|
|
In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Goodwill.
- Winston Churchill
Bi-nationalism has never had much support in the Zionist movement. Only tiny, fringe groups such as Brit Shalom and the Ihud movement, as well as a few notable personalities such as Martin Buber and Judah Magnes, have supported this idea in the years leading up to Israel’s independence.
Oh, and also leader of the right-wing liberal Revisionist movement, Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Many are aware that Jabotinsky has proclaimed that in the Jewish state, when the Prime Minister is Jewish, his deputy should be an Arab, and when the Prime Minister is Arab (in the Jewish state!), his deputy should be Jewish. Few know that this was not merely an oratory proclamation, but part of Jabotinsky’s suggestion for Israel’s constitution. Fewer still really give much thought to Jabotinsky’s vision of Israel – those on the left prefer to view him through the prism of contemporary right wing Israeli politics, while those on the right invoke his name but prefer not to invoke his ideals. And they know why: Jabotinsky’s plans for Israel were wildly different from what his supposed followers now preach. If anything, however, today’s right-wing carried on the disingenuous disposition of Mapai, the socialist movement that has lead Zionism during the years directly preceding and the decades following independence.
But Jabotinsky’s teachings are worthwhile to study, because he had a keen perception of reality which at the same time did not dampen a no less keen moral sense. More than anyone else in Zionism’s history (seconded by Menachem Begin, Jabotinsky’s only true follower to amount to anything in Israeli politics), Ze’ev Jabotinsky adhered to the principles set out by Winston Churchill in full: not just resolution in war and defiance in defeat – anyone can do that, but goodwill in peace, and most important of all, that most elusive of virtues: magnanimity in victory – these are the marks of a truly moral human.
Jabotinsky’s writings as a whole are a peculiar tangle of liberal thought and romantic nationalism. But when he wrote on the topic of the Arabs in Palestine, his analysis was insightful and incisive. He warned those who spoke of bi-nationalism that the Arabs will never agree to the formation of a bi-national state in the Land of Israel so long as they are given choice. More importantly, they are completely justified in this refusal. Jabotinsky, unlike his socialist contemporaries or his alleged successors in the Israeli right, did not think that Jewish claims to the Land of Israel lessened in any way the claims of Palestine’s Arabs to the land of their own forefathers. He knew that no solution will be fully moral, and that as a result, force will have to prevail if the Jews are to have any place of their own in the world. The natives of a land, he noted – speaking of the Arabs, of course – never cede their power over it, nor should they willingly do so morally.
The bi-nationalists, then, could never really hope to get the agreement of the indigenous inhabitants of the land to be colonized. But if the bi-nationalists were overly idealistic, the socialists were downright disingenuous. In their own internal communications the leaders of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine supported the Partition Plan with the clear intention that the initial space allotted to the Jews would merely be a stepping stone towards expanding the Jewish state. When four decades later people accused Yasser Arafat of harboring intentions for a “phases plan” of slowly taking over larger and larger portions of Israel’s territory until nothing is left, little did they know that such a plan would merely mirror the plans of the Jewish leadership on the eve of the declaration of independence.
Even when giving half-hearted lip-service to the notion of a bi-national state, those leaders admitted internally that the purpose was to establish “facts on the ground” until a Jewish majority can be achieved between the Jordan river and the sea, which would then allow for a “democratic take-over” of the state. Again, a strategy mirrored by the “Palestinian womb as a weapon” strategy propagated by Arafat. It is not surprising, therefore, to see the demographic issue as a constant threat, dictating policy in Israel since its creation.
But while the socialists strove to achieve a majority so they may abrogate Arab rights altogether, Jabotinsky believed that once a majority is achieved, it can then be leveraged to convince the Arab inhabitants of the Jewish state to take a full partnership in the state, including, as noted above, sharing the government equally, as well as equitable duties such as military service, alongside equal rights. He believed that from a position of power, we may – as was eventually written in the declaration of independence but never really done in reality – extend a peaceful hand to our new neighbours, and build a state that can serve as a real home for both peoples.
Jabotinsky never lived to see the Jewish state rise from the ashes of murderous war. For a long time his followers in the Knesset were too weak to influence policy in any significant manner, and by the time they have achieved power they have already been corrupted by repeated wars and occupation (not to mention Begin’s own quirks, which exceed the scope of this post), and little remained of the hadar (”glory”) of their leader of yore, replaced instead with more base ideas of honour (in the sense more akin to “honour killings” than any other conception of honour).
