Some Israelis grow uneasy about Israel's Judeofascist metastasis....
Friday, January 04, 2002 Tevet 20, 5762
A misguided euphoria
By Ze'ev Sternhell
The euphoria that has descended on Ariel Sharon derives from the worst mistake that a politician can make. The prime minister is convinced that he has succeeded in breaking, once and for all, the symmetry that the Oslo accords created. Sharon abhors the Oslo agreements because they are capable of undermining the foundation on which, in his opinion, Israel stands.
That conception says that the existence of the Jewish state is dependent on keeping the Arabs in a perpetually inferior position. Hence the need to humiliate their leaders and deride their institutions. Mutual relations are out of the question. Now the relations between the sides have returned to their natural state, according to this conception, from which it was a mistake ever to depart: relations between a developed sovereign state and gangs of outlaws.
Today, the root of the problem lies in Sharon's belief that both the state of mind that prevails in the United States and the current international balance of forces are permanent fixtures. Sharon refuses to understand that this is a transitory phase and that the world is continuing to change rapidly. It's not only that the popularity of President George W. Bush could be eroded overnight, as happened to his father, it's also that the protest against the Americans' ruthlessness, which is for the time being weak, could gather momentum in Europe and Asia and in the elite universities, but also among broad sections of the American public.
Sharon hopes that after Afghanistan, Iraq's turn will come, thus making Israel a factor in the war. In addition to its other virtues, a flare-up of that kind will also exempt him from having to talk to the Palestinians at any level. No one will mention the aspiration for a historic compromise between two national entities. That will be the stake in the heart of the Oslo accords, which the Likud's top people view as a true calamity.
As they see it, as long as the Palestine Liberation Organization continues to fight for genuine independence, it will remain a terrorist organization. On the other hand, if the PLO's leaders get down on their knees, it will be possible to throw them a bone in the form of a neglected, backward Palestinian puppet state, with a ramshackle territorial base, which will be at the mercy of the Jews. Sharon will welcome the formal independence of an atrophied reservation that will be called Palestine, as this will perpetuate Israel's supremacy and there will no longer be anyone to challenge the Jews' ownership of the Land of Israel.
Therefore, there is method to Sharon's policy, and it excels in clarity and coherence, in contrast to the posturing of Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. Sharon's policy has only one small disadvantage: Not only does it have no chance of being realized, but the very attempt to translate it into practice will place Israel in the company of the states that are on the lunatic fringe.
The continuing undermining of Israel's status in international public opinion is also nourished by the fact that we are rapidly losing our aura of being an open democracy. Everyone sees the rising power of the ultra-Orthodox, the dangerous political weight that accrues to the army high command, the scorn for human rights, the extreme nationalist tone that prevails in the General Staff, the Knesset and the government.
The vast disparity between the might of the IDF and the weakness of the Palestinians renders the present conflict intolerable in the eyes of the great majority of world public opinion. The ongoing occupation, the realization that Israel under Sharon has no intention of bringing the conflict to an end unless and until the Palestinians declare their total surrender, the awareness of the erosion of the humanist norms that until not so many years ago Israeli society took pride in, are contributing to the relentless erosion of the foundation of the moral legitimacy of the Jewish nation-state.
Only someone who understands nothing about what is going on in the international arena is capable of thinking that a new era began on September 11. Besides the fact that the Bush administration is not eternal, that administration will not hesitate for a moment, if it is consistent with American interests, to strong-arm Israel.
A politician with foresight would take advantage of the present circumstances to advance the long-term Israeli interest. That interest has not changed: to achieve what is possible and, instead of trying to vanquish the Arabs, to arrive at a fair compromise with them.
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