Israel Lulled by the good life

Published 22 November 2007

Palestinian and Israeli leaders are engaging in peace talks. Yet, while people on either side of the wall inhabit different worlds, the prospects are bleak.

It is Friday night in Tel Aviv. I am sitting at a seaside bar, drinking a cocktail and eating seafood. Young men and women are playing beach volleyball nearby; others are rollerblading, cycling or just sauntering around. Israel, at least the secular part of Israel, is enjoying life. A few hours earlier I had been in another world: Jenin, the most northerly town on the West Bank, a place I had been before during the second intifada. Things are different now. There is almost no resistance, though that does not stop night-time Israeli military raids in which people are taken from their homes, into interrogation and most likely to jail.

The journey back from Jenin to Jerusalem - now the only viable crossing into Israel - took more than three hours, even though it is barely 50 miles away. Many roads have been closed off by the army. We went through five checkpoints and were questioned at three. It could have been more; Palestinian cars are stopped at random along the way. All movement between Palestinian towns and villages, and often within them, is controlled. Israeli settlements dominate the landscape. The word settlement is a misnomer, suggesting something temporary; rather, these are collections of suburban gated communities. They have been located in such a way as to separate Palestinian communities from one another. Road signs are first in Hebrew, then in Arabic.

In Ramallah, the notional capital, the people do their best to display nationhood. At the Muqataa compound, where the government resides, a mausoleum to Yasser Arafat has just opened. Two soldiers in Palestinian uniform try to stand to attention, but theirs is more of a slouch.

Everyone, it seems, wants to talk to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. On Thursday he was visited by his Ukrainian counterpart. Two days later it was the turn of David Miliband. Israelis like to point out that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has spent more time in the Middle East in recent months than the man supposed to be putting it to rights, Tony Blair. On his occasional visits to his reinforced suite at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, he has been putting together an economic "rescue package" for the Palestinians.

Uniquely ill-suited

All roads, it seems, lead to Annapolis, a quaint naval town just outside the US capital, where, on 26 November, George W Bush is expected to invite Israelis and Palestinians to sign a declaration. Ahead of that meeting, I was part of a group invited to Jerusalem to talk to some of the most influential players in Israeli politics and security - from cabinet moderates such as the deputy prime minister Haim Ramon to the arch-neocon, the man who will become leader again if it all falls apart - Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu.

Their attitudes to the Palestinians may differ, but the prognoses of doves and hawks alike are strikingly similar. Ehud Olmert's grand coalition is weak (as all Israeli governments are nowadays, thanks to the constitution, which allows minor parties a pivotal role); Abbas's Palestinian Authority is even weaker. Both sides are, one Israeli figure told us, "uniquely ill-suited" to conduct meaningful negotiations.

Still, they are trying. Olmert and Abbas have met regularly over the past few months. The Israelis talk of the Palestinian leader as a "good partner". Old taboos appear to have been broken. The future status of Jerusalem is openly discussed (though it is as far away from resolution as it has ever been). The Israelis talk of international troops overseeing the Palestinian territories. A few years ago they would have seen that as an insult. The choreography of this latest initiative is intricate. At Annapolis they will be asked to pledge "immediate and continuous" negotiations, leading to a final status agreement.

Yet ask Israeli ministers whether any of this will work, and they smile and say "no". So what is the point of going? Various answers are given, ranging from "There's no reason not to" and "We don't want to insult Bush" to "We must prop up Abbas". The Israelis, together with the Americans and governments of other countries, have convinced themselves that if they don't help the Fatah-led government on the West Bank, Hamas will take over by force, just as it did in Gaza. One security figure told us that only the Israeli army stood in the way of a Palestinian implosion. "The Palestinians have to choose whether they want to live in Mogadishu or Dubai," he said.

This argument is used to justify the economic blockade of Gaza, which, according to official figures, has left more than 80 per cent of inhabitants below the poverty line. Some senior Israelis, though not all, have convinced themselves that Palestinians in Gaza will blame Hamas, rather than Israel, for the way their strip of land is being choked and will turn back to Fatah.

Olmert has more invested in a deal with Abbas than his more sceptical cabinet colleagues. He knows that, for it to work, he has to give something meaningful to bolster the Palestinian president. As one Israeli involved in the negotiations remarked: "We're having to write Abbas's victory speech in Annapolis." Yet Olmert's power base is too weak for him to make any concessions beyond the most cursory - a few hundred prisoners let out or a few roadblocks dismantled (there are 500 in total, according to the UN), or a freeze in the 2008 budget on settlement construction.

