Will he land at the Arafat Airport or not? Will he treat Arafat asa head of state? Will he demonstrate even-handedness between Israeland Palestine?
All of this is unimportant. What is important is that President Clintonis even coming to Gaza, thus granting the Palestinian Authority astate-in-the-making status.
For Netanyahu’s government this is a heavy blow. For the past fiftyyears, Israel’s entire concept of national security has beenbased on the alliance between the U.S. and Israel. This alliance hasprovided Israel with exclusive American support against the entireArab world, so much so that at times it has been hard to determinewhether it is the dog that is wagging its tail or the tail waggingthe dog.
Now this is all changing. Even though the American-Israeli alliancecontinues to exist, it no longer is exclusive. It has to coexist now withan American-Palestinian alliance, and although there is no real parity,nevertheless the balance has been altered.
Two men are responsible for this change: Arafat and Netanyahu.
Long ago Arafat set in motion ago a political strategy whose soleobjective was to achieve this change. He has adhered to it withastounding patience, in the face of failures and humiliation, despitedaily invectives from a large portion of the Palestinian intelligentsia.Clinton’s day in Gaza will also be Arafat’s personal victory.
Netanyahu has helped Arafat along by making a series of mistakes. He hasmade Clinton dislike him personally, by attempting to use the Americanextreme right wing to force the president’s hand. Netanyahu is alsodirectly responsible for Clinton’s visit to Gaza.
It happened in this manner: Netanyahu and his people invented the storythat “The Palestinian Charter has not been changed.” This is a lie,intended for the sole purpose of justifying Netanyahu’s continuingviolations of the Oslo Accords. Netanyahu has learned from his mentorsthat if one repeats a lie enough times, it becomes the truth, and thebigger the lie, the more convincing it is.
However, there is also another rule: The propagandist always becomes aprisoner of his own propaganda. He may not always convince someone else,but he always, always convinces himself.
Since he vowed not to retreat from Palestinian territories “as long asthey refuse to change their charter,” Netanyahu was forced to insiston that at the Wye Conference. So Clinton came up with a brilliant idea:He would go to Gaza himself, in order to take part in a conference towhich members of the Palestinian National Committee would be invited,and he would get them to express their support for the abolitionof the already-abolished charter paragraphs.
Netanyahu did not dare object. After all, it was he who had inventedthis idea. Plain and simple, he dug himself a hole.
A similar thing is happening to him regarding the matter of Palestinianprisoners. Netanyahu has repeated ad nauseaum his catch-phrase “blood ontheir hands.” He vowed never to release the owners of these hands. Andnow he is trapped by these four dumb words like a bird in acage.
In every war, both sides have “blood on their hands.” Ariel Sharon hasblood on his hands. Every combat soldier has blood on hishands. Over the century of war between Israel and Palestine, tens ofthousands have been killed, and only the draft-dodgers and theYeshiva-scholars have no blood-stained hands. From the point of viewof current international law, there is no difference between soldiersin uniform and guerrilla fighters. There is no difference between apilot who rains bombs on civilians from the air and an undergroundfighter who plants the bomb on the ground. Each side claims that itsman is a “hero” and the other one is “a murderer.”
When war is over, prisoners are released. Even Nazi soldiers, who haddestroyed Russia and had been taken prisoner, were released after the war.There are no differences between Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinianprisoners of war.
But Israel has always insisted on regarding the Palesininian fighters assimply criminals. Words such as “murderers” and “blood ontheir hands,” which served as a propaganda tool during the war,became obstacles as soon as Israel embarked on the road to peace.Yitzhak Rabin, too, did not dare release all of the Palestinianprisoners the day after signing the Oslo Accords (as Gush Shalomadvised him), thus missing a historic opportunity to jumpstart thepeace process. Now Netanyahu is entangled in the coils of his ownpropaganda.
An Arab story: In a certain city, riots broke out because of the scarcityof flour. The mob started to march on the Sultan’s palace. In order tosave his master, the vizier spread a rumor that there is a flour give-awayat the city gates. The mob turned around, rushing toward the gates, soonfollowed by the vizier himself. “Why are you running? You know very wellthat it is just a lie!” the Sultan asked. But the vizier, in his rush,responded: “And what if it is true?”