And yet, it is still not to late too show magnanimity. We are still the victors in this prolonged battle. To change our tune once Jews are again a minority in the Land of Israel will be not only pathetic, but also useless – we cannot hope to get from the Palestinians what we never gave to them. We are at a critical place in the history of our two peoples: strong enough to still be able to extend our hand from a position of power, but weak enough to be able to see the unappealing alternative. As more and more people on both sides grow disillusioned with the false hope of a two-state solution, it is now the time to push for a just, sustainable solution that will see this land shared – not divided – between the two peoples who call it a home.
The following is a personal reflection, or some ungathered thoughts about what happened exactly a year ago. This is not an analysis or a review of the war in the Gaza strip and southern Israel last winter, cynically called here ‘cast-lead’. Many of those already exist around the web. I just wanted to add a few of my own personal feelings today about that period. So, indulge me, as this will not necessarily be the most profound or philosophical post here on IsraLeft, yet I believe it should be written and read.
Exactly one year ago, on New Year’s Eve 2008, I fled Be’er Sheva, where I was living, with my girlfriend at the time (don’t worry, she’s my wife now). After we heard the fourth missile of that day, we decided that enough was enough. I wrote a quick note on facebook asking if there was anyone driving north – anywhere north – and hopped on the first offer. We celebrated the new year as “refugees”, thankful to be out of our home. Leaving our house was the easiest thing to swallow during that war. Everything else during that month was much more difficult.
That war, much like the Second Lebanon war that preceded it, was a time of a great political crisis for me, and I believe for many other Israeli leftists. Many of them supported the war, actually believing Israel had no choice but to attack Gaza. I opposed it from the very beginning, finding myself in such a minority opinion like I have never experienced before, though I am used to holding minority opinions. I wrote a lot during that time, both in Hebrew, and in English, went to demonstrations, and could not focus on almost anything other than dealing with that pointless war. Most of all I remember the horrible feeling of having almost no one around me who thought like me, or that could share my disappointment and disapproval with what was going on. The war kept going on, with more and more casualties, and with more and more attacks on the few that dared to say something against it, and no end was in sight. One of the hardest things for me was not only the isolation from most Israelis, but from most of the left. I found myself demonstrating and writing against the war and thus being perceived as someone that I am not. I am not an anti-Israeli or an anti-Zionist. I do not support Hamas or want to see Jews die. I am far from all of the above. I opposed the war because I knew then, as I know now, that the war – like nearly any war – was a crime. I knew that civilians were dying for their politicians’ lack of humanity and reason, and that it will achieve nothing, and in fact, will only harm Israel even more. The fact that the Israeli left, most of it, stuttered with it’s opinion of the war was my biggest personal political crisis in years.
Almost all politicians, in the midst of their election campaigns, either supported the war with or without any hesitation, or somewhat supported it. Even worse were those who opposed it quietly and said nothing. To me, it was clear: This war was wrong, and the Israeli left – almost all of it – was not saying it.
Did that mean that “the Israeli left” was not an actual “left”? Did that mean that I was, in-fact, as I was accused, more “left” than “Israeli”? I don’t think so. I do think that the masters of this war did a great job in lying to the public, cynically going to war as part of an election campaign (alas, a failed one), and confusing an already confused public.
What have I learned from that war? I am not sure. I keep wondering what good can come out of a “left” that can only start admitting after a war is over that it might have not been the best move. I have never debated who to vote for as I did after that war, and I have never doubted Israel, let alone the Israeli left, has any future as I did in the aftermath of this war. I left that war confused, scared and disappointed with almost all the people that surrounded me. I often ask myself if it could be that I was wrong about that war, that it was actually a war we had to fight. I am as certain of my answer to that question as I am of the next war that almost undoubtedly our politicians will cause: No. It was avoidable. More than a thousand people died in horrible ways and for no reason, and I doubt we (we – both us and the Palestinians) can fix the wrongs we did last year.
As I do consider myself, and very much so, both an Israeli and a leftist, I am hopelessly looking to offer some hope for a better future. If only I had some certainty I could actually do that.
And with that, happy new year! May this year somehow end without another war, and perhaps, could I even dare? Some hopes for a little peace in this troubled land.
Ah, the crazy is growing fast and furious on the ground, and your Intrepid Traveler has but to stoop ever so slightly to pick both hands full. This is the Weekend Holyland Update, flight 11-20-09, taking off from the fields of suicidal nationalism and passing through the lands of political shenanigans (exclusive scoop there), a partial victory in a key civil rights battle, shades of krystalnacht in reverse, morbid jehovahism, mob racism, and a good word to a mediocrity poster child. Fasten your seatbelts and keep all parts of your body in the vehicle, the natives are getting restless.
