Why Israel is not ready for Peace
By Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad
Middle East Post
Recently the prisoner’s exchange which is being negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians became an interest for both sides. The Israeli
rightist government found itself in a place where it cannot decide whether to make the deal or not. Prime Minister Netanyahu Is known for his statements abut the importance of not negotiating with what Israel considers “terrorist” groups. At the same time Prime Minister Netanyahu finds himself under the pressure of the Israeli public opinion who demands for the release of the imprisoned Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The principles which Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extreme right government believe in make the situation difficult since any agreement to release Palestinian prisoners will be contradicting with their beliefs. Hamas says that their demand to release the Palestinian prisoners is legitimate since the Palestinian prisoners are prisoners of war and freedom. On the other hand Israel considers the Palestinian prisoners as terrorists who must stay in prison in order protect Israel’s security.
The refusal to release the Palestinian prisoners can be found also in the Israeli left side. The moderate and left Israelis believe that any kind of exchange of prisoners between Israel and Hamas will make the situation become worse since Hamas will gain the credit in the Palestinian street.
The real problem in the Israeli position is not about who will gain the credit or how to assure that the security of the Israeli state will not be affected. The problem is that the Israeli leadership and street are not ready to pay the price for what they want. Israel wants peace but does not want to withdraw from the occupied territories. Israel wants Gilad Shalit to come back home but it is not ready to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange. Israel wants security but does not want to admit the right of the Palestinians to live in a state of their own. Although this is the situation, Israeli leaders continue to say that the Palestinians are not ready to become independent and do not want to compromise in order to reach a peace agreement.
The Israeli and some of the West media stated in the past that Israeli leaders such as Ehud Barak and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered the Palestinians good solutions but the problem was that the Palestinians were not ready to sacrifice. Olmert’s offer was published a couple of days ago in Yadeoot Ahronot Israeli newspaper. The picture of the map which explains the kind of solution which Olmert offered speaks for itself. The Palestinian territories were marked in red and appear on the map as two small areas in the whole historical map of Palestine. A safe way connects between these two areas. Israeli settlements such as Maaleh Adumim are supposed to be kept under an Israeli control. Sources such as Water are to be kept under the Israeli authority. The whole offer which the world talked about does not give the Palestinians twenty percent of what they are asking for.
Then once there is a Palestinian refusal of agreeing on an Israeli offer, the world accuses them of being not ready to sacrifice for the sake of peace. Most of the Palestinians stated frankly that they are ready to live in peace with Israel if the latter is ready to share the land and respect the idea of a Palestinian independent existence in the area. When Oslo agreement was signed, the Israeli leadership knew what the Palestinians are asking for. Jerusalem, the Palestinian refugees, the prisoners, and the 1967 occupied lands were supposed to be negotiated in order to reach an agreement. Today Israel considers Jerusalem the united capital of Israel, the refugees case as something which cannot be negotiated, the west bank and Gaza as a part of Eretz Israel which is in other words the lands of Israel that every Jew has the right to live in any part of it. Israeli settlements became legitimate and the peace project turned into Israeli economical offers to hush the Palestinians. This actually makes me wonder about Secretary Clinton’s statement which was about reminding the Palestinians of the importance of not putting pre conditions before negotiations with Israel. If Israel has already decided everything regarding the final cases then what would be the outcome of any kind of negotiations?
It is clear that Israel is not interested in serious compromises in order to reach a peace agreement which will solve the historical conflict between Israel and the Arabs. The problem is not in Hamas or the Palestinian leadership or the Arab world who all stated and acted in different ways which proved that they are ready to compromise; in other words the Arab world offered the API, Hamas did not attack inside Israel since years and even in the 1967 occupied lands since the last war, the PLO does not talk about armed resistance at all, Syria agrees on negotiations at any time, through anyone, and at any place. So what is the Israeli response? More ideologies which are built on the use of force, army and wars in order to assure the security of the Israeli state and a continuous ignore of the Arab offers.
Israelis are taught through the different institutions of the state and the community that Israel is always in danger of being attacked by its neighbors. The people are affected by such ideas and therefore it becomes harder to convince them to support any kind of compromise for the sake of reaching a peace agreement with Arabs.
The latest war on Gaza is a good example; the Israeli leadership before the war wanted to prepare the Israeli people for war by convincing them that the war must happen and that the Israeli army is the best regarding the respect of human rights and laws of war. The result was a complete censor on the Israeli media and a misleading information which differed from what was really happening in the time of war. More than 1300 Palestinians were killed while many Israelis believed that only tens were citizens and the rest were fighters. The effect of the war resulted in brining an extreme right government which is useless and caused damage for the picture of Israel in the world. The reason is that the current government states and acts according to the real beliefs of the Israeli state regarding the conflict with the Palestinians without acting and with a lack of skill in directing the conflict.