The real problem lies in the absence of any strong self-interest on the part of Israelis themselves. Israel is going through one of its rare periods of relative calm. The mood is quite different from that of my last trip, a year ago. Then it was reeling from its botched war in Lebanon, several political corruption scandals and financial mal aise. Now the economy is booming; liberalisation of a number of industries has helped boost growth rates. Once a state that prided itself on collectivism, Israel is now one of the most unequal. Money is being spent with alacrity. Israelis have flocked back to outdoor cafes and restaurants, no longer so fearful of suicide bombers.

The most important reason for the new mood is the "success" of the barrier that has been constructed to separate Israel from the West Bank. In highly populated areas such as Jerusalem, it is reminiscent of the Berlin Wall. One of the main access roads taking Israelis between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv could just as well have been one of the transit routes for West Germans travelling to West Berlin. Apart from the Qassam rockets fired from Gaza into the southern Israeli town of Sderot, attacks on Israelis have all but ceased.

Ignorance is bliss

An entire generation of Israelis has reached adulthood without any physical contact with Palestinians or first-hand knowledge of life inside the West Bank or Gaza. Before the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, some in the older generation would go over for a spot of shopping or to wander around. Now, apart from settlers, who are driven to and fro in armed convoys, almost no Israelis venture over the border.

According to Dr Mina Tzemach, a veteran opinion pollster, most Israelis want their leaders to go to Annapolis. Intriguingly, an almost identical number assume that the talks will fail. The younger generation, she says, is increasingly hostile to cutting a deal with the Palestinians. The public has convinced itself that the withdrawal of the small number of Israeli settlers from Gaza - Ariel Sharon's last major act as prime minister - has been a disaster. The Hamas coup has reinforced a stereotype that as soon as Israeli backs are turned, Palestinians descend into extremism and violence. Tzemach's polling points to another paradox. Israelis want, in the long term, the same kind of "normal life" as enjoyed by Americans and Europeans. They accept that peace and security, the two watchwords of their politics, remain fragile as long as Palestinians are oppressed and angry. But in the short term they are content with their lot.

In any event, by far the biggest concern in political circles is now Iran, or "the state from which all evil stems", as one minister put it. Security officials and politicians say Tehran will have acquired the technology to produce a nuclear weapon by the end of 2009 at the latest. They work from the assumption that either the US or Israel will launch a military attack before then in order to stop the nuclear programme.

In a few days' time, Olmert and Abbas will meet, shake hands, applaud an exhortatory speech from Bush, and return home to begin what will be described as a crucial phase in the peace process. Then what? As things stand, not much - which won't unduly trouble the rollerbladers on Tel Aviv's promenade.

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38 comments from readers

Sandy
22 November 2007 at 16:47

Perhaps John Kampfner is unaware that the Berlin Wall was created by the East German Government to keep its people from leaving for the better life that the west afforded. The israeli barrier was built by Israel to protect its people from the suicide bombers (who still regularly seek to enter Israel) and disrupt life there. If Kampfner thinks that the rocket attacks from Gaza are minor disturbances he should talk with the people of Sderot who have a slightly different view of the matter.

Eric
22 November 2007 at 19:31

I lived in Israel from 1979-1981. The economy in the Gaza and West Bank were strong, the average income highest in the Arab world outside of oil countries. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians came to work in Israel every day at union rate salaries. Security was minimal even though there were bombings inside of Israel. Then the Palestinians instigated the first intifada. Arafat came back from Tunis and when he rejected Prime Minister Barak's peace proposal without offering any counter proposal, he orchestrated the second intifada.

As a result of the violence, it became harder and harder for workers to cross into Israel to work. The suicide bombings brought more security measures, check points, fences and arrests of terrorist leaders, which reduced the flow of people, goods and services between Israel the Gaza and West Bank.

The Palestinian people have chosen violence as opposed to diplomacy as way of achieving their goals. Hamas, the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people has clearly articulated that that it never accept the existence of Israel, though it may be willing to accept temporary truces to allow them to build up their strength.

Israelis are skeptical of deals because they know that while Palestinian leaders speak of peace in English, they continue to exhort their people to violence and martyrdom. Through Israel has show itself willing to make painful compromises, the results have always ended badly.

As long as the Palestinians choose the way of violence, they will suffer the consequence. They glorify the shahid (martyr) and teach their children the surest way to heaven is as a suicide bomber. While they are able to kill some Israelis and inflict some damage, the cost to them is quite high, poverty and violence. Another generation will grow up in poverty and hopelessness and many will leave. Abbass, having no control over armed Palestinians in his own party, will be unable to uphold any promises he makes.

