Forty-four years into the occupation, most right-wingers still can’t answer a simple question: “So what’s your solution?”
Two days ago, a rally of rather moderate leftists was held in Tel Aviv, across from the building in which Declaration of Independence was read in May 1948. These rallies generally take place on Sundays, and as a rule draw no more than a few dozen participants – I’ve been to several. On Thursday, on the other hand, hundreds of people gathered: Some said there were five hundred people present, my own estimate is closer to three hundred. The occasion was a declaration of support of the expected independence of the Palestinians in September (I’m not going to enter this kettle of fish, but others did).
However, what drew most of the attention was not the hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, but a group of 20 to 25 counter-demonstrators, who disrupted the event throughout. They screamed, howled, hooted, blew whistles and vuvuzelas, shouted via a megaphone, and generally did everything they could to disrupt peacefully assembling people, who merely came to hear a few moderate speeches and a declamation. Of particular note were members of Im Tirzu, that famously centrist movement who once used say it has no opinion on the question of the territories and that all that interests it is “Zionism”. This time they led the crowd in screams of “traitors”, “go to Gaza”, and, arithmetically, “Ertez Israel, Eretz Israel”.
Right-wingers generally bemoan the existence of a mythical beast, “de-legitimization”; well, they’d be happy to learn they did their bit to help that particular unicorn materialize. The New York Times reported, somewhat shocked, about the calls of “traitors” and “Jewish Nazis”; that last gem, tasteless even by the standards of the Jewish Volkist movement, was directed at Hanna Maron, a well-respected actor, known for having escaped Nazi Germany as a young girl.
One thing remains unclear: What were they doing there? Why was MK Danny Danon, at his most rabid, demanding that those signatories who also received the Israel Prize – Israel’s highest civil distinction, generally given for life’s work – return it? After all, there is nothing new or controversial in calling for the creation of a Palestinian state; hell, even Binyamin Netanyahu publicly said he supports the two states solution. And everyone understands the meaning of denying the TSS is inviting the creation of a bi-national state.
So what was all the noise about? Why was Danny Danon protesting Hanna Maron when he should have demanded Netanyahu quit the leadership of the Likud? For two reasons. One: The Israeli right knows that when its representatives speak of the two state solution, they are lying. Their goal, as Netanyahu was caught saying in a private conversation (Hebrew), is not reaching a peace agreement; the goal is torpedoing it. They want to put as many settlers as they can in the West Bank, so that their evacuation would be impossible. And there’s a very good chance they managed it, and that the TSS is dead.
The other reason is that right-wingers simply won’t hear what others have to say, since it causes them a cognitive dissonance. So their solution, as part of sticking their fingers in their own ears, is silencing the speakers. If there is enough noise, enough whistles and trumpet-calls, perhaps no one will hear them, and that would somehow invalidate their arguments. So make a racket, boys; call anyone who thinks otherwise a traitor; maybe, like an ostrich, if we won’t speak about it won’t happen.
Forty-four years into the occupation, most right-wingers still can’t answer a simple question: “So what’s your solution?”. The decent ones, like Knesset Speaker Rubi Rivlin and former minister Moshe Arens, speak openly of a bi-national state; others still hallucinate they can keep maintaining an apartheid regime forever. They will keep doing so, until the world has finally washed its hands of Israel = and then, of course, they’ll blame those who mouths they’ve tried to shut.
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monster
Brilliant article, well done. The Israeli right wing is terribly uninventive, much like the right wing here in amerika.
Ben Israel
You ask “what is the solution?”. The answer is there is no solution. At least not with the Arab world in its current social and religious configuration. You say “there has to be a solution!” I ask “what is you solution to the Kashmir crisis, the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus, the Russian repression of Chechneya?” Apparently, there are problems to which there a no solutions. The Left’s “solutions”, the Oslo Agreements, the flight from southern Lebanon and the destruction of Gush Katif led to one disaster after another and several bloody wars, after they had assured everyone that there was no risk involved in taking their advice.
The only choice for Israel is to hang on, hang tough until the Arab side realizes that violence and rejectionism won’t get them anything and the Radical political Islam is a dead-end. It will take decades for this to happen. Meanwhile Israel, with all the problems and difficulties will continue to grow and get stronger, as it has continuously since the Balfour Declaration in 1917.