Jehovah-Nazi mutiny is spreading in the IDF. First it was the “Shimshon” company who used the ocassion of their swearing in at the Wailing Wall as full fledged fighters (at the end of basic training) to lift signs saying that “Shimshon doesn’t evacuate Homesh” (Homesh is a settlement in northern Samaria that was evacuated in the Disengagement and since then the settlers have been staging marches trying to get back up there. The army has to play nanny and shepherd them down the hill every time). Then it was Nachshon company hanging a banner at their base. The anti-disengagement slogan “A Jew doesn’t evacuate a Jew” has featured as well. Trainees at the division’s main base were found out and their banner taken before they had the chance. It shows no sign of stopping (especially since no decisive response has been forthcoming), and an internal military estimate has some 30% of all soldiers refusing an order to participate in the possible mass evacuation of even outposts, let alone established settlements. That’s what happens when you nurture a theofascist militia inside your army.
The Green Beast is acting in a manner for which to describe we must reach into the dictionary, leaf to P and stop at “pussillanimous”. None of the brave little grunts have been dishonorably discharged for presuming to tell the duly elected government which lawful orders they will and will not carry out. Now, of course it is the right of anyone to refuse orders they consider illegitimate – but in that case hand over the M-16, bubba. I got myself a discharge from the beast precisely because I didn’t want to carry out the orders government was giving me through it. But these guys have taken Louis XIV’s political philosophy to even greater extremes – the State, the Military, the Word of God himself – is Them.
The overt mutiny is so far contained to a single brigade – the Kfir Brigade, Israel’s newest infantry brigade, formed exclusively for jack-boot duty in the occupied territories, so the other infantry units can at least practice at being real soldiers. A large portion of this division’s manpower comes from among the Settlers and from what is known as “arrangement yeshivas”. How was part of the orthodox Jewish community persuaded to go along with the whole secular state authority thing and send their kids to the army, where they would be exposed to the big bad secular world? There’s an “arrangement”, whereby they spend part of the 18-21 years in their yeshivas instead of in the actual army, and in return do a little more reserve service every year. Byt he time they’re doing reserve they have a wife and a few kids, and the danger of defection is containable.
So anyway, the bulk of the actual refusenik soldiers come from two of these “arrangement” madrassas whose head Imams – sorry, Rabbis – have been openly preaching refusal. And being funded for the state the whole time, and their institutions allowed to participate in the “arrangement”. So now the chickens are coming home to roost and everyone is terribly surprised and discussing gravely how to address the problem. Guess hindsight is 20:20, and those of us that been talkin’ bout this shit for years now? We’re unsavory types. Not to be taken seriously. Oh well.
In a not-unrelated incident, a 16 year-old yeshiva zombie was arrested for stabbing an Arab in Jerusalem. He is now suspected of being a serial attacker. That’s OK tho, I still get accused of using inflammatory language when I call them Sicarii.
We had a big scoop at Scoop.co.il this weekend: turns out that the attorney representing former OM Olmert on the various corruption charges he’s facing? He’s been meeting regularly with current PM Bibi Netanyahu *since before the elections*. Which I’m sure there are a million perfectly innocuous explanations for, despite client Olmert and candidate Bibi being from opposing parties and Olmert not even running in the election, and at least ostensibly doing all he can for his party’s nominee, Tzippi Livni. Then comes word this week that this very same right honorable attorney, one Yehudah Weinstein, is one of the four final candidates to replace current Attorney General Menny Mazuz. And he’s also representing rogue ex-judge Dan Cohen, who was awaiting extradition from Peru in a jail but has now been released to house arrest and extradition looks less likely. Question is, what does Bibi get here. File under “Things That Make You Go Hmmmm”.
Moving on to another “We”, we the reality based community had a pretty big, albeit not final, victory this week, when full implementation of the hideous biometric database law was put off for two years, during which the database will run on an experimental VOLUNTARY basis. Enough of Knesset critters realized that maybe this isn’t a very good idea after all, and lucky for us the prime mover behind the abomination was Meir Shit-rit from Kadima, which is in the opposition, so it didn’t become a point of principlal for the ruling coalition to ram it through.
This decision means that while Mr. Shit-rit will be able to deliver some money to the dubious company he hired for this project before the recent elections, when he was Minister of the Interior (a company which has been kicked off three bids in the US and has yet to deliver on its contract here for an inter-transportation “smart card”). However, only idiots who want to be tools of the government will surrender their identifying features to an entity that allows its population registry to roam free on the internet, whereas free women and men with half a brain will not be forced to and not be denied basic services (such as being issued an ID card or a passport). We will, however, be denied “smart government” services, which the government is reserving for the benefit of those who submit to tooldom.