Not until the Palestinian come to terms with reality will their conditions change. So far, there are no Palestinian leaders who are ready to to their own people the truth, so nothing will change. How sad for everyone.

old.don
22 November 2007 at 20:15

Eric it is you who need to comr to terms with reality! Israel has conducted a racist war, and an apartheid state since 1947.

When the UN made a partition of Palestine in 1948, ISRAEL rejected it, since the Mid East arms embargo only affected the arabs, Israel could still procure weapons from its new overlord Uncle Sam.

Now the rest of the mideast is in turmoil, and the USA is trying to create new alliances, esp with oil states. If push comes to shove, who do you think Uncle will drop? Not those who have oil! One way the US could get round the arabs is by dumping Israel. What can Israel do? It needs a real contingency plan now. Already many Israelis are following the example of white S.Africa, and "taking the chicken run".

mazaluk
22 November 2007 at 20:36

Well, if the Arabs would have accepted the Jewish state in 1947/48 or in 1956 or even in 1967, they too could have been enjoying economic success and rollerblading down their own promenade.

Such a pity their Jew-hatred got in the way - but then they made their bed and now they must sleep in it.

There may still be hope, however, for a successful economy in the disputed areas once the Arabs give up their dream of liquidating the Jewish state and learn how to co-operate with the most successful country in the Middle-East - and Israel doesn't even have oil!

Cybertiger
23 November 2007 at 08:55

"Already many Israelis are following the example of white S.Africa, and "taking the chicken run"."

The Jewish 'chickenhawks' will find Texas a comfortable neo-nesting ground, in my humble opinion.

Cybertiger
23 November 2007 at 14:39

I can’t help thinking what an appalling mistake the United Nations made in passing General Assembly resolution 181 on 29 November 1947.

mazaluk
23 November 2007 at 22:28

Israel's net immigration up by 20% in 2006 - success follows success, cybertiger!

You could probably increase your standard of living (providing that you DO have a job) if you emigrate to Israel.

If you do decide to join us, don't forget to leave your anti-Jewish feelings behind!

Amihai
24 November 2007 at 06:44

It appears the New Statesman has not published an anti-Israeli article for a while, hence this revisionist text of current affairs as part of the British "intellectual" and "progressive" orgy of hate-everything-Israel – the latest contribution of this "enlightened" publication to the neo-socialist trend in the UK.

Will it every penetrate the mean minds of members of this "school of thought" that Israel – a member state of the UN in good standing – has been threatened continuously, non-stop for 60 years, to be annihilated? Do members of the neo-socialist circles realize that as soon as the UN voted to establish a Jewish state and an Arab state in Eretz Israel/Palestine, 29 Nov 1947, a vote rejected by the local Arab leadership as well as by the rest of the Arab world, the Arabs initiated a war of terror against the Jewish community of the country (as if the Jews voted at the UN!), only to be joined by additional "volunteer" forces of the Arab League plus the armies of five additional Arab countries – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt – with the declared aim of annihilating anything Jewish between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the same aim still heralded until relatively recently by Mr. Arafat of the Fatah and presently by the Hamas forces that operate in the western bank of the Jordan River and that took over in a brutal force the Gaza Strip last June? Do neo-socialists realize that after Israel repelled those Arab forces whose call to arms was to throw the Jews into the sea and slaughter those who will remain set out 19 years later to once again try what they could not accomplish before and initiated the Six-Day War, 1967, which brought Israel into the now disputed territories of the western bank in a purely defensive war.

Of course, there have been additional large scale attempts to eliminate the Jewish state of Israel through the use of all out wars, through the use of economic boycotts, through the use of international political pressure, through the use of demographic flooding of the Jewish nation-state of Israel, and with few periods of cessation an on going campaign of terror against the Jewish civilians of the country – against babies in their mothers' arms, children, the elderly, working class men and women who simply try to live, yes, to sustain their very life, the most precious value in our Jewish tradition, the value that no other matches it – life.

It is this reality that we, Israelis, encounter daily and that has affected our society so adversely that is behind the construction of the security "wall", 94.3% of which is actually a metal fence. But a metal fence of course is not as photogenic, not as dramatic and "sexy" for the promoters of hate-everything-Israel; a security fence that has saved thousands of lives from those set out to blow themselves inside schools, buses, shopping centers, coffee shops. And unfortunately, daily, the same dark forces that worship death continue to perpetrate additional attacks, most of which are intercepted by Israel's security forces before they take place hence the "raids" into Jenin to arrest people and bring them to the court of justice, while the rockets and mortars from the Gaza Strip – Hamastan since the brutal take-over by Hamas – continue to be fired into the socialist communities of the western Negev inside sovereign Israel. But this reality is not mentioned by the British neo-socialists because theirs is a supposed socialist ideology and not the one actually being practiced by kibbutz members who toil daily in cultivating the soil to bring forth bread from it. Yes, these are Jewish socialist farmers, but Jewish socialist farmers and their children also have the right to live, don't they?

