"We, Israelis, still refuse to realize the time is over in which our power can force a reality that's convenient for us and only for us, for our needs and interests (Novelist David Grossman)."
"War is only good for the warlords… for Benjamin Netanyahu, but it's bad for both peoples. There are civilians in Gaza and there are civilians in Israel, and we have to keep them out of the circle of terror" (Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List).
"It's no coincidence that the violence broke out just when we began to feel that maybe Jews and Arabs can cooperate in politics too. Some people wanted to sabotage this vision, they wanted to continue sowing hatred and incitement and violence. But this evening and here, we are telling them – enough, no. Now too we can and must establish a different government in Israel that will not encourage hatred, will not incite, will not separate Jews and Arabs (Meretz MK and former leader Tamar Zandberg)".
"As a Palestinian citizen of Israel I refuse to go back to the routine of institutionalized discrimination, of police violence and political arrests, of limited citizenship. I refuse to go back to the routine in which on a train I'm afraid to answer a phone call from my mother in Arabic. Arabic is my language and it is one of the languages in this place, and I'm not willing to go back to a routine in which people are afraid to speak it (Sally Abed, activist with Standing Together)".
"For the past seven years (...) our leaders did nothing to move ahead a diplomatic solution. Seven years in which we've been offered nothing but despair, while we've been sold the illusion of normalcy. They demand that we bury our head in the sand and think that the current situation is fine and normal. But there is nothing normal about a military dictatorship, a suffocating blockade and apartheid in the territories (Ariel Bernstein an activist with Breaking the Silence)".
The paragraphs above are excerpts of speeches given during a demonstration held in Tel Aviv a few days ago. It brought together Jews and Arabs in condemning Israeli policies of occupation and apartheid, as well as condemning the doctrine of resolving disputes through war.
Thousands attended the demonstration organized by the groups "Standing Together" and "Breaking the Silence," and it was not the only demonstration of its kind, though it was perhaps the largest. The spirit expressed by this demonstration and others like it speaks to the extent of Israel's ugliness, injustice and need for change, and how futile violence is: neither does it change Israel nor does it grant the Palestinians their rights.
This does not mean that the state of Israeli public opinion is sound; indeed, it is in poor shape, and the many reasons for this have become broadly understood. However, it does mean two things:
First, that only this spirit can, in principle at least, benefit from the dramatic shifts in global public opinion in favor of the Palestinians and thereby lay the foundations for a just and feasible solution. What is happening inside the US Democratic Party, for example, can only be engaged with in such a spirit.
Second, the definite weakness of Israeli public opinion and of the sensitivity expressed by the Tel Aviv demonstration is not automatically a gain for the Palestinian rights. It presents a conundrum that stands in the way of the actualization of these rights, which must be carefully contemplated instead of delusions of easy solutions.
This conviction is strengthened by the nature of the other spirit that is spreading among us today. By definition, it cannot be an alternative, and no real efforts are being made to turn it into an alternative.
An overview of some of the preliminary outcomes of the declaration of victory:
Repeated thanks were given to Iran, and Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, lamented that "the martyr and leader Qassem Soleimani was not with us to witness this moment." A Hamas military parade roamed the devastated streets of Gaza, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party held a paramilitary parade celebrating the "victory" in Beirut.
Those who have this sensitivity are not planning to address global public opinion and engage with its transformations. Human costs and economic devastation are not accounted for either. Their glee as they talk about the elimination of Israel is purely a matter of missiles (as Saddam Hussein once said): they are not deterred by military disparities, (including nuclear weapons), economic disparities, or international consensus regarding Israel. Their analyses of reclaiming 1948 Palestine leap over 73 years of economic, cultural and political divergence...
According to them, willpower alone can move mountains.
This is enough to suggest that the "brothers and comrades" are only seriously committed to one thing: triumphing, through violence, over their societies. Plucking the heads of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization is at the top of the priority list. Other heads are awaiting their turn successively, per the threats made three days ago by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
However, all of them know one thing: Israel controls our feelings, a state of affairs that puts Israel in an enviable position and puts us in an unenviable position. And so long as our feelings, to a large extent, control our thoughts, it could be said that Israel has a strong impact on these thoughts. With the brutality of its strikes and the cruelty of its wars, the Jewish state shifts our mood from one to another from one moment to the next. The "victors" are betting on this: As long as there is an Israel, we have the right to sway right or left and turn the skies into a battlefield for elephants that do not tire of flying.