My friend Att. Jonathan Kilnger got a small measure of the credit he deserves for the victory (man appeared before the Knesset so many times on this, he shoulda pitched a tent in the building), but my very good friend, visual genius Eran Vered and our mutual friend Ram-On Agmon, were denied acknowledgement by the reporters who chronicled the victory in the couple of days after the decision was announced. Eran and Ram-On were a major power in spreading the word and filling the Hebrew Net with tons of material on the issue, in various registers from calm and dense with facts to your more, um, traditional resgisters of political advertising (but maintaining factual truth. After all, to paraphrase Don Barzini, we are not Republicans). They were denied their just recognition by an ill informed mainstream media, but we’re here to set the record straight.
Y’all heard of Krystalnacht, right? Three days of beer and pogroms throughout Germany against Jewish homes and businesses in 1938, just before the war and the final solution. What not everyone knows is that when the drunks finished partying, there was a hell of a property damages bill. The nazi regime thought it would be cute to charge the Jewish community of Germany collectively for the damages, which came to about a billion reichsmark.
A similar feat of judicial logic was displayed this week in an Israeli court against another sort of undesirables – peace activists. One in particular. Matan Cohen was hit in the eye by a rubber bullet in 2007 at a demonstration against land theft under the guise of the security barrier in the village of Beit Sira. This week the dishonorable Dalia Ganot, district judge in Tel Aviv, rejected Matan’s suit for damages, decided that he was lying, and ordered him to pay the blue pigs 50,000 shekels for having the temerity to sue them.
Now, under ordinary circumstances this would be a legal “he said, she said”, although we do know that justice Ganot’s judgment can be a little questionable sometimes, like the verdict in which she once expressed understanding for the anger of a slaver-pimp over his slave-prostitute not being able to earn during her period. But beyond that, as Ken Kesey once said to solve a problem, “I know the guy”. Matan is a friend of mine. He had a rubber bullet taken out of his eye, contrary to Ganot’s pulled-out-of-her-ass decree that he was hit by a Palestinian-hurled rock. So fuck you, justice Ganot. I sincerely hope you leave the bench for private practice, make an obscene amount of money – and need each and every last penny of it for medications. For an eye problem.
And to a medley of medieval racism and superstition:
Aviram Baruchian, star midfielder for football (soccer) club Beitar Jerusalem, aka “Racist Central”, said in an interview that he for one wouldn’t mind at all if an Arab player were signed to play for Beitar. The club’s organized fandom reacted immediately and within days it was reported that Baruchian had met with the fans and was forced to apologize for his deviation from judonazi orthodoxy. His agent,who understands that a racist incident won’t help export his client to Europe, is saying now that Baruchian’s own opinion of the matter hasn’t changed. Which means he only apologized for voicing it. OK.
Yaacov Litzman, Israel’s Deputy Health Minister (he’s from Torah Jewry, an Ashkenazee ultra-orthodox party that won’t accept a minister’s position so as not to convey full complicity with the Zionist regime), has forced a hospital to continue treating a brain-dead child as though she were alive and keep her on life support and feeding. Not clinically dead – brain dead. There is no recovery from that. But in the 12th century, when orthodox Judaism’s founding medical texts were written, they didn’t know much about that, so it must not be important. Taliban rule, anyone?
The ultra-orthodox of Jerusalem have found another diversion from the long, boring Sabbath afternoons: They are now rioting outside the Jeruaslem Intel facility, (which was lured to our poverty stricken capital at great expense and effort to be the lynchpin of an employment bonanza for the city). Reason for the rioting? The plant (which is on the outskirts of town, not near where any of them live) works at a limited capacity on the Sabbath too!!! Now, under the usual twisted status quo of Israel, this would be something of a violation and reason for foot stomping. But there is a problem: The Intel plant has been in Jerusalem since 1985. It has always employed a small number of workers on the Sabbath. Some processes in a microchip plant can’t be shut down for 24 hours and more. It operated in the exact same manner during the previous municipal administration in Jerusalem, headed by ultra-orthodox Uri Lupolianski. Why now? Politics, and the ever-present need to offer an oppressed youth, afforded no outlets for normal energy, a framework in which to blow off steam without threatening the Rabbicracy.