It must be stated clearly: The very first of all human rights is the right to live. We, Jews, also have this right and defend it! And fundamentally all that Israel has done throughout its short history as the sovereign nation-state of the Jewish people has been to defend itself and its citizens. But this, of course is not mentioned by the writer of this article, the latest emissary of Britain's new-socialists at the New Statesman.

Amihai
24 November 2007 at 06:55

I don't have a definitive solution to the Arab Israeli conflict as I have been asked to provide by several cyber friends, indeed, no one does!!! A solution that I think may be found, I think, would be through the managing of a process that must require first and foremost mutual respect and recognition of the humanity of the other, both individually and collectively.

This sense of respect of the other has been lost to a large extent, I regret very, among many young men and women in Israel, largely but not exclusively as a result of them having had to deal with a population from within which mass murderers of Jews have been coming. The lack of respect of the Jew as an individual and the Jewish people and its legitimate affinities and aspirations has been missing among our Arab neighbors as well and for a much longer period, and I say so as one who still remembers the calls in Arabic prior to 1967, before the Six-Day War, to slaughter the Jews and throw those who have remained alive into the sea, the same sea into which until very recently Arafat used to invited us, Jews who disagreed with him, to go and drink its waters – a more elegant way of saying to us, drown yourselves in the sea, the same that continue to be heralded from the Islamic Republic of Iran: "Death to America, death to Israel", while preparing the means with which to bring about this hoped eventuality.

The very first step that must take place by the political, religious and educational leadership of both the Jewish and Arab communities – including non-Palestinian Arabs – is to state very, very clearly that the other, based on the universally accepted right of all peoples to national self-determination and statehood, is a people with the right to its own nation-state, Israel being the nation-state of the Jewish people and the future political entity of the Arabs of Eretz Israel/Palestine will be by right the nation-state of the Palestinian Arabs. Once the parties state the above a very large psychological obstacle will begin to fade away. On the other hand, refusal to state the obvious will just increases the lack of trust as to the true intentions of the other side. Israel of course has stated a number of times what I have just suggested; now the Jewish people as a whole and specifically Israeli Jews for the Palestinian Arab leadership to do the same.

The next step should be an understanding that it is UNSCR 242 that must be the basis for all future agreements! 242 provides a number of options for the process about which I wrote above – and I state once again, it must be a managed process and not a simple one time resolution based on which, overnight, matters will change.

And based on 242 two things must begin to take place in the now disputed territories: 1) The Palestinian Authority – an Palestinian Arab autonomous area – with the massive assistance of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and parts of the international community set up a functioning government that can actually govern, and at the same time 2) The Palestinian Authority, with the assistance of Israel and Jordan in the western bank and Israel and Egypt in the Gaza Strip clean up the territories of all elements of terror and criminal violence which are incidentally often one and the same.

During all of this time and beyond the IDF must continue to provide an overall security while being based mostly on mountain tops in the western bank, along the Jordan valley and of course along the security fence that presently divides Israel from the western bank and Israel from the Gaza Strip. The IDF and other security arms of Israel must also continue to do what they have been doing both in the western bank and the Gaza Strip in fighting terror, including a massive attacks against the terror infrastructures there.

It appears that the western bank and the Gaza strip, even when economically they used to function in concert with one another, could not, by all professional indications, provide for a sustainable state economy. Of course, this is not possible when the two territories are divided politically, geographically, economically and even socially and religiously. It is this reality that must guide any free thinker towards the option of beginning to orient the western bank towards Jordan and the Gaza Strip towards Egypt. In other words, while in principle the Palestinian Arabs do have the right to national self-determination and statehood, the practical reality - largely created by the Palestinian Arabs themselves – is such that for the sake of their economic well being they may prefer to, or circumstances may dictate to them, that they will be best served by the western bank coming gradually under Jordanian rule and sovereignty and the Gaza Strip coming under Egyptian rule and sovereignty.

Once this reality sinks in and accepted, as Jordanian citizens the Arabs of the western bank - many if not most of whom are, incidentally, already Jordanian citizens - will be able to benefit from a massive international – including Israeli - assistance and incentives to develop the western bank. In addition of course, should they opt to do so, the residents of the western bank may also settle on the eastern bank of the Jordan River. The Arabs of the Gaza Strip as citizens of Egypt, and with the massive assistance and incentives coming from Arab countries, e.g. Saudi Arabia, the international community and Israel should be able to develop the Gaza Strip into an agricultural, industrial and tourist center and expand into the Sinai Peninsula and do there what Israelis began to do there when they settled in the town of Yamit and its surrounding region. The potential is great if and can be realized if only there is a will on the part of the Arab side.

