Welcome to my blog. I am a former local journalist who now works in PR and a Conservative and community activist in Woking and Horsell. This blog will keep updated on local issues as well as my interests and quirky news stories.
A milestone - but the conflict rages on
I was first taught about the Arab-Israeli conflict in fourth form history and I must admit as a 14-year-old I found the situation fascinating as a subject of study. Unfortunately the reality is less grounded in paper and more in blood – the recent conflict between Israeli commandos and peace protesters at sea may have hit the headlines but this clash of cultures take the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike on a daily basis.
I’m not interested in pitching up on any one side – I used to be a supporter of Israel but I think being a supporter of either side is increasingly untenable; a solution will never be found by force of support but by an abandonment of tribalism and a calm, reasoned settlement.
Whether that is – or will ever be – possible with the extreme elements contained within either side, is another matter. But what is certain is that there are no winners – from the people who thought it was a good idea to get on ships and deliberately provoke one of the most alert security forces in the world by trying to break a blockade, to the commanders who sent in crack troops to perform a riot control operation against conventions in international waters.
Who has benefitted from this episode? Not the dead and injured, not the people of Gaza who need aid and not the Israeli state, which is being forced onto every conceivable media outlet to justify its actions.
To me there is an equivalence between a state surrounded on all sides by neighbours who want it annihilated and a displaced people who live in abject conditions and without many rights, some of whom resort to violence to improve their lot. To enter the court of interational opinion and try to argue a settlement on the basis of who is the most “right” and “wronged”, who are the “victims” and the “aggressors” is a totally pointless exercise.
This is what “peace protesters” and “Israeli supporters” alike don’t get. The very maintenance of their positions is a blockage to peace. The only way to achieve a better life for everyone is to let go of the very circumstances that bind them together and give them identity. And that, regrettably, is why I feel a solution to the conflict is no closer than when I was at school – and will remain far off for another generation to come.
I was at Cape Town university in the early 90s when everything was hopeful and possible with peace negotiations going on in South Africa as well as Israel and Palestine. Real friendships were being forged between Muslim and Jewish students in the struggle against apartheid. We had Mandela, De Klerk, Rabin, Arafat and King Hussein – great men who were willing to lay down their weapons for peace. We succeeded in South Africa but failed in Israel.
The peace process died – in my opinion – on 4th November 1995 with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist. Suicide
bombings began in April 1996 sinking Shimon Peres’ presidential bid against Netanyahu. Both sides became polarised, mistrustful and extremist. Moderation under Labour gave way to extremist splinter Likud factions. Fatah lost out to Hamas after Arafat’s passing.
We have no real statesmen to end the crisis in Palestine. We need the US to force a Bosnian-style negotiation between all sides at a US Army base where they have no contact with the media until they have reached an agreement. This is what Clinton did in 1995 in Dayton with ending the Bosnian War. Since then Bosnia has been at peace. Until the US realises that this ongoing conflict threatens international security, this conflict will not end.
Interesting perspective – I visited Israel in December 1995 on a school trip and it really is a beautiful country with many, many good people on all sides. But I think the sad point is that for every cluster of optimistic and enlightened students, genuine peace promoters and great statesmen it only takes one extremist like Yigal Amir to de-rail years of work. And there are still far too many Amirs – on both sides, which is why I remain pessimistic about the chances for peace.
In some cases, conflicts dilute down generations as the reasons for their original cause become lost from memory. In the Middle East, this conflict is being distilled and concentrated into the next generation, with many of the young people in Israel and Palestine more extreme and fundamental than their parents. This situation is not helped by “Friends of Israel” and “Free Palestine” groups, who give a hope and validation to each faction that a) they are “right” and the other side is “wrong” and b) that they can win the war through force of global opinion (see my point about Amir).
But as you say, such is the political instability on both sides that a move for peace looks impossible without a concerted international effort. I believe the same fate as Rabin would await any Israeli leader who did a deal with Abbas, especially as Hamas would have to be involved. And they know that.