The shaping “compromise”, mediated by Knesset chairman Ruby Rivlin (our next president, btw, once Shimon croaks, or has enough [hah!]), says Intel will only employ non-Jewish workers on the Sabbath (which I’m sure is largely the case already) and limit work to the most sensitive production lines (ditto). And if a Jewish worker needs the cash and wants to work the w/e for the 150% pay? Tough. The jehovah patients will look after your yiddishke soul whether you want them to or not. BTW, it is illegal to force a worker to work on his or her religion’s day of rest in Israel, and while there are industries where that is a major barrier to getting the job in the first place, that simply isn’t the case with a plant like Intel.
Staying in Jerusalem, on the same week Israel chose to exercise its illegitimate control over East Jerusalem by demolishing a number of Arab homes built there, and by simultaneously beginning work on 900 new units in the settlement neighborhood of Giloh. Because nothing shows you really want peace like a nice 1-2 sucker punch.
Quick regional detour: The inflamed spirits that accompanied the two consecutive World Cup-qualifying matches between Egypt and Algeria have really gotten a bit too much. I woulda been happy for our neighbors to have won, but it’s only a game, yo. Y’all need to seriously chill. Good thing these two don’t share a border, or I guarantee some bored grunts on patrol woulda been exchanging potshots by now.
Speaking of regional, when you hear “Israel” and “Morocco”, which do you instinctively figure is the more modern, advanced, liberal? After all, Israel is a democracy, whereas Morocco is a constitutional Monarchy, for crying out loud, right? Well, I don’t know how much each of you count by this metric, but…Number of women heading Moroccan ministries: 7. In Israel: 2.
Oh, and a kind word. My general view of reigning Chief Justice Dorit Beinish is rather poor. I see her as a poster child for mediocrity (Go to her wiki. See anything under writing and publication? Exactly). She’s a former State Prosecutor, and really not much more than a skillfull organizational climber and fighter. Plus, she has a very black stain on her record: in the trial of Haggai Amir, brother of the vermin Yigal who murdered PM Yitzhak Rabin, she (then the prosecutor at the trial) knowingly suborned perjury by putting a General Security Service witness on the stand to stay that contrary to defendant’s claims, the service wasn’t operating any undercovers who were egging the defendant and his brother and their co-conspirators on. It is now public, admitted knowledge that they were. The mole even gave Yigal the gun. Haggai Amir, judonazi scum that he is, had a valid legal point and it was overcome by perjury.
Anyway, while I think Beinish is, in Supreme court and Chief Justice standards, a nobody who was only chosen because former Chief Justice Aharon Barak needed a yes woman to carry on his agenda, my hat is fully, flouridly off to her this week, as she bravely and unequivocably slapped down the repugnant spectre of privately owned and run prisons in Israel. Rather than resorting to that favorite Supremo trick of fobbing off an undersired piece of legislation on technicalities, so as not to run headlong into the whole activist judiciary mess, Beinish slapped her ovaries on the table and explained in clear and simple terms that the right to greviously deprive an individual of basic civil rights is not something that may be divested by the state to private entities. If improvements are needed to incarceration and detention facilities to make them compliant with the law, then the State must do so, and not simply find a hustler tp put up a shack. No. Simply no. Not even if you rewrite it, make it longer, change the style… Just no. Bravo, Madam Chief Justice.
And on that unaccustomed note of contentment, the pilot shall now come in for landing at your point of origin. WHU airlines is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your luggage and check your comments and thumbs. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.
My friend Rod wrote at length against a binational solution to the Jewish-Palestinian conundrum. He does not so much oppose the idea of binationalism, but rather has serious doubts about the availability of a route to binational salvation that does not travel through some horrendous gutters. I disagree with him. A route to binationalism does exist that is more attractive than taking a detour through Apartheid and ethnic cleansing. This route, of course, is not very forthcoming, nor is it achievable through governments such as the current one – but then, neither is a viable two-state solution. The left must ask itself two questions: which is a more desirable solution, and which is a more likely solution to persuade the Israeli public to bring the left back to power to implement. Neither of these questions will be answered here. My intention here is merely to plot the road that might be taken to binationalism, under the ideal premise of a liberal-minded left-wing government.
It should be said, before I begin, that contrary to what Rod wrote, binationalism is rarely touted as the optimal solution to the problem – although I have noticed an uptick in texts carrying this message of late. The majority of mentions of binationalism use it as a threat, a whip, with which to hasten Israel’s acquiescence in a two-state solution. Binationalism is presented as the only realistic alternative to two-statism, and, building on the prevalent sentiment supporting a Jewish nation-state, the two-state solution is then made to look good in comparison. I personally deplore this line of argument. It exemplifies exactly what’s wrong with the two state solution: it is a solution built on virulent, hateful nationalism, rather than on mutual acceptance, and it ignores the fact that even after we “go our separate ways in peace”, as one popular bumper sticker once advocated, we still have one fifth of the population of Israel proper living in the “wrong” territory.