It must be highlighted: Both Jordan and Egypt border the territories in question that had been under their control respectively for an extended period of time. Also, Jordan and Egypt are of course have functioning governments and economies, in addition to the fact that both Jordan and Egypt already have peace agreements in place with Israel which has been in existence for years. It is also important to internalize here, Israel and Jordan on the one hand and Israel and Egypt on the other maintain high level of mutual recognition and the right of each country to exist and to do so in peace for the benefit of all.

The economic assistance and incentives that would be forthcoming should benefit not only the Palestinian Arabs but these two countries as a whole as well. And finally, and very, very importantly such an approach would defuse the rise of Islamism (political Islam) in the region, be it directed from Iran or by al-qaeda type organizations, thus stopping potential dislocations within the societies/countries about which we talk and beyond.

Any one of these two territories or both will continue, should the Palestinian Arabs choose, to be the manifestation of their collective sense of peoplehood. They will, in other words, constitute the national-home of the Palestinian Arab people. In this sense Arabs who fled their homes and properties during the time of conflict in 1947/48 will have the option of re-settling in these territories, in their national-home, either in the western bank or in the Gaza Strip. A better approach to resolve the predicament of these people, however, is the permanent settlement as full citizens in the neighboring Arab states in which they reside presently, e.g. Lebanon, Syria, in which they will become full citizens of these countries with full rights and obligations as all other citizens. This will not be unlike the fact that Palestinian Arabs, over a million of them, are citizens with full legal rights of the Jewish state of Israel, despite the fact that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people.

One more element that should be seriously considered, especially by Europeans and North Americans is the inclusion of Israel as a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The reason for this request is because if and when Israel eventually pulls back completely its military forces – some 25 to 50 years from now – from the western bank and by so doing giving up precious strategic depth, being backed up by a force such as NATO can provide Israel with a sense of strategic backing that hopefully will be a good substitute.

As for settlements and Jerusalem, two of the more "sexy" elements in the present conflict, once an agreement is in place based on mutual recognition of the parties and terrorism is totally ceased, I propose that only major blocs of settlements remain under Israeli sovereignty and in exchange similar territory both in size and use that is presently part of sovereign Israel is included, through the movement of boundaries, under the newly established Palestinian Arab political entity while at the same time Jews who presently reside in territories that will come under Arab control will be given the option of moving into sovereign Israeli territory of be permitted to stay and become full citizens of the Palestinian Arab entity and affected by all the rights and obligations as all other citizens there. The Old City of Jerusalem and its immediate vicinity, since for Arabs it has never been a national issue but rather a religious one, must remain permanently under Israeli sovereignty and as part of Israel governing the city will enable all to freely access it for religious use.

What I propose is well within the framework of UNSC resolution 242 and as such should be accepted by all for the sake of a durable accommodation of peaceful co-existence between Arab and Jew in our region.

Cybertiger
24 November 2007 at 09:41

@mazaluk

"You could probably increase your standard of living (providing that you DO have a job) if you emigrate to Israel. If you do decide to join us, don't forget to leave your anti-Jewish feelings behind!"

Sadly, I have no Jewish grandmother and am therefore subject to discrimination by racists in any bid to better myself (?) within the Zionist entity.

PS. While they continue to wage the war on peace, I do not believe that the Holy Land of the Jews is a safe place to live.

PPS. Rather than a success, it is my belief that Israel has become a monumental failure.

Cybertiger
24 November 2007 at 11:15

@KatzNadav

"I don't have a definitive solution to the Arab Israeli conflict as I have been asked to provide by several cyber friends, indeed, no one does!!!"

I have a simple solution, very probably a final one, to the definitive problem posed!!

The end is near and I can see the Jews all sitting around in the last chance saloon, drinking in their last orders please.

At last, it is time to up sticks and move ... lock, stock and Jewish barrel ... and follow the lone star ... to Texas ... and there, to grow yellow roses ... to make the desert bloom.

Before they're blown away ... follow the heart ... and mind ... to Texas: there is really no other solution.

Amihai
24 November 2007 at 11:53

The shallowness of British "intellectuals" doesn't cease to amaze me. Their inability, exhibited often times, to move beyond sloganeering and name calling and to respectfully (not just outwardly so, for which the British are known) intelligently and rationally analyze a given situation. Mr. Kampfner is one example. The Tiger from cyberspace is yet another. How sad, how sad indeed!

