When a hurricane strikes a forest, every tree is tested. The rotten ones are uprooted and sweptaway by the wind, sometimes far away. The strong ones, those with deep roots in the earth,remain standing.
The Israeli peace forces are being tested now. The winds of war are blowing. Some peace campcelebrities (alias “Leftists”) were uprooted and blown all the way to the right. Othersdoubled up, stuttered or fell silent. But an impressive number of people stood straight andwere counted.
The Israeli media, all of them mobilized for the war propaganda effort (except for a fewremarkable individuals), are having a ball. It’s fashionable now to talk about the“disintegration of the left”. Those poor fellows who are beating their breasts in the style ofBolshevik “self-criticism” are enjoying the limelight. They weep pitifully: The left waswrong; There is no partner; Arafat is a villain; We must rethink everything from thebeginning.
Why, for God’s sake?
We have said all along that there will be no peace as long as the Palestinians are not allowed torealize their just demands: to set up a state of their own with the Green Line as the borderbetween Israel and Palestine, with Jerusalem as the capital of the two states and the settlersgoing home. We have said that the building and enlargement of settlements, confiscation ofland, demolishing homes and building “bypass roads” all over the West Bank are creatingterrible anger. We have said that if the Palestinians despair of the “peace process”, therewill be an explosion. Anyone who took the trouble over the last few months to read my articles onthese pages knows that I warned again and again that a new – and this time armed – Intifada wasgoing to break out.
All this is happening now before our eyes. But they say that this shows the right-wing wasright. How’s that? Well, when the guns are firing, logic is the first casualty. Even among someof the “leftists”.
As a matter of fact, there never never was one, unified peace camp in Israel. Many groups, withquite different backgrounds, opinions and even temperaments, are active in the field.
One division is between the sentimental and the political wings. To the former belong peoplewho look mostly inside. What’s really important to them is their moral stance. Somebody oncejoked that after every peace demonstration some of them look into the mirror and exclaim: “My,how beautiful we are!” People mock them as “Yeffei Nefesh” (“Those who have a beautiful soul”)and coined the phrase “They shoot and weep”.
For these, the Palestinians serve more as an object for the application of the moralministrations than as an equal partner with his own personality. Therefore it took them solong to recognize the PLO, accept the idea of the Palestinian state, agree to East Jerusalembecoming the capital of Palestine. Such people are liable to fall down in every seriouscrisis, such as the Lebanon war (‘Silence! Shooting is going on!”) the Gulf war (Yossi Sarid:“From now on, let the Palestinians search for me!”) and the present Palestinian war ofliberation (“There is no partner!”)
The other wing of the peace camp, the political one, to which I belong, understands that if onewants to make peace with the Palestinian nation, one has to understand its aspirations,feelings, fears and hopes (as they must understand ours). Only such understanding can createthe basis for co-existence in this country and this region. That’s why we started our contactswith the PLO leadership in 1974, that’s why some of us have spent untold hours in conversationwith Palestinians from all walks of life. That’s how we were able, ten to twenty years beforeall the others, to recognize the Palestinian people, the PLO, the State of Palestine and itssovereignty over East Jerusalem and the Haram-ash-Sharif. It’s not a matter of love but ofhistoric reconciliation, without which peace cannot come.
Another difference between the peace forces concerns their domestic politicalorientation. The adherents of the first camp have a deep – even hereditary – attachment to theLabor party. They can mount the barricades against Sharon and Netanyahu, but find itextremely difficult to raise their voice when Labor is in power. Labor, after all, is the“Lesser Evil”. We “Don’t have Another One”. That’s why they break down when it’s a Labor partyleader waging war against the Palestinian people.
The other camp has no such problem. We protested when Rabin (and his chief-of-Staff, EhudBarak) deported the Islamic activists in 1992, and we supported Rabin when he signed the Osloaccord a year later. We voted for Barak, but we fight against him when he becomes thegrave-digger of peace.
The Peace Camp will emerge strengthened from the present test. The strong will remain strong,the bent will straighten up again. For those who were uprooted, we shall not shed a tear.