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Jewish World Review Oct. 24, 2000 / 25 Tishrei, 5761
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
FOR ME, the moment of truth came at the outset of the recent Mideast violence, when I read of the
Palestinian officer who, during a routine patrol, turned his gun on his Israeli counterpart and killed him.
So much for the illusion of mutual respect, shared goals and partners in peace. The 40,000-man
Palestinian police force (a euphemism for “army”) was created and supplied with guns with Israeli help,
supposedly to protect against Hamas fundamentalists. But it has turned on Israel, tolerating, if not
participating in, the widespread violence.
Looking back, it’s not as if the dream of Mideast peace became the nightmare of Mideast war overnight.
We had seen the signs of trouble, almost from the beginning of the Oslo process seven years ago. But
many of us, following Jerusalem’s lead, chose to ignore or overlook the signals in the hope that the
process of peace would prevail over the reality of rejection.
In effect, we were instructed and conditioned not to believe what we saw, heard and sensed — that the
Palestinians had not softened their hatred of Israel, only their means of undermining the Jewish state.
Front and center was Yasir Arafat, Israel’s chief enemy for decades and whose PLO had committed
countless acts of terrorism against Jews, being hailed as a partner in peace. Even on the day of The
Handshake on the White House lawn, while Yitzchak Rabin spoke movingly of making peace —
“enough of blood and tears, enough,” he said — Arafat equivocated in his remarks.
Had he changed his ways, or simply exchanged his bombs of terror for the cloak of respectability to
achieve his goal? In truth, he has been remarkably consistent. He has kept his military uniform, his talk of
victory over the Zionists, his praise of jihad, or holy war, and his pledge to make Jerusalem the capital of
a Palestinian state. But we were told to dismiss his behavior as the disillusioned — even pathetic —
rantings of a man unwilling to acknowledge publicly what he knew in his heart — that Israel had the
upper hand in this diplomatic deal.
Since 1993, the architects of Oslo rationalized the Palestinian leader’s words and actions as they sought
to convince us, and themselves, that his goal was to live in peace alongside a Jewish state rather than
seek its destruction. And so when Arafat continued to call for jihad, and told Arab audiences that the
peace process was a subterfuge, citing a precedent set by Mohammed (who signed a peace treaty and
later went to war), we were told by Israel’s leaders not to worry. Arafat has to talk tough to his
constituency, we were advised. Pay no attention. Or, it doesn’t matter what Arafat says, only what he
does.
But what he was doing was continuing to preach hatred of Jews and Israel to his people, through his
rhetoric and media and schoolbooks and summer camps and preachings in the mosques.
The result was a parallel universe that came into creation in Jewish life. The Jewish right-wing, from Arutz
Sheva, the Israeli radio station, to the Zionist Organization of America, kept up a constant barrage of
statements indicating that Palestinian leaders never wavered in their anti-Israel sentiments and strategies.
But the governments in Jerusalem dismissed or ignored these citations, and even the endless violations of
the Oslo agreements.
The only exception was the Netanyahu government, which hammered away at the need for reciprocity in
adhering to signed agreements. But the combination of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s arrogant style and
territorial compromises to the Palestinians on Hebron and at Wye undermined his message, and he was
soundly rejected by Israelis for Ehud Barak in the 1998 elections.
Some of us wavered in our views on the peace process, at times buoyed by a sense of real progress and
the notion that economic stability is the best means of countering hostility. At other times, during the wave
of terrorist bombings and violent demonstrations, we were overwhelmed and disillusioned by the feeling
that nothing had really changed, that the Arabs still hated Israel and would never accept a Zionist state in
the region.
Perhaps we allowed ourselves to be blinded by the idea of peace and the logic of cooperation. One of
the pro-Oslo arguments was that Israel’s superior military power and insistence that a future Palestinian
state would be de-militarized assured security for the Jews of Israel. But we have come to realize this is
an inverted war: For the Palestinians, defeat means victory. The more losses Arafat suffers, the stronger
his support. The more damage Israel inflicts, the more it suffers in world opinion.
Pilots in airplanes and soldiers in tanks can’t win a war against kids with slingshots and rocks. The
lessons of the intifada — that media images and international judgments are more powerful than armies
— have come back to haunt us. How could we have forgotten?
We wanted desperately to believe that the conflict could be resolved, that Israel would be rewarded for
its painful compromises, that the world would recognize and appreciate the moral courage and
commitment of a nation willing to risk its very security for peace.
But we have come to see that in the Arab world compromise is interpreted as weakness, the murder of
Israelis is cause for elation, Jewish holy sites, like Joseph’s Tomb, are desecrated, and Jewish history
itself is rejected.
Whom, indeed, are we dealing with?
And yet even now, acknowledging Oslo’s failure, we must recognize that the right has no solution beyond
calls for resolve and predictions of endless warfare between Arabs and Jews. Despite our sadness, we
hold out hope that someday, if not now, the reality and inevitability of sharing the same piece of real
estate will lead the Arab world to come to terms with the State of Israel and put an end to the
bloodletting.
But until then, even the current conflict is preferable to the prospect of Israel committing national
Fooling myself
no longer
By Gary Rosenblatt
JWR contributor Gary Rosenblatt is editor and publisher of the
New York Jewish Week. Comment on this article by clicking here.