Another example are the academic associations; In one of the lectures which studies Radical Islam at the Hebrew University this semester, the lecturer describes Israel as a reason which makes the Islamic world remember how strong it was and how much is needed in order to return the Islamic control over the area. Although the course is supposed to study Radical Islam movements such as Al-Qaida and other Islamic extreme movements, it attacks and criticizes the Islamic community since the days of Prophet Muhammad and the whole idea of spiritual belief by claiming that an academic research is not built on spiritualities.
The tens of Israeli students who attend such courses and are supposed to become diplomats and future leaders of Israel are taught about the “danger” and past of the Islamic world and are taught about the extreme side of it with a wider coverage while the change and improvement which are taking place in it are ignored.
In the past Israel used to be proud of its democratic society which gives everyone who lives in it a chance to demonstrate, think, and shout about what he or she beliefs. Today Israeli peace activists and Palestinian residents of occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank are treated in ways worse than South Africa. The obsession of security made the Israeli security institutions and intelligence service become obsessed of controlling everyone and sometimes preventing an idea from spreading or a group of people from dancing or demonstrating. This illusion made Israel become far away from reaching peace because peace which is obtained by force and security theories will always be in danger of war.
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nice blog as usual Ziad.
Nonetheles, I disagree that “Netanyahu find himself under the pressure of the israeli public opinion who demands for the release of the imprisoned Israeli soldier Gilad Shlit”. In my opinion, it’s the opposite. Voices agains the deal is mor prominent in the Israeli public opinion, others if they’re asked they wouldn’t give their opinion they’ll be confused, they don’t want to say with since it will suggest that they’re okey with releasing what they call “terrorist with Israeli blood on their hands” and if they say they’re against it will suggest they don’t care for Gilad. Otherwise, the biggest demonstrations were opposing to the release of the Palestinian prisoners, with some shy demonstrations and voices calling to wrap the deal. And that is the pressure being forced on Netanyahu. And I think you made it clear when you said “The refusal to release the Palestinian prisoners can be found also in the Israeli left side. The moderate and left Israelis believe that any kind of exchange of prisoners between Israel and Hamas will make the situation become worse since Hamas will gain the credit in the Palestinian street.” Netanyahu doesn’t feel comfortable giving the green light for the deal when he doesn’t have a supportive public opinion to throw the blame on. Otherwise, he will be the one to be blamed for any harmful(to israelis) consequences.
And a comment on the 6th paragraph talking about Israel’s expectations of negotiations, the way I see it is that although the Palestinians call for these demands in their public media, nonetheless this is not their ceiling on the negotiation table. Although the refugees and prisoners demands should be the main priority while other border and state issues are the complimentary, Palestinian leaders reverse the order on the negotiation table, the only thing that they negotiated about where the borders of the Palestinian state and its entity, and refugees and prisoners are complimentaries OR pressure cards to get the state. They did not even start negotiating refugees or prisoners, not in any negotiation. All negotiations were revolved around security issues and Palestinian political entity. So normall that is seen by the Israeli side as the Ceiling of the negotiation that they want to pull down as much as they can. And that’s how negotiations are. Everyone sets a ceiling and they reach a middle-ground. Nonethless, Palestinians have set their least expectations as the ceiling due to the lack of negotiation expertise. Nonetheless, Israel is ready to withdraw from the West Bank in return for a palestiniand and Arab recognition, and this will be the greates achievement of the state of Israel throughout its history. Nonetheless, Jerusalem is a different case. the Israeli settlements, regardless what the oppsessed Israeli settlers say, it’s just a negotiation card. Israel would take the Major blocs for a land swap anytime. Otherwise they have no interest in an arabic high dense land. Which is exactly why they established the PA and signed Oslo agreement.
Just some thoughts.
Thanks
Palestine Youth Voice
Palestine Youth Voice´s last blog ..Are We Anti-Semitic?
I like your thoughts and agree with you…Regarding Shalit’s issue…i believe that it will take time but in the end it will be made..A for the negotiations, i do believe that in such a situation where Israel believes that Jerusalem is a united capital of Israel and the refugees are out of the game…the Palestinians should reconsider everything they achieved until today and the negotiations program they followed until now….The cards must be used in a smart way.