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NEWS & LETTERS, November 2004Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry
Palestine and Israel at a turning point?
The battle over the future of Palestine and Israel is so
central to our crisis-ridden world that, even in October, it seemed to unfold
with hardly a glance at the U.S. election. The first big event was a move by Israel’s Ariel
Sharon, who pushed a plan to evacuate the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip
through the Knesset, dividing his Likud Bloc and developing a tacit alliance
with the Labor Party. To be sure, Sharon did so not because he has transformed
himself from war criminal to peace dove, but because of realities on the ground,
including demography. He wants to give up internal (but not external) control of
Gaza, the better to hold onto Jerusalem and large chunks of the West Bank, which
he is walling off. Sharon is laboring under the grand illusion that he can
impose peace by cutting off both Gaza and the Palestinian areas of the West Bank
from Israel. He really believes--and so do most Israelis--that this can contain
the Intifada that since 2000 has claimed 3,000 Palestinian and 1,000 Israeli
lives. The sudden deterioration of Yasir Arafat’s health and
his possible impending death is a truly historic event. The Israeli leadership
believes that without Arafat a more compliant Palestinian leadership might
emerge that would negotiate on Israel’s terms, or that a weakened and divided
one would be unable to challenge Israel either on the ground or in the battle
for international public opinion. This is an even greater illusion. The growth of
Palestinian nationalism, under Arafat’s leadership, and the support it has
developed among the world’s more than one billion Muslims is one of the
central political facts of our era. It is a fact that has played no small role
in the failure of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Sooner or later, the Israeli
leadership will be forced to recognize this fact, no matter how much U.S.
backing it receives. To be sure, some hard infighting is likely within
Palestinian society should Arafat die. Hamas and other fundamentalist groups
seem content to bide their time rather than make a bid for power anytime soon.
However, several politicians that have served under Arafat are sure to vie for
power. In the wings lie non-fundamentalist Intifada leaders like the immensely
popular Marwan Barghouti, today in an Israeli prison. All of these people will have to contend with a
generation of young Palestinians to whom the suicide bombers are heroes worthy
of emulation. Over time, if the Israelis continue to block a just settlement
that would allow the creation of a viable Palestinian state, and if the
Palestinian leadership refuses to give up the so-called "right of
return" to Israel proper, blocking a just settlement from its own side,
then the fundamentalists are sure to grow stronger. That is the legacy of both
Arafat and Sharon, as well as their colleagues. |
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