Binationalism is not merely unavoidable, but, I believe, desirable. Is it attainable?
The road to a viable binational solution must begin with a greater incorporation of the Arab citizens of Israel into the polity. The first step a prime minister with a wish to implement binationalism must do is call upon the more moderate Arab parties in the Knesset to join her government proper – not merely support it from the outside as in the second Rabin government.
The thing most lacking in current internal Jewish-Arab relations is trust. An Arab minister (from a “non-Zionist” party) would be able to begin building this trust, in both directions. Of course, having a token Arab minister would not suffice – it is merely pointing out the way for other government agencies. A higher rate of government employment of Arab-Israelis must follow. It is also assumed that an Arab minister will be able, by bringing the voice of this population directly into the cabinet meetings, to increase government investment in this population even beyond his own ministry’s jurisdiction (of course, we are assuming a government that is already more likely to do that anyway).
The Arab citizens of Israel are a bridgehead to the Palestinians in the territories. Establishing real bidirectional trust with that population will enable Israel to come into rapport with the Palestinians that was not possible so far. Throughout this process, and using it, Israel must support the democratic development of the Palestinian Authority and promote moderate deliberation within it (rather than prevent it, as in the case of the harassment of Mustafa Barghouti before the presidential elections).
If these processes are successful, and Israeli shows a continued willingness to follow this path (e.g., by reelecting the government), it seems to me that the road to a binational solution will be open. Of course, that solution must still be fashioned in a careful manner. The PhD thesis I am working on currently deals precisely with the question of the application of binational solutions, why they failed where they did and how they can succeed. I am still in early stages of this study, but my hunch so far is that the biggest mistake is to create an identity between the national interests of each group, and territorial interests of the administrative units of a federal state, e.g. the Belgian solution. A good binational state will make sure to break each national community into two (or more) territorial units. This will foster more opportunities for cross-cutting cleavages and cross-national interests. An “East” and “West Palestine” are simple enough to envision. Similarly, a “North” and “South Israel” can also be conceived. Each of the units will get equal representation in an upper-house (much like the US Senate), to create parity between the national communities regardless of demographics. (Jerusalem can be a fifth district, with no upper house representation, a-la Washington D.C., or Brussels).
In time, one could consider a “third layer” of federalism to this state (”The Abrahamic Federation”? Nah, too religious…), at the individual level – a “cultural federalism”. This layer could, for example, handle issues such as education and the arts, which will be shared across the administrative units, and also important for those of one nationality living in the units of the other (e.g., current Arab Israelis). This will also facilitate freer movement between the units.
But there is no need to go into the intricacies of the particular model of binationalism to be used. The point is that a well-meaning government can achieve this through positive means, rather than through diving into the realms of Hades to reemerge with the ghost of a binational state. The fact is, the first steps of this plan are positive even if we don’t wish to achieve a binational state, and — maybe I’m being overly optimistic here — could be potentially supported by a majority of the population in Israel even today.
The road is there. It isn’t the King’s Highway, nor a yellow-brick road. It is, if anything, a long and winding one, and an arduous one no doubt. But it is there, and I believe we should take it.
On the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some speak of a bi-national state as the optimal solution. In their vision, they see Israel-Palestine as a sort of Belgium or, to a lesser extent, Canada- a country where Jews and Palestinians co-exist under one democracy and lead their lives together happily and peacefully. Just recently the Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, was quoted saying that perhaps this is the best solution for the region. What they seem to neglect, the people who side a bi-national state solution, apart from the fact that the parties involved don’t seem to want this solution, is the road map that would lead to this utopia. It’s difficult to see now, but the Israeli current government is in fact walking that exact path – and yet, I think the people who side a bi-national state solution object the current Israeli policy. You see, the way to a one-state solution, Israel-Palestine, takes the region through the most horrible type of an apartheid regime, before arriving at its desired end. There really seems to be no other way. And furthermore, it works vice versa as well: As long as the peace process is delayed by a headstrong Israeli government, which also issues an increasing number of bills concerned with nothing more than preserving the pure ethnicity of Israel – in other words: As long as Israeli government walks down the path to a full, formal apartheid, it is walking down a bloody path to a bi national state. They say history repeats itself. As Douglas Adams once wrote, it has to – nobody listens.
