Israel does not want peace. Id be happy to be proved wrong, more than anything else Ive ever written, but unfortunately continue to succession signals in that direction. In fact we can say that Israel has never pursued peace: a just peace, based on fair compromises on both sides. It is true that the routine in Hebrew greeting is Shalom, peace, shalom, shalom is part when you get there. And of course almost every Israeli will tell you that want peace. But does not consider that peace involves first of all justice, without which there can be and there will be no peace. The Israelis want peace, but not justice, do not take into account the universal values that are connected. Only peace, peace, when there is no peace. But unfortunately its not just peace that there is: in recent years, Israel has moved away from any aspiration to build peace itself. Peace seems to have disappeared from the agenda of Israel: in its place collective anxieties, constantly and systematically fed, and private personal issues, which seem to take precedence over everything else. The Israeli desire for peace seems to have gone extinct about a decade ago, after the failure of the Camp David Summit in 2000, with spreading the lie that there is no Palestinian partner for peace, and going through the horrible time, drenched in blood, of the second intifada. But actually, even earlier, Israel has never really wanted peace. He never dealt with the Palestinians-not even for a minute-as human beings with equal rights. Never wanted to recognize their understandable human distress and people. The Israeli desire for peace-if you ever actually existed-it was consumed in a slow death, among the harrowing scenes of the second intifada and the lie that a counterparty. There are only a handful of organizations-so certain as ineffective in the face of delegitimization campaigns mount against them. Israel, therefore, he is entrenched in his attitude of refusal. The most damning evidence that Israel does not seek peace is illegal settlements. Since the dawn of this project, never existed a litmus test more reliable and more precise about the true intentions of Israel behind that particular enterprise. It is very clear: proponents of settlements to consolidate the occupation, and those who want to consolidate the occupation does not seek the peace. The question, simply put, its all here. Taking good that Israels decisions are rational, how can you consider a possible coexistence between the illegal construction in the occupied territories and the aspiration to peace? Every single act of construction in settlements, each mobile home and each new platform, signals a refusal to do so. If Israel wanted to achieve peace through the Oslo accords, would at least have stopped, on its own initiative, the construction of settlements. The fact that this has not happened demonstrates that the Oslo talks were not honest, or in the best case scenario was the Chronicle of a failure foretold. If Israel wanted peace in Taba, at Camp David, in Sharm el-Sheikh, in Washington or Jerusalem, his first move would be to end all construction in the territories. Unconditionally. No doubt they delay. The fact that Israel did not constitute the main evidence that was not a just peace. But the settlements are not the most obvious part of Israels intentions. His denial has much deeper roots-in his DNA, in his own blood, its raison d être, in its most primal beliefs. There, at the deepest level, is the concept that this earth is destined only to the Jews. There, at the deepest level, is rooted in the am sgula-the chosen people-the chosen of the Lord. In practice this results in the belief that, in this land, the Jews are allowed to do what others is prohibited. But if this is the starting point, there is no way to get from there to a just peace. It is not possible to achieve a just peace when the game is based on the dehumanization of the Palestinians. There is no way to achieve peace, when in the head of people is instilled, day after day, the demonization of Palestinians. Who is convinced that every person suspected Palestinian and that any Palestinian wants to just throw the Jews into the sea will never make peace with the Palestinians. Most Israelis are absolutely convinced of the truth of these two affirmations. Over the past ten years, the two peoples have been separated from each other. The average Israeli youngster will never meet her Palestinian equivalent, if not during his military service (if you place in the occupied territories). Neither the average Palestinian young man will ever meet an Israeli his age, unless the soldier that the bully and attacked the checkpoint, or that invades his house in the middle of the night, or in the person of the colonist that usurps his land or destroys its plantations. As a result, the only way of meeting/clash between the two is among the occupants, armed and violent, and the busy, oppressed and desperate, they sometimes decide to respond to violence. Gone are the days when Palestinians worked in Israel and Israelis shopped in Palestine. It ended the period of near-normal relations with some modicum of equality that have existed for a couple of decades between two peoples who found themselves sharing the same territory. In this state of affairs is all too easy to incite and inflame the two peoples against one another, spreading fear and instill new hatreds over the existing ones. This is also a sure recipe to achieve peace. That is how it has developed a new Israeli desire, the desire of separation: they will be there and we here (but even there). At a time when most Palestinians still want coexistence, even if that opinion is decreasing (-an assessment which I might do after decades of knowledge of the Territories-), most Israelis want to disengagement and separation, but however without paying the price. The vision of the two States has earned a wide membership, but without any intention to put it into practice. The majority of Israelis would support, but not now, and maybe not even here. Were trained to believe that there is no counterpart for peace-there is a Palestinian partner, but only an Israeli partner. In practice it is almost the opposite. The Palestinian counterpart is never even recognized the opportunity to prove to be the right deal, while non-Israeli partner believe to be the right partners and right. So you reiterate locations where Israeli preconditions, the obstacles and difficulties that come between accumulate and overlap: another milestone of Israeli denial. Before the request for cessation of terrorism; then the request for a change of leadership (Yasser Arafat seen as obstacle); after proclaiming that Hamas was a new obstacle. Now the Palestinians refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish State. Israel considers his every action-from arrest to build mass political territories-as legitimate, and considers unilateral every Palestinian move. The only country on the planet so far without borders, contrary to delineate the boundaries of where compromise might be satisfied. Israel has not internalized the fact that, for Palestinians, the borders of 1967 are the mother of all compromises, the red line of Justice (or relative justice). Israelis call them borders to suicide. This is why the real end became the status quo, the primary goal of Israeli politics, a game the all-or-nothing. The problem is that the current situation cannot last forever. Historically, no nation has ever agreed to live under occupation without resistance. And the international community is increasingly ready to take firm stance against this state of affairs, accompanying it with punitive measures. It follows that the Israeli goal is unrealistic. Disconnected from reality, the majority of Israelis continue their pattern of behavior. In their mind is the world that is consistently against them, while it is normal thing continue with employment plans. Anyone who dares criticize such policies is denounced anti-Semitism, and every act of resistance is perceived as an existential threat. Any international opposition to the occupation is viewed as an attempt to delegitimize Israel and as a provocation and a threat to the very existence of the country. Around the world-seven billion people, most of them against the occupation-wrong, while six million Israelis-most of them for employment-are in the right. This reality in the eyes of the Israeli media. If you add the suppression, concealment and obfuscation of every problem, there is another aspect of denial: why would someone strive for peace as long as life in Israel is good, calm prevails and the reality is hidden? The only way in which the besieged Gaza Strip can try to remind the world of his existence is firing rockets, and the West Bank gets attention only in these days when blood is spilled. Similarly, the views of the international community is taken into account only when you try to impose boycotts and sanctions, which in turn generate immediate auto-victimization campaign studded with almost worn-when improper-not historical apology. This is the sad reality that we face. You can see a ray of hope. There seems to be no possibility of change from within the Israeli society, until he continues to behave in this way. The Palestinians have committed more than one error, but in this context, these errors are marginal. The Palestinian side demanding justice, on the Israeli side the denial. The Israelis want the occupation, not peace...(Photojournaliste MUHARREM KASLI)
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 01:25:22 +0000
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