Cybertiger
24 November 2007 at 19:13

"Yet ask Israeli ministers whether any of this will work, and they smile and say "no".

The smiling Israeli shyster never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity and even now is busy preparing the 'three noes of Annapolis' - or however many noes it takes to miss yet another opportunity for peace with the Arab world.

Amihai
24 November 2007 at 19:54

Yes, indeed, the Arabs have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity (Abba Eban, Israel's former foreign minister)

1) No to peace with Israel

2) No to recognition of Israel

3)No to negotiation with Israel

This is one of the most shining examples when Israel actually offfered to get out of the entire territories it had just taken over during a defensive was initiated by the Arab states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan in 1967 - the Six-Day War - based on a peace agreement with these Arab states.

The Arab League in Khartoum, Sudan, stated the above clearly, the sound of that statement is still ringing in every Jewish ear!

Cybertiger
25 November 2007 at 10:22

“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.”

Despite his encyclopedic ignorance, Mr. Katz will no doubt recognise these further words from Abba Eban, former Israeli foreign ministry shyster. Sadly, Mr. Katz and his religious buddies, at home in a democratic donkey sanctuary, still demonstrate an unholy degree of stamina for the war on peace.

PS. H.L. Menken once said, “Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.”

PPS. H.L. Menken is my favourite American curmudgeon.

Amihai
25 November 2007 at 10:36

So, when some members of the "intellectual" and "progressvie" circles in the UK can no longer engage their minds in understanding the world around them, they engage their abusive mounths, e.g. "encyclopedic ignorance by Mr. Katz", "shyster", "donkey sanctuary". It is sad to view the decline of British intellectual life, indeed, it is very, very sad!

James Dickins
25 November 2007 at 10:47

I fear that what is actually happening in the West Bank (incl. East Jerusalem) and Gaza is a process of ethnic cleansing by stealth. Massive Israeli settlement - now over 500,000 settlers - has left Palestinian towns and villages fragmented: towns like Bethlehem and Bethany are cut off by the Wall on three sides and blocked by checkpoints on the fourth.

In Britain we fail to realise the extremeness and the overwhelming strength of the alliance in America between the Israel lobby (led by AIPAC), the neoconservatives (and political groupings with extreme pro-Israeli views), and Rapturist Christians.

With every passing year and month, the settlements get larger, the dispossesion of the Palestinians (the confiscation of their land and water) gets greater, what remains of their territory gets more and more fragmented, and they are pushed deeper and deeper into poverty.

I believe that in Britain we fail to understand that the 'end-game' for Bush and many - perhaps most - main-stream American politcians, as well as Israeli politicians such as Olmert is not co-existence between Israel and a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, but the de facto expulsion of the Palestinians through economic strangulation.

Now doubt, we will occasionally get peace conferences and the like sponsored by the United States in order to appease its Arab allies, and attempt to convince an ever more sceptical European public. However, the vast financial underwriting by the United States of Israel (Israel receives almost 20% of global American military foreign aid) and a bedrock of support in America for the most extreme aims of Zionism belies this supposed interest in co-existence between Israel and those Palestinians who still remain in their historic homeland.

Amihai
25 November 2007 at 11:09

JamesDickins – I can argue with you about several of the points that you make, but instead I wish to ask you: What is, in your opinion, the way out of the Arab Israeli conflict and the Israeli Palestinian conflict which is a component of it.?

You see, if your intention is strictly to bash everything Israel as part of the on-going "intellectual" orgy with which some British "intellectual" and "progressive" circles (neo-socialists) are involved for some time, please tell us so. But if you wish to be a constructive contributor to an accommodation of peaceful co-existence between Arab and Jew in this region, I invite to make your constructive contribution.

Cybertiger
25 November 2007 at 17:32

@NadaKatz

"But if you wish to be a constructive contributor to an accommodation of peaceful co-existence between Arab and Jew in this region, I invite to make your constructive contribution."

A destructive contribution to West Bank settlement will be a constructive contribution to peace. On the other hand, making the desert flower in Texas … will be a highly constructive Israeli move … enabling a genuine peace to be constructed in the Holy Land … and a healthy bloom over Texas!?!

PS. It is my belief that Texas deserves no peace, whatever, ever!

James Dickins
25 November 2007 at 18:35

Nadav Katz is rather missing my point. I do not believe there is any desire on the part of Bush (or mainstream American politicians generally) or Olmert to find a way out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if by that Nadav Katz means is a peaceful settlement which will at least allow Palestinians in what remains of historic Palestine to continue living there.