Three seemingly unrelated trends are distinguishable in Israel’s current policy. One is the treatment of non-citizens in Israel. This mainly refers to Refugees from the Darfur genocide, work-immigrants and illegal, as well as legal foreign workers. However, this also includes other types of non-Jews: Non-Jews who were married to Israeli citizens who passed away or divorced them before their naturalization was complete, for example. All these are often tied together, as if a refugee from the Darfur hell is anything like a foreign worker whose permit expired two months ago and as if these two are anything like a work-immigrant who never had a permit to begin with. The problem is that while Israel has a very strict, clear policy as to who can be a citizen, it has virtually no immigration policy. Whatever immigration policy it does have, Israel fails to enforce.
Well, Israel over-enforces now. 1200 families of foreign workers whose license expired, with children who were born and raised here, kids who speak Hebrew and relate to Israel as the only place they’ve ever known, are facing deportation. The Prime Minister keeps postponing decision about their fate, and so they are facing the unknown. Israel now operates its own immigration police – a unit called Oz, which stands both for “Courage” in Hebrew, and the Hebrew initials of the term “Ovdim Zarim” – foreign workers. The courageous Oz troopers hunt down illegal aliens and, in an act of pure bravery, deport them. The problem is that Oz troopers don’t ask questions. What dangers await this work-immigrant with an expired visa when he gets to his home country? How long has he lived here?
Some of the readers will have raised an eyebrow by now. If they are illegal, they think, they ought to be deported. That’s true. But it’s not as if Israel had decided to put an end to foreign work. Others will come to replace them. The current Israeli minister of interior affairs, Eli Yishai of the racist, ultra orthodox conservative party Shas, who leads the war against foreigners, is also the minister who issued the largest quantity of work permits in former terms, and is just about to break his own record this term. Since an illegal worker is only illegal because his or her visa has expired, one might ask why not extend the permit of the people who are already here, rather than deport them and bring others to replace them. One possible answer would be that if this indeed is done, the manpower agencies would be less profitable, so one might conclude that minister Yishai may be operating to increase the profit of such agencies, out of, perhaps, his own narrow interest. People with money who need politicians in order to make more money can often be very persuasive.
But let us put aside, momentarily, the more debatable subject of work immigrants. Let’s talk about refugees. Several hundred Sudanese have managed to infiltrate Israel in their attempt to escape the bloody ethnocide there. Recently it has been proposed to put them in labour camps: They will go out to work every day, and their salary will be taken away from them to finance the camp they will stay in. Apart from the horrible historic connotation this has – I mean, this is far worse than your old Jewish person in a German made car, isn’t it? – there’s also something fundamentally wrong in the very attempt to deter refugees from hitting your shore. These people are fleeing for their lives, for heaven’s sake.
And that’s not even it. Oz’s brave troopers have recently started to operate against other types of non-Jews. There are two major types of non-Jews non-citizens who aren’t work immigrants: One is non-Jews who are married to Israeli citizens, and did not yet finish the long process of naturalization in order to become permanent residents. Should the spouse now die, or divorce them, they will face deportation.
The other type is people who immigrated here by virtue of the law of return, but are suspected to have given false information. A brief explanation: Israel grants automatic citizenship to any Jew, or anyone who has at least one Jewish parent or grandparent. This is called “The law of return” (Hok HaShvut, in Hebrew). But the ministry of pure bloodinterior continues to investigate them years after they got their citizenship, and if they find a piece of evidence that maybe the grandfather of the family wasn’t Jewish, they take away their citizenship and, well, deport them. This can be done after the family has lived in Israel as citizens for years, after the children have served in the Israeli army, and so on.
So, the ministry of interior is operating to keep Israel free of non-Jewish blood. However, Israel already has non-Jewish citizens. I’m talking about the roughly 1.5 million Israeli Palestinians – that is, Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. Trust the Israeli government that the second trend in its decision making process will address this inherent danger to Jewish purity of blood.
The second trend is the continuous discrimination policy against Israeli Arabs. An Israeli court recently ruled that the law enforcement authorities treat Arabs and Jews differently. This surprised no one: The discrimination in all aspects of life is obvious to anyone who doesn’t wish to remain oblivious to it. For example: Israel tears down houses built illegally by Israeli Arab citizens all the time. However, Israel doesn’t issue any building permits to its Arab citizens. If an Arab Israeli citizen wishes to build a house, there are two ways he can go about doing that: He can apply for a permit, be turned down, appeal, be turned down again and so on and so forth, until maybe one day his application will be accepted (slim chances at best). Or he could build illegally. Again, this is only illegal because Israeli authorities arbitrarily deem it such, by simply not issuing enough permits. And then the bulldozers come and tear the house down, because it was built illegally – of course, there was no other way to build it. Arabs don’t really need a roof over their heads, do they?
