June 6, 2004, Gaza Strip-Tease
In a policy that simultaneously helped the Likud Party crush the Labor Party in last year's Israeli general election, which our Fearless Leader embraced (removing any credibility the United States might still have had in the Arab world), and now appears on the cusp of ending the current Israeli ruling coalition, Israeli PM Sharon is going full-speed ahead with his plans for a removal of Israeli settlements from the Gaza strip.
This was a key centerpiece of the campaign of Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna; I suspect most Israelis would prefer to see the troubling settlements in Gaza, and the attendant difficulties in securing those settlements, removed. BUT... the Israeli right and religious right certainly do not wish to see this-- and hence, this resulted in Sharon's firing of two cabinet ministers (Benny Elon and Avigdor Lieberman from the National Union Party). A member of the ruling coalition with Likud; if the Gaza pullout plan passes, members of the National Religious Party have threatened a pullout from the government, which would remove Likud's majority. Plus, the secular Shinui party also has some problems-- that the Gaza pullout won't be FAST ENOUGH-- and walked out of the cabinet meeting (at least for a time).
Others are suggesting that Shimon Peres and Labor may rush in to join a national unity coalition should the rightist parties withdraw-- which would probably result in even faster evacuation from Gaza. And Sharon, somewhere out there, still has to deal with those corruption charges, though as I noted in this column, that seems unlikely given some preliminary findings by Israeli prosecutors.
Well, well. Let me try to "macro" this for a second. Who tends to get killed in Gaza? Settlers? Not really- there aren't many of them, and they are in fortified settlements. Palestinians? Oh yes-- lots of them. IDF soldiers? Yes-- in the course of killing said Palestinians, at checkpoints, and in other dangerous situations.
Diana Moon has suggested that mainstream Israelis are willing to take civilian casualties on buses and shopping malls (and CERTAINLY in settlements), but are absolutely unwilling to accept casualties among IDF soldiers (which, after all, since Israel has universal military service, represents pretty much EVERYONE's children). As such, Hizbollah-- which made military targets in South Lebanon its priority-- managed to drive Israeli public opinion to force former PM Ehud Barak to unilaterally pullout. The other terror groups-- Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Akwa Martyrs (Fatah)-- have opted for the "softer" civilian targets. True-- attacking the IDF is harder, and invariaby draws quicker, even nastier reprisals than attacking civilians in suicide bombings-- but the former may get results politically while the latter does not.
If so-- it would explain Israel sentiment to withdraw from Gaza-- the settlements there present a heavy toll on the IDF to defend them. (Diana also notes her debate with dog run member Jonathan Edelstein over the "meaning" of the Jewish state, in particular, whether internal coexistence with the Palestinians in "one state" (I suppose, as long as its not a "Bosnia" situation of effectively two states under one flag) is possible-- Diana coming out with the proposition that it is not, and I probably agree with her on that and that ONLY a "two-state solution" is viable; anyway-- interesting stuff for those interested in these things.)
No matter. I expect all of the big Israeli players (Sharon, Netanyahu, Peres) to show up in the USA soon for Reagan's funeral. This Gaza story... 'developing"...
Comments
Actually, what Diane and I disagree on is whether it's possible for Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs to coexist within one state.
Posted by Jonathan Edelstein at June 7, 2004 10:09 AM
Actually, what Diane and I disagree on is whether it's possible for Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs to coexist within one state.
Posted by Jonathan Edelstein at June 7, 2004 10:10 AM
That's not how SHE puts it!
(Actually it is how she puts it... but I just enjoy causing trouble). Well, its a fascinating debate. As I said, my personal view is that it's really ultimately an irreconcileable problem to have a modern purportedly pluralistic liberal democracy and still have an "ethnic state" where a significant minority will just have to be second class citizens.
Europe is having a hard-enough time with this, where issues of France (foolishly, and mean-spiritedly) banning girls from wearing headscarves to school, or the questions of "what is a German?" or "what is a Dane?" become stretched when swarthy Islamic types start showing up in significant numbers...
Now, fast-forward to Israel, a place where THEY ARE ALREADY THERE... (and in many cases, WERE THERE FIRST!)
I just think that under these circumstances, they HAVE to be second class citizens: if they have the same rights and privileges as Jews, than Israel will just not be the "Jewish state".
Israel could certainly be a purely secular democracy-- but again-- not a JEWISH purely secular democracy-- at least not for very long.
My problem is also that you can point out that even as second class citizens, Arabs live far better lives than anywhere else in the Middle East, which is true-- but I would have to bring up that Blacks in South Africa tended to be the best-off Blacks in sub-Saharan Africa, while still being second class citizens.
So-- whether individual Jews and Arabs can get along is undeniable (the Haifa free state, my own neighborhood in Brooklyn)... as a system, though, I hate to say it, but good old Zionism really is not all that compatible with a pluralistic mutli-ethnic state. The original secular lefties who were the big progenitors of Israel (see above re: HAIFA) as an ETHNIC homeland might have been able to reconcile this, but now, as Israel has also become a RELIGIOUS homeland... I just see no way out in one country.
Eventually, Arab citizens would vote to end the "Jewish state"-- I certainly would if I were one of them.
As such, I think "two states" (maybe MORE than two states) is the only long term resolution-- though I concede that two states on the Bosnian model (two effectively independent countries, one flag) could work, though
I think just two countries would work better-- not that the individuals are so incompatible, but I DO think systemically its impossible for them to live in one country under the rules that Israel has now set up.
It WOULD be possible, of course, if they were one country under yet a THIRD system (at one time, the Ottoman Empire, or as I have occasionally joked, as American states like Maryland and Hawaii). But the Israeli system is just too problematic, IMHO, for long term stability on these terms.
I have doubtless, however, missed the point!!!
Posted by the talking dog at June 7, 2004 11:47 AM
This just in.
President Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States, is still dead.
Posted by And Your Not at June 7, 2004 04:02 PM
Doggie, actually you got the point quite well. I certainly did not say that it's possible for Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs to co-exist in one state. That would presuppose that there is an overarching, fair, non-ethnically exlusive "Israeli" identity, which there is not. I believe it is impossible for Jews and ARabs to co-exist indefinitely in a state in which one group is privileged over another by reason of birth, and in which the elite group makes it virtually impossible to join.
Doggie, you also pointed out yet another unique quality of this conflict: both groups claim native status.
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