Rather the intention is to keep up the illusion of peacemaking while allowing Israel to progressively make life worse and worse for Palestinians until they eventually can stand it now longer and abandon their homeland.

Under such circumstances, 'peace plans' (even those drawn up on New Statesman postings) simply contribute to the smokescreen.

As individuals in Britain, we can try and insist that our country stop engaging with the United States and Israel in these 'peace charades'. We can also expose the nature of the neoconservative-Rapturist-Israel lobby alliance in America, and try to extract from our politicians an undertaking that they will no longer support it.

The following links provide insightful information in this regard:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=881321004838285177

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1195568,00.ht...

http://www.unknownnews.net/apocalypsenow.html

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html

We should finally attempt to insist that Israel does not continue to be granted Most Favoured Nation Trading Status (a statues which is only supposed to be accorded to states which have the highest human-rights standards), and that agricultural and other produce from the Occupied Territories is not treated as if produced in Israel.

I think it is unlikely that any of this will cause the United States or Israel to alter their policies. It will, however, make it plain to the world that Britain as a country is not prepared to continue colluding in what I referred to in my earlier posting as 'ethnic cleansing by stealth'.

I would be delighted to see the Israelis and Palestinians come to a proper peace agreement (and I am very happy to be proved wrong in my pessimism by the forthcoming Annapolis conference). However, I do not think the US or Israel intend this to happen. Britain's continued pretence in this area is morally shameful and can in practice only make matters worse.

southern cross
25 November 2007 at 21:08

It is crystal clear to me, that the primary goal of the Israel government is to permanently assimilate the occupied territories of the West Bank. The longer they stay, the more buildings they build, the harder it will be to get them out. And it seems to me that they regard the blood of slain Israeli's, as a necessary sacrifice to help it entrench its position.

ikotubo
25 November 2007 at 23:51

The Israelis, it seems to me, have convinced themselves that military might places them above universal morality. The United Nations - the very institution that gives them international legitimacy - is routinely treated with casual contempt. But the rest of humanity has a duty to highlight their atrocities - even at the risk of all of us being blackmailed with the "anti-Semitism" slur.

Amihai
26 November 2007 at 08:29

And as we see, reading the three posters above which exhibit no substative knowledge of Israel and the region in which Israel exists, thier composers continue to be engaged in full daylight and in front of the whole world in the on-going "intellectual" gang-rape of Israel, a common behavior practiced for a while now by members of the "intellectual" and "progressive" circles of the UK, mostly by the new-socialists among them.

Robert Powell
26 November 2007 at 09:23

Nadav Katz, he's back, he's mad as a balloon and the nurses have allowed him access to the internet.

How sad. How sad indeed.

You alright Nadav? Sorry they haven't got the medication sorted yet!

Amihai
26 November 2007 at 09:28

A correction: I wrote: "...reading the three posters above..." I should have written "reading the three posters above and the one below!"

I truly hope no more such corrections should be forthcoming.

Robert Powell
26 November 2007 at 09:41

An unlikely scenario Nadav. You're psychotic not psychic.

Amihai
26 November 2007 at 09:51

An idea just crossed my mind, that some "enlightened" Brits simply can not digest too long a text. How else to explain their inability to internalize reality when presented to them in black on white but in a format that consists more than a single paragraph? I have therefore thought of cutting the food-for-thought into smaller pieces for them. The first piece follows:

"Will it ever penetrate the mean minds of members of this "school of thought" (neo-socialism, nk) that Israel – a member state of the UN in good standing – has been threatened continuously, non-stop for 60 years, to be annihilated? Do members of the neo-socialist circles realize that as soon as the UN voted to establish a Jewish state and an Arab state in Eretz Israel/Palestine, 29 Nov 1947, a vote rejected by the local Arab leadership as well as by the rest of the Arab world, the Arabs initiated a war of terror against the Jewish community of the country (as if the Jews voted at the UN!), only to be joined by additional "volunteer" forces of the Arab League plus the armies of five additional Arab countries – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt – with the declared aim of annihilating anything Jewish between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the same aim still heralded until relatively recently by Mr. Arafat of the Fatah and presently by the Hamas forces that operate in the western bank of the Jordan River and that took over in a brutal force the Gaza Strip last June? Do neo-socialists realize that after Israel repelled those Arab forces whose call to arms was to throw the Jews into the sea and slaughter those who will remain set out 19 years later to once again try what they could not accomplish before and initiated the Six-Day War, 1967, which brought Israel into the now disputed territories of the western bank in a purely defensive war".

James Dickins
26 November 2007 at 11:38

I am sorry that Nadav Katz seems to have resorted to abuse, rather than engaging in reasoned debate. As someone who has studied the Middle East for 30 years, I have a good knowledge of it.

