Welcome, Welcome to the New Palestinian Government

Welcome, Welcome to the Palestinian Unity Government
The establishment of a united Palestinian government is an important step forward in the battle for Palestinian rights and for a just peace coming as it does when Israel is on the defensive and US policies in the region are in deep trouble. It has been long clear that the Palestinians and the Arab countries are ready for a far-reaching compromise for peace. If there is a chance, at this point, for serious negotiations, it stems from the crisis of Bush’s policies. The area is in turmoil, and US control of the Middle East is on the downgrade. The entire world keeps telling the US government that the tension surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the US blanket support for Israel is destroying the last vestiges of US prestige in the region. With the US wallowing in Mesopotamian mud in Iraq, the so-called “moderate” Arab countries are demanding a revision in US policy. Rice is trying to pass off a new round of blather and chatter as the resumption of the ‘peace process’, but more and more nations and countries are losing their patience. Everybody has had enough of the bluff.

The only alternative to the present ugly reality in Israel-Palestine is peace based on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. With all the favorable developments surrounding the Saudi initiative, it is far from certain that given the obstacles, the odds are in favor of an early peace. Looking dispassionately at the obstacles to genuine peace, even the most engaged advocate of the two-state solution knows that we are talking about a possibility and not a probability. In any event the current struggle for peace is an important element in the international effort to further isolate and expose Bush and Co.

Many of us were pleased to see Mustafa Bargouti among the ministers in the new Palestinian government. Mustafa Bargouti is well known to the peace camp in Israel and to the friends of peace in the international community. He appears regularly in the international media as an effective and articulate spokesperson for the Palestinian cause. As a rule, Bargouti supports serious dialog between Palestinians and Israeli groups fighting for a just peace. His frequent appearances in important meetings of the protest movement bear witness to his humanist principles. He was absolutely right when he declared on television this week that if Israel really wants peace, all the issues can be solved peacefully within the framework of the two-state solution. If the people of Israel will find a way to overcome the obstacles raised by the Olmert government, peace can be achieved ushering in a period of prosperity and security.

The Contours of the Settlement Were Never Clearer
Though no one can promise that there will indeed be a two state solution, we can say with a reasonable degree of exactness - as a result of contacts over the years and repeated analysis of the real possibilities - what a two state solution would look like. The contours of this very settlement appear in almost identical formulation in a long series of proposals, many of them from authentic Palestinian and Arab sources.

The borders will be determined in accordance with the pre-1967 lines, with mutually agreed alterations. Obviously, there will be serious bargaining about territorial trade offs. The more reasonable approach suggests that it will be easier to find a fair trade off, close to the 1967 borders, than demanding the evacuation of heavily populated Israeli properties. But the 1967 principle means that the Palestinians will demand and receive territory of equal political and economic value.

Jerusalem will indeed serve as two capitals – Israeli and Palestinian as the Palestinians extend sovereignty over the Arab neighborhoods in the city.

There will be a fair and just solution of the refugee problem. The practical translation of this conception, fathered by Yasser Arafat, draws a distinction between the indispensable need for recognizing the rights of the Palestinian refugees on one hand and the implementation, of those rights on the other hand - which will take into account Israeli demographic concerns. The Palestinians can and will demand serious damages and large scale compensation, which is all the more reasonable since repatriation to Israel will be possible only in a small minority of cases. Financial compensation, citizenship rights, recovery of property, choice of domicile, limited repatriation, and subsidized emigration opportunities can go a long way towards a serious improvement in the life of each and every refugee family, though they may not meet the criteria of absolute justice. It is right and just that any responsible Arab negotiator will put the moral demand for repatriation on the table. It will remain there until it is replaced by a serious international material and moral commitment to the welfare of the refugees and a modicum of Israeli cooperation is ensured. At that point it will be possible to enable the mechanics of compromise to do their work.

The New Utopians
Sadly enough, the Israeli ruling circles have recklessly undermined Israel’s moral right to existence. But this does not mean that Israel is on the verge of collapse. Any orientation on swift and just revenge for the crimes against the Palestinians would be politically foolhardy and morally problematic, since it would be quite unhelpful to insist that the Israeli people pay for the miserable policies of their leaders. In all likelihood, the armed conflict must and can end before Israel fully understands the nature of its crimes and mistakes.