Mitchell Cohen
It is a breath of fresh air to see that it is not just Women In Green or Ateret HaKohanim that is against the insanity of Israel withdrawing to the Auschwitz borders (a term coined by dovish Abba Eban), but more mainstream movements like Im Tirzu as well.
Also, I wouldn’t consider 500 demonstrators in the hears of Tel-Aviv (the bastion of the secular left) in support of a far-left cause anything to write home about.
Prestwick
So Ben Israel’s solution to this problem is basically endless war? Wow it seems the lunatics really have taken over the asylum!
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You ask me what the solutions to each of those problems and I’ll say “talking”. How did Northern Ireland emerge from decades of bloodshed and violence? Not by waging total war but by getting people around the negotiating table and putting weapons beyond use.
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The loony Israeli right: out of ideas and out of time. End of story.
Ben Israel
Prestwick-
It is the “peace process” that has exacerbated the violence here. The biggest outbreaks of violence occurred at the times of the most ‘progress’ in the so-called “peace process”. The biggest wave of violence-the plague of suicide bombings- occurred after Barak broke all the red-lines Israel had drawn in the past and agreed to a Palestinian state on almost all the territory occupied in 1967 including handing Judaism’s holiest place, the Temple Mount, over to the Palestinians. The Lebanon II and Gaza wars occurred after Israel destroyed the settlements in Gush Katif. Ending Israeli concessions will prove to the Arabs that their violence will achieve nothing for them. This will then lead to an UNOFFICIAL, yet welcome, modus-vivendi.
Danny
Ben Israel – your solution of sticking to the status quo (forever?) will not work, simply because the Middle East is changing in ways that are leaving Israel behind in a very vulnerable position: Egypt and Turkey are no longer our allies and it is perfectly possible that the day will come when they will threaten us with war if we don’t quit the occupation; Europe is fast becoming so sick of us as to wash their hands entirely of Israel despite their guilty conscience about the holocaust; America ditto; and most importantly, in a few short years, Iran will be a Nuclear power, in spite of Israel’s ranting and raving to the contrary and its infantile efforts at development of computer worms etc to sabotage the reactors. So forget about the status quo because the only certainty in our region is change. And if Israel won’t change it will be left by the wayside of history.
Ben Israel
Danny-
If you are right ( and I am sure you are not) then why on earth should the Palestinians agree to make peace with Israel? According to whay you are saying, they will get everything they want without having to make any concessions.
aristeides
Why, Ben Israel?
Maybe for the sake of the living generation, that it might not have to suffer more decades of oppression, as opposed to knowing their grandchildren will get more after they are dead.
Which they will, as things go on as they are. Your error is in the belief that Israel will get stronger during this interval. This is like a patient with flesh-eating bacteria refusing to go under the knife. The rot is already growing. Look at the dysfunctional Israeli education system. Look at the rapid growth of the parasitic cults. Look at the free nations of the world recoiling in disgust. You are doomed, and you refuse to do anything that might save yourself some flesh, while you still have it.
Piotr Berman
“It is a breath of fresh air to see that it is not just Women In Green or Ateret HaKohanim that is against the insanity of Israel withdrawing to the Auschwitz borders (a term coined by dovish Abba Eban), but more mainstream movements like Im Tirzu as well.”
So how much of that breath of fresh air did “mainstream movement like Im Tirzu” provided? 5 people? 10? Is this “mainstream” or “astroturf”?
RichardNYC
There are no solutions, only prophecies. Here’s mine: Palestinians (and their international allies) will not accept apartheid, and Israeli Jews will not forfeit their security. Eventually, there will be another uprising, a violent physical realignment of the map. Jewish sovereignty will remain, at the expense of Palestinian lives and increase yerida. Likud cannot avoid it, they can only increase the price that both sides pay.
yesspam
Ben Israel.
The Palestine Papers show that all the rejection is coming from Israel. The Palestinians have offered Israel everything that it needs for peace and security. It has until September to accept, or the world will recognise Palestine on the ’67 borders. Time is running out.