One point I was trying to make, however, was that the issues in this case go far beyond the Middle East to the highly dangerous nexus of fundamentalist political and religious groups which currently control American policy towards Israel, the Arab states, and the Muslim world more generally. Unless we understand the beliefs and goals of these groups, we simply cannot understand what is happening in the region. Please do read the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=881321004838285177

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1195568,00.ht...

http://www.unknownnews.net/apocalypsenow.html

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html

Robert Powell
26 November 2007 at 11:40

Madav you learned the dark art of propaganda from your friend Joe Goebbels and you learned it well. Repeat the lie, then repeat it again and again and again and again and eventually everyone will think you're a looney!

James Dickins
26 November 2007 at 11:54

Grotesque accusations of the kind Robert Powell has just made above are morally repugnant.

The facts speak for themselves (so please do follow up the leads I've suggested above). If someone accuses someone else of being a neo-socialist (whatever that means), then we can discuss 1. what it means; 2. whether it's good, bad or indifferent.

Actually, my wife lived in Norway. It was great - no poor people; no drunken yobs on the street; no sense that different social groups hate each other. The Economist lists all the Scandinavian states amongst the twenty best countries to invest in the world (check if I'm right; don't take my word for it). I don't know whether this is neo-socialism. It could be.

Amihai
26 November 2007 at 12:03

JamesDickins: "I fear that what is actually happening in the West Bank (incl. East Jerusalem) and Gaza is a process of ethnic cleansing". I am sorry, Mr. Dickins, to open a post with such a statement does not imply knowledge of the region. Indeed, I question whether you have ever been to this country to actually study it.

Because if you did you would find out that the Palestinian Arabs who are citizens of the Jewish state of Israel, and the Palestinian Arabs residents of Jerusalem would do all just to stay as residents under the rule of this "ethnic cleansing" Jewish regime. I wonder why……!!!

It is easy and malicious to spread blood libel, especially against a particular people. We thought those days were over in the middle of the previous century but these days some of the members of "intellectual" and "progressive" circles – neo-socialists – of Great Britain work hard to carry on the tradition. Your post as is the article by Mr. John Kampfner are examples of this obsessive activity, sick, truly sick activity!!!

Robert Powell
26 November 2007 at 12:13

You don't have to fall off a cliff to know it hurts Nadav.

James Dickins
26 November 2007 at 13:32

I am sorry that Nadav takes this attitude. Nadav wrote in response to my original e-mail: "JamesDickins – I can argue with you about several of the points that you make, but instead I wish to ask you: What is, in your opinion, the way out of the Arab Israeli conflict and the Israeli Palestinian conflict which is a component of it.? " This was a very reasonable, and reasoned, approach to the subject.

I subsequently defended Nadav against what I thought was a foul statement by Robert Powell "Grotesque accusations of the kind Robert Powell has just made above are morally repugnant. "

It is perfectly acceptable, of course, for Nadav Katz to disagree with me. I think it is important, however, that we do not let even the most controversial discussions degenerate into personalised accusations of racism.

I would urge all contributors to be unfailingly curteous with one another in future contributions. You might also want to visit Norway!

Robert Powell
26 November 2007 at 14:42

I'm not sure I accept your unprovoked claim that I make "grotesque accusations". If I accused Nadav of sleeping with his mother then that would be grotesque. As it happens no-one would sleep with Nadav so the statement would also be ridiculous.

Sylvester
26 November 2007 at 15:05

yet again,any little bit of a truth about Palestinian life is written about some of Isreal fans emerge with their myths and fairytales of ''anti-semitism' 'and Isreal being threatened by Arabs who think day and night how to kill them off. Well let's not foget that the situation is the other way round,and Palestinians are the victims here,the victims of Zionist dream ! Israelis should be the ones who acknowlede the basic truth that Palestinians want justice,which they truly deserve.

manifesta49
26 November 2007 at 19:58

Some sort of irony, given the present situation but one of the first acts of the Israeli government after the Six-Day War was to knock down the wall that had divided Jerusalem for the previous 20 years.

Cybertiger
27 November 2007 at 20:22

@manifesta49

“Some sort of irony …”

… and, of course, the “separation barrier”, the colossal monument to the failure of the Israeli state, is another sort of ‘hard steel’ for the irony deficient.

gnuneo
05 December 2007 at 17:50

the ultimate irony is of course that the very fear of nadav katz and his ilk, that the muslim world is devoted to the destruction of Israel, and their actions based upon this premise, will inevitably make it true.

indeed, up until fairly recently most muslims aorund the world accepted the existence of Israel as read - yet this has now changed entirely.