It must be understood that we are still very much in the era of practical solutions (with all their limitations) to burning problems and still searching for ways to shorten the duration of human suffering. In case the advocates of the one state solution have not noticed it, we are not in a revolutionary period. We need to pursue the kind of politics which takes into account this reality however unpleasant. Ignoring reality involves immediate and costly failure, and has long ago lost its heroic dimension.

There was a period in which the left did indeed formulate revolutionary policies and slogans for the Middle East. But back then there were some indications that revolutionary ideas and forces were at work in the region. Though these views were based on exaggerated hopes and unrealistic expectations, they did reflect real ideas and forces. They did build on the daily practice of thousands of dedicated activists. The most common slogan on the left back then was the establishment of a single democratic secular socialist state. That slogan back then was infinitely more relevant and achievable than the idea of a single democratic state of Jews and Palestinians in Palestine today. Today, the support for a one- state solution draws its encouragement from the current stalemate and everything it involves. The highly tenuous logic holds that, if the two-state vision is not working, then the potential for a single state solution increases. But there is not the slightest attempt to outline the processes or the actors which will struggle for a single democratic state. Of course, many will admit that “it is a good idea.”

The advocates of the one-state solution usually share with the left a completely totally justified condemnation of the role of the United States and its collusion with Israeli intransigence. However, in the foreseeable future – even envisioning highly positive shifts in the international and regional alignment – there are only two possible states of affairs. The first, and the most likely, is the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This involves constant fluctuations in the levels of tension and repression and periodic wars by Israel to maintain its deterrent capacity and to prevent slippage in the existing balance of forces with the ongoing danger of a general catastrophe. The second is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside of Israel.

In passing, it is relevant to notice that what we have today is a one-state affair. Israel continues to integrate the occupied territories through Israeli settlement efforts and reinforces it grip on the remains of the Palestinian economy. Given favorable circumstances, Israel is always on the look out for expanding absorption of Palestinians into the Israeli labor force. Of course, it is also highly important that both peoples are clearly locked into the idea of an independent sovereign state.

Only one ideological approach can justify principled opposition to a two state solution: the classic position of Palestinian nationalism (which, of course, is in no way morally inferior to Jewish nationalism). The classic position of Palestinian nationalism is that Palestine is an Arab country and must be the exclusive basis for the self determination of the Palestinian people. This is a principled and coherent position and accepting a deal for anything less, which seals off the possibility of an Arab state in all of Palestine, is tantamount to treachery. The true nationalist is ready to wait until there is a major reversal in the relations of forces and the important thing, until then, is not to compromise principles.

However, the prevailing experience with all or nothing approaches is that more often then not, you can end up with nothing. This is more than likely here in Palestine where there are a number of processes impacting on the small, tiny territory of Palestine, any of which might cause the final and total collapse of the Palestinian nationalist vision. These include Israelization, Islamicization or Pan-Arabization.

Israelization could conceivably dissect over time and eventually dismember the national movement by a combination of repression, assimilation and expulsion. We see evidence of partial Israeli successes in all these fields.

Islamicization, very much on the rise, has the potential to eliminate all secular, national perspectives. Most devoted Palestinian nationalists see political Islam as more of a danger than an ally. To complete the list of potential disruption of the Palestinian vision, it is necessary not to forget the past. At one point, Pan-Arabism, presently in retreat, almost replaced any special role for Palestine independence.

Of course, the hoped for reversal of fates - the collapse of Israel - might indeed rescue the chances for full Palestinian national liberation. But this involves a rather ironic danger: that the Palestinians find themselves in the role of oppressors of the Jews in the country. There might be some sort of poetic justice in such a reversal of fate. But that kind of role might conceivably be worse for the Palestinians’ national vision than the long night of victimhood in their own land.

We Must Test Our Principles in Real Life
Bush and Cheney are growingly isolated. Forward looking Palestinian policies are contributing to that isolation. Washington is locked on the horns of a dilemma. It can either cooperate in a joint international effort to reduce mounting tension and dangers in the region or it can stall and look for the first opportunity to re-establish unlimited domination by new military expeditions. The old clearly delineated relation of military, economic and political forces is crumbling. It takes a lot of realism in Washington to interiorize the new situation. The US must try and recognize that it has lost “big” in the Middle East and that the only way to prevent further escalation is to deal sincerely with foes and friends. It is to be hoped that at one point the US leading groups will become convinced that accords and agreements based on the new circumstances are preferable to new wild and irresponsible adventures. These are the circumstances that can impart new life into the search for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Olmert Leads Israel in a Five Front War

