.
Jews will always argue among themselves as to what they are willing to do for peace.I see no apparent Arab peace camp. What may keep Arab militants quiet for a while is the trail of devastation Israel left in Lebanon and Gaza. Fear of a repeat is more likely to keep them quiet than a desire for peace.
"The left, by pushing the Oslo process, has done immense damage to any prospects for Arab Israeli peace. The public's trust of the Palestinians is close to zero." (former meretz) Mr. 'former meretz', you are talking nonsense. First, because no nation has ever reached peace with a former enemy on the basis of mutual trust. Trust is for people, not states. Second, because the only reason Oslo process has failed, its only flaw, was that it came way too late, long after the settlement movement and Hamas have both been allowed by our foolish leaders to develop into such enemies of any peace initiative that they were perfectly capable together, each in its own way, of thwarting it.
see anyone on the Arab side ready to actually achieve peace with Israel, real peace and not just a state of no-war. So far no Arab leader, including the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, has agree to accept Israel's right to be, to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people, none! When the Arabs do so and demonstrate their newly found conviction in both word - in Arabic this time - and in deed will I be convinced that they actually seek real peace.
I don't know about Saudi Arabian or Iranian Muslims but when I've talked to Dubai Arabs, they don't want to continue the conflict. I think a lot of Arabs don't want to continue the conflict. Somehow we need to isolate the people on both sides that want this conflict to continue. And we need to be cognizant of other elements, even Non-Semitic ones, that may find it rewarding to continue the conflict.
This was the hope of Ha'aretz - and my own hope too - after the elections, but it turned out to be a pipe dream. Too many egos involved - even more important than ideological differences.
Although I love Bradley's description of the left as the 'insulated elite of the self-admiring' I would remind him that you don't need the Left to end a conflict. Eisenhowewr ended the Korean war, Nixon (whatever you may think of him) ended Vietnam and Begin signed the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. On the other hand, the Left gave us Oslo.
By pushing towards "peace" as a sort of mantra, the left has pushed things towards a general distrust besides the Palestinians. After Rabin signed Oslo, dozens of innocents died in bombs in Israel. Finally Rabin himself was the victim of violence and distrust. When Sharon took the Government, it is hard to forget the bombs in Natanya and in the Dolphinarium, killing scores. those who don't live here, write as an entertainment. Be my guest, but don't pretend to be serious. The push of the left turned events to the right.
...if a Leftists says you are right...he stops being Leftist and his ego will never admit that.
The left has done immense damage to any prospects for Arab Israeli peace. By pushing the Oslo process which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians the public's trust of the Palestinians is close to zero.
It is insulting to read that "pro-peace" people are people of the left. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews are eager, very eager to achieve an accommodation of peaceful coexistence between Arab and Jew, between Israel and its Arab neighbors. This is the case today and this has been the case since the latter part of the 19th century. One may wish to argue about the nature of peace and that would be legitimate, but implicitly to label non-leftists as war seekers is insulting. P.S. Those who used to vote Labour and Meretz are no longer considered "leftists" by the author I would assume thus not peace seekers. Yet, they ceased voting for these two parties largely because of the way leaders of the parties related to Jews as enemies and to Arafat and Company as brothers. This is a good enough reason not to be counted in the "peace camp" as far as I am concerned.
Americans lived through what Israel is going through. It got too expensive, too close to compromising democratic values, and left us no safer. I hope your forecast is right Bradley.
Your article sounds like written pre-Israeli election, when some people still had the illusion that "mainstream" Israel wasn't drifted hopelessly towards the (extreme) right. The past months have clearly taught us other- wise. By the way, the recent poll numbers show exactly the opposite from what Bradley is claiming, namely that a 2/3 majority in Israel is no longer willing to make the necessary concessions for a just compromise.....
Good analysis, Mr. Burston. It's high noon for the peace movement to be re-born. We urgently need it for our own Jewish survival. Time is against us. PM Rabin realized this. Since his assassination, the peace movement has been silenced and the Labour party lost its compass. Israel must not continue to be held hostage to the extremist settlers; that minority with its illegal acts must not rule the majority. We must find a just accommodation with the Palestinians and find it quickly. The solution is clear. We all know it. We ignore it at our own peril. Peace NOW!!
... both Fatah and Hamas are irrevocably committed to Israel's destruction - the former based on Pan-Arabist ideology, and the latter based on Islamist-Jihadist dogma. Any concession further empowering these enemies will only make them bolder and more determined toward their goals. In this light, the Israeli and American Jewish left's "pro-peace" attitudes can only signify: - Suicidal delusionism at best... - Or, lamentable treason at worst!