Is it possible, after the rockets go silent, for new horizons to emerge? We should reexamine ideas that had been taken for granted but no longer are: Israel will not manage, neither today nor tomorrow - regardless of the viciousness of the violence it employs - to annihilate the Palestinian people politically, and it certainly will not be able to liquidate them physically. Subjugating some, keeping others under occupation, while others do not enjoy their full rights and settlers are left to gradually usurp their land... all of this makes them more determined to fight. It also makes Israel a country increasingly unaligned with human and moral values, one that relies more and more on cruelty and coercion, to say nothing about sowing the seeds of internal disintegration. What happened in Lod, Ramla and the rest of the “territories of 48” speaks to this. The bottom line is that Israel’s relationship with the world will deteriorate further, waging conflicts against it will become justified, indeed demanded, not only by its Palestinian victims, but also by those exploiting the victims to further their personal interests that have nothing to do with the Palestinians. Gone are the years of Trump’s term in which the Palestinians were ignored, culminating in the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Benjamin Netanyahu himself might go with them. On the other hand, the Palestinians and their sympathizers will not be able to eliminate Israel, neither today nor tomorrow, except in a world of wishful thinking and utopia. Such insistence, whether implicit or overt, is rearing its head today, fueled by oppression, suffering and today’s dire state of affairs. But it will only compound the Palestinians’ suffering, written, time after time, with blood and tears. That is besides strengthening most fanatical Palestinian and Arab groups - undoubtedly the same goes for the Israelis as well - and enabling others to be more daring in their exploitation of the Palestinian cause for their own purposes. The Middle East finds itself between these two unfeasible objectives. And because both are dealt with as if their realization is possible, the region could turn into one of nothing more than permanent destruction and pain. Regardless of the extent to which these words seem to naively reiterate a naïve desire, and no matter how unpopular they appear at a time that has room for nothing but enthusiasm, this conflict can only be resolved through a settlement. An agreement that ends Israel’s occupation and establishes a Palestinian state, which would also be a decisive victory for Israel’s democracy over its Jewishness, and it would bury the delusions of eliminating Israel that some among us indulge in. Therefore, the issue at hand is to improve the compromise, not return to the era that preceded. Yes, in light of the settlement, the wars in Gaza and the Lebanon war (which could have been avoided) broke out. However, during the pre-settlement period, the wars of 1967, 1973 and 1982 broke out. Without making improving the settlement the goal for the future, hell will become our way of life. The astronomical number of deaths will continue to increase unabated. However, in order for the two sides to reach a settlement or rectify their settlement, a long path must be crossed, and meaning of Israelism and Palestinianism must change profoundly. This is because only the reinvention of both concepts can lead to tangible results other than murder, death and displacement. The war that has been raging over the past few days might be an opportunity for reshaping Israeli public opinion, one that pushes for a withdrawal from the West Bank, an end to the Judaization of Jerusalem, an end to the siege on Gaza, and of course a radical reassessment of the rights of Israeli Arabs. This would not be a gift; rather, it is an urgent need for the Israelis themselves. Otherwise, Netanyahu, or any other Israeli populist politician, will always have the opportunity to exploit bloodshed for menial and opportunistic ends. A resurgence in public support for peace in Israel is not only a prelude to the realization of Palestinian rights. It also gives the Israelis, if this is what they want, some of the respect they say they want for themselves. No security and deterrence tools are absolute guarantees, and comfort cannot be sustained so long as others’ rights and land continue to be violated. In turn, any Arab peace agreement with the Jewish state will remain fragile and vulnerable to turbulence so long as public support for peace does not reemerge and manage to reinvent what it means to be Israeli. Palestinian patriotism itself will face burning and pressing questions that will determine the invention of the new Palestinianism and how it is dealt with: What is the model Hamas will present, if it comes out with political gains, to its people and the world? How will the relationship between Palestinian patriotism and the Arab patriotisms reflect on the demands of the neighboring countries for freedom, respect for their sovereignty, borders and independent decisions? How will they balance their relationship with the axis of resistance factions in the region, and how much room to exploit Palestine and the Palestinians would the latter be granted? Answers to such questions are shaped by the bitter experiences of the past decades, fears of the reemergence of arguments that put the future in the hands of fighters merely because they are fighters. And, at the end of the day, their hands offer nothing but bleak darkness and certain defeat. As for being optimistic about the materialization of such potential scenarios, that is another matter. This is because the only currently available requisite for revitalizing and improving the settlement is international pressure, which will hopefully be strengthened and intensified. Otherwise, nothing looms on the horizon of the region but objectives whose camps want to claim victory, regardless of anything else!
لم تشترك بعد
انشئ حساباً خاصاً بك لتحصل على أخبار مخصصة لك ولتتمتع بخاصية حفظ المقالات وتتلقى نشراتنا البريدية المتنوعة