Ehud Olmert is leading Israel to the dizzying heights of superpower status and superpower strategy. With one hand tied behind his back (we are referring, of course, to his need to devote his thoughts and energy to repelling the criminal indictments coming his way), Olmert has done, with his “free hand” almost the impossible. It is worth recalling that not so long ago, Israeli military doctrine warned the political echelon about getting into a confrontation on more than one front. Olmert, who already bears direct responsibility for the Lebanon war fiasco last summer, is developing the appetite of a glutton for armed confrontation. In his short premiership, he has gone to war at the drop of a hat and seems to consider it a great success. Why, just last week he told the press that the committee that he had appointed to examine his conduct of the recent war, was totally satisfied by his explanations of his role in the war. With such a success under his belt, no wonder that Olmert has no qualms about leading Israel into a four, or even a five front war.

The Palestinian Front – Two Prongs
The West Bank prong in the war against the Palestinians: almost nightly for the last several months, Israeli army raiders, usually disguised as Arabs, search out and arrest tens of “wanted” (that’s a noun and not an adjective). When this operation goes a bit askew, or meets resistance, then a pogrom ensues. Last month an unsuccessful attempt to arrest a “wanted” in the middle of the day in the middle of the Ramallah market ended in a major shoot- out. When things got hot, the Israelis sent tanks “ablazing” into the center of town to extract their exposed unit.

The Gaza Prong – Israel has recently smashed into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun in a vain attempt to prevent the dispatch of home-made rockets at the town of Sh’derot (and other communities along the Gaza border). Israel has revved up the tanks for another incursion into the Gaza strip. However, the internecine strife among the Palestinians seems to have convinced the Israelis to hold off because, meanwhile, the Palestinians were doing their work for them. Any alert observer understands that the chances for a major Israeli incursion will multiply if the Palestinians dare to overcome their differences and establish a unity government, as they seem to be doing these days.
Summarizing the Palestinian front – Israel is involved in a two-pronged “low intensity” war, that can intensify any minute, especially in the Gaza area.

Lebanon – New Incursions – New Flare-ups
According to its previous pronouncements, Israel would be in a state of permanent bliss if only the Lebanon army, and not Hezbollah, was arrayed along its northern border. Now it is the Lebanon army and the UNIFIL force that just cannot get it right. Often, in a border incident, its hard to reconstruct exactly what happened. Not this time. Far from denying responsibility for the February 7, 2007 clash, Israel has admitted a recent change in the IDF deployment that caused the incident with the Lebanese army.

“An IDF force crossed over the fence yesterday evening near the border in the area where four Hezbollah explosive devices were found at the beginning of the week. This is an area where the international border is tens of meters north of the fence. The fence and the border are not identical and there are small plots of land between them. The IDF has recently changed its policy and it now examines plots north of the fence… An infantry force accompanied by two bulldozers entered the area to see if there are any explosive devices and to level the area. Tanks backed up the force from south of the fence.” (Ha’aretz, February 8, 2007) The following morning, Israeli aircraft were swarming all over southern Lebanon. The Israeli version is that the IDF is very concerned about the four explosive devices lying there in the mud. This is hard to believe since the info is that they may have been residue from the last war…

Summary of the Lebanon front
Israel sees itself in a critical ongoing conflict with Hezbollah. Many in the government and the army see the present period as only an interlude between rounds. But if anyone, including the Lebanon army, gets in the way, Israel responds with military force. Israel is also poised to respond militarily against any Hezbollah gains in internal Lebanese politics. There is no peace and growing tension on the Lebanese front.

Iran in the Cross-Hairs
Israel is very open about its intentions regarding Iran. Israel is not willing to forfeit its nuclear monopoly in the region. Aided in no small degree by Ahmadinajad’s provocative declarations, Israel has become Bush’s chief co-conspirator. The two connive and threaten, and the only disagreement is “who goes first.” At any rate, whether the coming war is a Bush-Israel or an Israel-Bush operation, the Iranian front is militarily the most serious of all the fronts. s Israel is more and more convinced that returning Iran to the Shah-like control is the key to eternal stability in the ME. In short, the Bush-Israel pair is in dire straits and has come to believe that war is the only way out.
In summary: Israel is in the vanguard of the forces pushing for regional conflagration, another major front.

The Syrian Front – Getting Warmer
Admittedly, the preparation for war on this front is less in the news. But most of the past and present generals (quite a sizeable population, in themselves) never tire of explaining that Lebanon-Syria or Iran-Syria are package deals. Explanations of this kind became urgent because there was some sort of public initiative for negotiations with Syria, based on reports of serious Syrian overtures. Rice did not have to exert herself too much explain to Olmert that negotiations with Syria are a Baker-Hamilton plot, to be avoided like the plague.

