generalspeaking

Kicking and Screaming

Israel is to be led by the United States, the European Union and the collective Arab states into a peace process bearing far more resemblance to a formula for 'defeat' of the vision of a Jewish state, than a bargained-for agreement between antagonists leading to an agreement to live side by side eschewing all further offensives. This is an extraordinary instance where a sovereign state is being forcibly enjoined to accept the least attractive offer available to its existence.

That the intractable violent antipathy of the Arab geography against the reality of a Jewish presence has remained a canker in the region for sixty years owes far more to the status of Muslim unwillingness to accept a 'foreign' presence within an Islamic enclave than the unwillingness of Israel to leave itself open to further opportunities from the Islamic world through violent assaults to uproot it.

It has been Israel, after all, on the receiving end of determined Arab onslaughts.

It has been one single, extremely small, and not too populous country that has been squeezed tight by its neighbours' grudging disinterest in recognizing its right to existence. Perpetually embattled, determined not to relinquish its hold on sovereignty over a small parcel of Middle Eastern land, Israel struggles to maintain itself. It has, in the past, had few friends from among the international community. The one constant has been the United States.

At this juncture in its history Israel is prepared to write off the support of its last friend, just as the United States prepares itself under a new administration to write a new trajectory for its reputation as a responsible, forthright and reliable world power, one openly prepared to present itself as a new partner in the global community. This is the America of the academic left, prepared to take up where the old America left off, but on the other side of the road.

Jordan claims that if Israel sees fit to turn down a newly-structured plan for peace, it can anticipate another, more traumatic conflict to be launched against its status as a sovereign country by its neighbours. If, on the other hand, Israel submits to all the demands that those very same countries whose previous attempts to dislodge it from the geography failed, the end result of acceptance will inevitably result in its collapse as a Jewish state.

The offer sounds tantalizing: "What we are talking about is not Israelis and Palestinians sitting at the table, but Israelis sitting with Palestinians, Israelis sitting with Syrians, Israelis sitting with Lebanese", enthused King Abdullah of Jordan, speaking publicly of his agreement with President Obama on the restructuring of the Arab peace plan. And, in blunt language, he added that should this initiative fail, the new U.S. administrations' credibility will fail with it.

There's that double-edged threat, slightly muted by the good-will of enthusiasm. Should this project fail, Israel can anticipate a large and presumably effective military assault; the United States in turn can anticipate that all the promises that have been forthcoming from the Obama administration for a fresh new state in global relations, particularly pertaining to the Middle East and to the world of Islam, will be in ashes.

For Israel there is not much to gain; for the United States, to fail is to lose much face. Israel already has a fairly good idea what a separate Palestinian state looks like, in Gaza. A hostile neighbour refusing to contemplate its existence, committed to destroying Israel. In the West Bank there is a moderate Fatah Palestinian Authority which has failed to arrest attacks by Palestinians upon Israelis, which refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, which favours maps of the region absent Israel, which teaches its children to hate Jews.

That sound like reliable ingredients out of which a post-struggle situation of two states living side by side in harmony can be attained? If the passion of grievance, tribal hatred, and religious strife is taken out of the equation, and reason permitted to enter, then the cautious recommendations of the new Israeli Prime Minister makes eminently good sense. Have the Palestinian Authority commit itself to building civic institutions, and work alongside Israel to improve its economy and the living condition of its people.

Once a sense of mutual trust and confidence has been established, it is at that juncture that serious talks leading to the formation of two sovereign states established side by side should be contemplated. A reprise of the post-Oslo agreement, when this was precisely what was undertaken under Mr. Arafat whose signing of that initial peace treaty was an interlude before he launched his first Intifada.

So who exactly is it that Israel should be placing its trust in? Is any country aside from Egypt willing to step in to state unequivocally and without pre-conditions that it is prepared to accept Israel's presence, to respect and protect it? As matters stand, while the Arab states, or some of them, would like to resolve the issue of Israel versus the Palestinians, and bring it to a conclusion, it does not appear that the Palestinians - or their representatives - wish to.

The current Minister of Defence of Israel, in his previous incarnation as head of state offered just about everything that the Palestinians demanded for a peace agreement, and he was rebuffed. Ehud Olmert was prepared to go even further and accept all the demands that the Palestinians put on the bargaining table. Nothing was resolved, all his offers rejected. The real agenda is Israel's disappearance from the geography.

The collective military of the region's Arab states was unable to destroy Israel. Now it is being attempted by political-diplomatic stealth, by coercing Israel into accepting all the conditions being imposed upon it by international opinion favouring the Palestinian 'cause'. Which, if it came to fruition, would see Israel become a major-Arab-population state, with a sizeable proportion of Jews. Re-writing history again.

Labels: European Union, Israel, Middle East, Political Realities, United States

posted by Pieface @ Monday, May 11, 2009