In Jerusalem, the authorities are taking “Legality” to its extreme limit: After tearing down numerous houses in eastern Jerusalem for being illegal – and in eastern Jerusalem, maybe more than anywhere in Israel, it is impossible to get construction permits – and after occupying Arab neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem with Jewish residents (Sure enough, they – the Jewish residents – did get permits for construction), the authorities are moving to the next logical stage: They issued evacuation notices to the people of Wallage, an Arab village that is, apparently, within the municipal annexed territory of Jerusalem. Their houses are to be destroyed to make room for a new Jewish neighbourhood there.
Yes, you heard correctly: Out go the Arabs, in come the Jews. And this is all done legally, of course. The law always sides the landlord. I was talking to one of the gardening workers where I live, a nice man from the Israeli-Arab village Abu Gosh. He told me that about 30 “Israelis” are now leasing apartments in the village, and was very excited about how they picked his village to live in. I commented that all Abu Gosh residents are Israelis, and that he probably meant to say “Jews”. “You know”, he said to me, “They (The authorities, R.A.) have so many ways to tell me, every day, that I’m not Israeli, that I’m not equal – I sometimes begin to believe them”.
The third trend in Israeli policy is its attempts to bring an end to the peace process, but not by bringing the process to a successful end. Israel is stalling, taking its time, while the settlements keep on growing and the separation wall keeps biting off more and more Palestinian lands. Just recently, the Israeli government authorized a bill that states Israel will not reach a peace agreement with any Arab state before this state offers compensation for the property of Jews who fled from that country to Israel. That means Israeli law will prohibit peace with the Palestinians before all the Arab nations cough up some money. It’s, indeed, one of those meaningless bills meant to stir up some headlines and gain some votes because it sounds good; but one which will be easy to pass in case there’s a real peace agreement. But still, it serves to show just how willing Israel (and Israeli public opinion) is to achieve such an agreement.
The trail is pretty obvious: Settlements and the Separation Wall will impose the borders of semi-independent Palestinian autonomies, separated geographically and dependent on the government in Jerusalem for basic economic needs, unable to provide for themselves due to their structure. Or in other words, bentustans. Then, Israeli non-Jews will be deported – Arabs to the bentustans, which will be known as the Palestinian Authority, other non-Jews to their origin countries, leaving Israel the ethnocracy that South Africa never managed to become. This horrific kind of apartheid will surely provoke resistance, and the area will be stained with the blood of all parties involved. After a few decades, Israelis will cave in to the international pressure and their own sense of justice, and the apartheid regime will collapse. A bi-national state will emerge from it. We know how the process works- we’ve seen it before.
It’s truly tragic: The Israeli government seems to think it is safe-guarding the Jewish state, when in fact it promotes a bi-national state solution to be arrived at after years of discrimination and segregation of the worst kind. The people who promote this solution are ignoring, or perhaps ignorant of, the way such a solution is to be achieved: Through bloodshed and misery. And in between, the window of opportunity in which it is possible to reach an agreement for a two state solution is closing down, perhaps it’s already closed. Israel is hopping down the bunny trail all the way to South Africa.
Welcome one and all aboard the Weekend Holyland Update, Improv Version Flight 111609, taking off from sunny San Diego, touching down in sunnier Arizona and various NFL points east, while simultaneously throwing out some of the current stuff happening in points way east, like off the compass east. You know the maps where foreign parts [...]
Welcome aboard the slightly belated Weekend Holiday Update, flight 111009, touring the regions of “Irony is deadistan”, “grovelland”, the village of “sweet symbolism”, the settlement of “insanity and denial” and the stadiums of escapist dreams. Please fasten your seatbelts as your regular pilot, aided by the visiting Official Brother of WHU, takes off:
The Israeli government [...]
Originally I’ve intended to write a response to Dotan’s post and wittily call it “Why I Don’t Go”. But then I realized I agreed with what he wrote, and that his reasons for going to the rally are the same reasons that prevent me from going. What makes Dotan feel like he needs to be [...]
Almost every year I go to the Yitzhak Rabin memorial, which takes place at the square that now carries his name in Tel Aviv. Almost every year I am disappointed with the speeches, and with what the entire event says about the Israeli left. Yet, almost every year, as my friends swear it to be [...]
It’s funny how sometimes history repeats itself. In this case even the characters involved remain almost the same.
The left side of the political map in Israel, at least on the parliamentary level has suffered a great deal of losses in recent years. The left side of the 120-member Israeli parliament includes currently four Members of [...]
|
|
Say What?