Declaring War on the Islam World
The Israeli government can argue till it is blue in the face that the new excavations near the Temple Mount and in the vicinity of the Al Aqsa Mosque are an innocent engineering and archeological operation to replace a dangerous structure. Ha’aretz represents Israeli paranoia in arguing that the approach to the Mograbi entrance is a “crucial Israeli interest.”

But this is a crude and cynical provocation designed to show everyone that it is Israel which is the sole arbiter of all matters connected to the holy sites and that Israel does not need to consult anyone regarding its actions. The act is so flagrant and the timing is so irresponsible that Israel’s Security Minister, Peretz, has demanded that Olmert stop the operation immediately for fear of escalation and deterioration in the security situation (Ha’aretz, February 8, 2007).
Are we a bunch of “nervous Nellys” because we are uncomfortable and challenge the wisdom of involving Israel in a five front war. It is more likely that we are not hysterical at all but rightly concerned that we are in the hands of idiots and/or madmen (cross out one or leave both in).

Moral Indignation Instead of Rational Discourse

Two articles in the recent issue of the US periodical, Dissent, set out to ridicule the utter folly and opportunism of the left in relating to its traditional enemy, Islamic fundamentalism. Since both articles are characteristic of complaints against the left by people who consider themselves parts of it, they deserve special attention.

In the first article, “Jihadism of Fools”, Fred Halliday documents the ugly and brutal role of various Islamist forces over the last sixty years in the vicious suppression of the left, including cases of mass murder against Communists and their allies. This record is adduced in order to warn against “those who seek to form any alliance however ‘tactical,’ with Islamist movements and states.” After reminding his readers of the enormous differences between the Islamist program and that of the left, he concludes that the left is simply deluding itself on this important question.
Nowhere does Halliday relate to the real problem, which is the transformed role of many leading sectors of radical Islam. The current problem, the one that demands analysis from all serious observers, and the left as well, is the significance of the continuing clash, across broad fronts, between Islamic forces and the hegemony of the dominant Western powers and their vital interests in the region. It is these changed circumstances that call for new analyses. It is not too much to say that the impact of this conflict between radical Islam, fighting under anti-imperialist slogans and imperial hegemony is far from clear.

Even though Halliday should know something about the left, he writes as if the left is still one of the major forces in the region’s politics and is now, for reasons of opportunism trying to obscure the crimes of Islamic fanatics. Unfortunately, the left is not a major player in most of the region. But it still has moral stature and analytical ability. By what rule, must we assume that militant Islam will realign itself with the imperial powers. Is it relevant that most, if not all the unforgivable crimes against the left by Islamic forces were performed in the service of reactionary governments following the line of subservience to the major dominant Western powers? Do we know how radical Islam will approach the social question in these new circumstances? In short, are we working on a genuine attempt to understand and act in the light of new circumstances, or are we stuck with the dogmatic repetition of previous positions. There seems to be sufficient evidence to state the Islamic forces are not monolithic, that local conditions are important for their development and various groupings and tendencies can and are emerging. When and if tactical alliances suggest themselves is it wise to reject them out of hand just in order to join the chorus repeating constantly that militant Islam is the incarnation of evil. Fred Halliday wishes to impose a recipe for ideological purity. In short, we are supposed to exercise so called moral judgment regarding the evils of radical Islam. Next, we will be advised to rediscover the moral superiority of the enlightened West.

In the second article, "The London Review of Hezbollah", Professor Eugene Goodheart from Brandeis University presents what appears to be serious evidence for the prevalence of crude anti-Semitism of one sort or another in the Hezbollah leadership. It would be a pleasant surprise if Goodheart’s accusations regarding anti-Semitic utterances by Hezbollah were unfounded. But Goodheart’s accusations against the Hezbollah leadership are really the occasion for him to launch an attack based on biased and unsubstantiated charges against the London Review of Books (which he renames the Hezbollah Review of Books) for printing favorable analyses of Hezbollah. His immediate objective is a recent article by Charles Glass in which he attacks Glass for things that Glass never wrote and ascribes a position to Hezbollah for which he adduces no proof.

