http://www.bigeye.com/072599.htm
Peace is a Two-way Street
By international syndicated columnist &
broadcaster Eric Margolis
July 25, 1999
MADRID - The quickening pace of Mideast peace diplomacy has produced growing
euphoria that the half-century old Arab-Israeli conflict may be finally
nearing an end.
Here in Spain, which long helped the Palestinian struggle, there is
particular satisfaction that a just and enduring settlement may be within
reach.
Israel's new prime minister, Ehud Barak is calling for a fast-track
resolution of all issues between his nation and the Palestinians, peace with
Syria, and a pullout from Lebanon. President Bill Clinton, who is anxious to
take credit for a peace deal before he leaves office in 18 months, is
pressing hard for a quick settlement. Syria is strongly expressing its
desire for a peace pact with Israel, and just ordered die-hard,
Damascus-based Palestinian rejectionist groups to lay down their arms.
By booting the obstructionist Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies,
Israeli voters revived the Mideast peace process and sent a powerful message
of positive intent to their Arab neighbors, which has been reciprocated from
Rabat to Damascus. PM Barak, a former general, seized the opportunity of his
landslide victory to launch a high-intensity diplomatic blitzkrieg.
So far, very good. Salutes to Barak. But once all sides get down to serious
business of bitter compromises, the euphoria will quickly vanish. The key
issue for both sides is legitimacy.
The Arabs have never accepted Israel's legitimacy. While some undemocratic
Arab leaders have made peace with Israel, most of their people, and much of
the Muslim World, still views it as an illegal foreign entity created to
assuage western guilt over the Holocaust at Palestinian expense, physically
divide the Arab World, and promote US interests in the Mideast. Most
important, the plight of 3.5 million Palestinian refugees - victims of a
state created for other victims - continues to poison relations between
Israel and its neighbors. By what right can Israel import Jews and non-Jews
from Russia, Arabs ask, while denying the right of return of ethnically
cleansed Palestinians?
Israel is rightly wary of peace with neighbors harboring such bitter feelings.
An assassin's bullet could change any of the 'friendly' Arab regime overnight,
bringing to power a new ruler hostile to Israel. How could Israel, already
short of space and water, accept back even some of the stateless Palestinians?
Israel's politically powerful settlers won't give an inch and are preparing
to open new outposts on expropriated Palestinian land. What if Hamas bombers
resume their bloody attacks?
A minority of Israeli hard-liners, backed by wealthy American supporters,
who seem ready to fight to the last Israeli from the safety of the Hamptons
and Hollywood, is still issuing alarms that a Palestinian mini-state will
threaten Israel's existence. This is nonsense, as PM Barak underlined, when
he dismissed the potential threat from a Palestinian state as "insignificant."
The other military weak, backward Arab states offer little more conventional
military danger to Israel.
Most Israelis accept the inevitability of a Palestinian state. But what kind
of state? The current Palestinian 'entity' is no more than a series of
bantustans overwatched by Jewish settlements and divided by Jewish-only
security roads. Unless the final Palestinian state has geographic continuity
and economic viability, it will remain dangerously unstable, a breeding
ground of anger and terrorism. If the Arabs are to finally accept Israel's
legitimacy, then Israelis will also have to accept the legitimacy of a
viable Palestinian state that has at least a minimum of land, water,
communications, and self-respect, as well as at least a symbolic toehold in
Jerusalem, a city as sacred to Christians and Muslims as to Jews.
Whatever Palestinian state emerges, it will be a military protectorate and
economic dependency of Israel. A stable, successful Palestine is thus much
in Israel's self-interest. A peace between Israel and Syria will end their
dangerous but futile 20-year rivalry to dominate Lebanon, Jordan, and the
West Bank.
When you hold all the cards, as Israel does, its understandably hard to
trade them for vague assurances of peace and good relations. But able
general Barak knows the importance of timing. His diplomatic offensive may
be the last chance to halt the growing Mideast race for weapons of mass
destruction. Iran and Syria are racing to counter Israel's large nuclear and
chemical arsenal by developing chemical and, eventually, nuclear warheads
for their growing, medium-ranged missile forces. Unless this race is halted
by a general peace, the Mideast will shortly enter a period of extreme danger.
For the first time since its birth, Israel could be facing a true life and death threat.
Barak understands that neither Israel's new "Arrow" anti-missile defense
system nor American pressure can fully eliminate the threat of Arab or
Iranian missiles. The Arabs and Iran equally fear that Israel may lash out
and strike them with tactical nuclear weapons - or worse. Security is a
two-way street.
In the end, to make peace work, both sides will have to betray their most
cherished promises. Israel will have to force some its militant settlers
from Brooklyn to give up their little Fort Apaches on the West Bank. Arab
regimes must convince millions of enraged Palestinians that the loss of
their ancestral homes, however unjust, is irreversible.
Copyright: Eric Margolis, 1999