Goodheart writes:
“Can we then take seriously Glass’s benign view that the movement, in becoming ‘a sophisticated and successful political party . . . [has] jettisoned its early rhetoric about making Lebanon an Islamic Republic,’ and now speaks ‘of Christians, Muslims and Druze living in harmony” Apparently the Jews, having no place in this harmony, will simply disappear.” And:
“Glass speaks of Hezbollah’s uncompromising political program, of which he apparently approves, without mentioning that at its core is the destruction of Israel.”

Goodheart is angry with Glass (1) because Glass has denied the authenticity of some of the anti-Semitic statements attributed to the Hezbollah leadership and 2) Glass dares to report on positive developments of that organization. He feels that this gives him a license to say anything or everything about Glass or the Hezbollah. He allows himself to say that Glass “apparently” approves Hezbollah’s entire program. But Glass is specific only in praise for Hezbollah’s abandoning the goal of an Islamic Republic in favor of Christians, Muslims and Druze living in harmony. Goodheart throws elementary logic to the wind and makes the following unsubstantiated accusations: (1) Glass supports the Hezbollah program, when Glass only said that it was good that Hezbollah had a “uncompromising political program.” (2) The core of the Hezbollah program is the destruction of Israel; (3) Glass supports the destruction of Israel.

Glass had indeed praised Hezbollah for abandoning the idea of an Islamic Republic in Lebanon in favor of an agreement for the coexistence of Christians, Muslims and Druze. Glass along with many other observers has noted that Hezbollah is transforming itself into a basically political movement. Goodheart is so confused and rattled that he comes up with a new inanity, blaming Hezbollah for not including the non-existing Jewish community in Lebanon, along with the Christians, the Muslims and the Druze in its program for transforming Lebanese society.

It is worth adding that we have no exact information regarding the “core” of the Hezbollah program. Certainly, there is no reason to doubt that the central tenets of Hezbollah regarding Israel are unacceptable. On the other hand, we have no proof that Israel is at the “core” of the Hezbollah program.

In a related circumstances, we admit that it is not known whether the destruction of Israel is or is not the core of the Hamas program. Whatever the truth on this is, it did not prevent Hamas from suggesting a 10-15 year cease-fire with Israel as a viable negotiating option. Is it news that political realities often negate the relative importance of programmatic declarations, even when they are at the “core.”? Goodheart refuses to recognize any positive developments in Hezbollah such as abandoning the demand for an Islamic Republic, though such a transformation may distance Hezbollah from aggressive war against Israel. Instead, he attacks Hezbollah for not including Jews in its call for a reform of Lebanese political life!

Goodheart is both unable and unwilling to analyze the political trajectory of the Hezbollah. In this, he is characteristic of those who feel that it is sufficient to employ their own subjective moral judgment in place of serious debate and discussion. The inevitable result is that Goodheart’s prejudice clouds his judgment on the major issues. After he disassociates himself from the Israeli attack on Lebanon which he likens to the U.S. war in Iraq, he cannot resist using Hezbollah’s anti Semitism in order to somehow justify Israel’s massive attack on Lebanon last summer. Goodheart:

“But then the question arises, “What should be the appropriate response to suicide bombings and Katyusha rockets?” There is no easy answer to this. But it is a mark of callous indifference to the fate of a country, indeed of one’s own country, when another contributor to the London Review of Books, Yitzhak Laor, chastises two of Israel’s most prominent critics of their own government, Amos Oz and David Grossman, for asserting the right of Israel to respond to violence against it. Grossman, for example, writes, “There is no justification for the large-scale violence that Hezbollah unleashed this week, from Lebanese territory, on dozens of peaceful Israeli villages, towns and cities. No country in the world could remain silent and abandon its citizens when its neighbor strikes without provocation.”

Grossman’s strange account is, of course, a distortion of the events of the morning of the Hezbollah attack on July 12, 2006 which involved the capture of the two Israeli soldiers and an artillery barrage in the region to distract the IDF and cover its retreat from the operation. Every independent observer (including many in Israel) determined that Israel responded disproportionately. Israel could have reacted by any number of measured political and military responses, instead of plunging the area into all out war. But, in fact, Israel was looking for the opportunity to begin a real large scale offensive. Despite this, for Goodheart, the deplorable elements in the Hezbollah program are to be seen as an excuse for aggressive war. And all this to hide the fact that Laor and others were right in opposing the war, while Oz, Grossman were very wrong in defending it. Goodheart might be pleased with himself that he got in another sneer against the LRB, but it is clear that he is really on a mission to defend Israel, even where no defense is possible.