An Israeli's Shift From Peace Activist To War Backer
By Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Sunday, March 31, 2002; Page B01
HAIFA, Israel-I have a lot of critical things to say about Ariel Sharon, but not today. Today, after Sharon declared Yasser Arafat "the enemy" and sent troops to occupy Arafat's compound on the West Bank, we Israelis must be unified. We are fed up. Enough is enough.
The suicide bombing that killed at least 22 civilians and injured scores of others who had gathered at a hotel for Passover, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar, broke every code of decency and humanity. Now it's war, a limited war, but war. We have a right to self-protection. We can't be sitting ducks. It's time to go deeper into the territories, to do radical surgery, not just a cosmetic facelift.
I say this without reservation, albeit with some regret. I have been active on the peace camp for many years. I supported talks with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) during the 1980s, when Israeli law specifically banned such talks. Since the 1980s, I have supported the splitting of Jerusalem, suggesting that one part would remain in our hands, the other would become Palestinian. Back then, that was just short of heresy here in Israel. I still support a two-state solution and believe in the Palestinian right to independence and self-determination. I did not support Sharon, architect of the war in Lebanon, when he ran for prime minister and his election was a source of anxiety for me. Recently, even as the violence was escalating, I signed a petition calling upon the Israeli government to withdraw to the 1967 borders.
Now Arafat, our former negotiating partner, is penned in his darkened office, where he appealed for help yesterday in a television interview illuminated by flashlight. History has its strange ways but I am still hoping that after some twists and turns, a just solution for both Israel and Palestine can be found. I hope within a certain time that we'll be able to negotiate again.
But not now. Now is the time for force. Unfortunately. Maybe if Sharon, our prime minister, had taken other measures, the situation might not have escalated to the point that it did. Now, however, the pressing question is how much blood both nations, Israeli and Palestinian, will have to shed before reaching such a solution. And the answer, I fear, is: more.
There is no good time for such events, but symbolically, Passover is a particularly sensitive one for us. The holiday resembles Thanksgiving in that it is a family celebration. The holiday dinner -- a combination of prayer, story telling, and song -- is called the seder, which means order.
This year, however, the holiday here in Israel has been marked by chaos, not order. And the Passover story of the liberation of our forefathers and foremothers from slavery in Egypt has been overshadowed by the overwhelming sense that we are captives of events that are not in our control and in a cycle of violence that knows no bounds and no end.
On Wednesday, the first night of Passover, 15 members of our family gathered, sang the holiday songs, ate the food symbolic of ancient slavery, read the Passover prayer book, the Haggadah, then turned on the TV to watch a family video. But as we inserted the cassette, the images of the latest and deadliest suicide bombing erupted on the screen. After 10 or 15 minutes, we turned it off because of the children, two of whom are old enough to understand some of what was going on. Who could be old enough to understand it all? Friday, we canceled our plans to go to a science fair at the Weizman Institute in Rehovoth. We did not feel like going there to have fun on such a day.
Friends and colleagues from different parts of the world, who participate in an electronic political forum that I run on the Internet, have been e-mailing me, asking questions: How do I feel regarding current events? How do I cope with the situation?
Well, I feel terrible. It is most distressing and frightening. We are trying to keep our heads above the stormy waters. People are in constant fear.
I cope by working long hours on my research in the fields of political theory and ethics. My research is my refuge away from the distressing reality. Unlike many of my compatriots who listen to the news every hour, I simply don't have the time to listen to the radio, and I watch TV news once a week. I would not be able to cope with the ghastly scenes shown daily.
I also limit my movements around the country to the minimum. I decline invitations to what I consider to be unsafe places. My friends and family do not go out as we used to. When we do go to restaurants and coffee shops we do this only after making sure there is a guard outside. We try to avoid the large shopping malls. Meetings in Jerusalem have been moved to the seemingly safer confines of Tel Aviv. Now, after the Passover bombing at the hotel in the coastal resort of Netanya and yesterday's suicide attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant, I wonder if anywhere is safe.
Some things are beyond our control. I was in Kfar Saba on March 15, just two days before a 17-year-old high school girl was killed at the same location, at the same time of day. I do not drive, so I rely on public transportation. This adds another element of risk. During the horrific bus bombings of 1993 to 1996, a period of relative peace with Palestinians, the attacks missed me several times. Four of the explosions took place on buses and in bus stations I use on a regular basis.
Since the signing of the Oslo accords in September 1993, terror has become part of our lives. And its level and intensity increases all the time. The constant Palestinian hostilities have made even the most dovish people in Israel believe that we should try a more radical option. We can no longer bear this horrible situation, the loss of lives, the fears and anxieties. The Palestinians are serious in their determination to win independence. It is time to show that we are also serious about our will to live safely.
People ask me what I think about the Saudi initiative, the offer of "normal relations" in return for Israel's withdrawal to pre-1967 borders and "fair" settlement for Palestinian refugees. Frankly, not much. I think the offer -- first mentioned last month and then presented publicly last week by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah himself at the Arab League meeting in Beirut -- is mostly a public relations effort in response to the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudis.
That's why I support my government's decision on Friday to open a new phase of operations on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A large-scale military operation is under way, aiming to destroy the terror network that is trying to eliminate the Jewish state. I hope that this operation will reap positive results. We live in an era of political violence and extremism, and we need to find answers to -- and overcome -- the radical forces that seem to go from strength to strength. We need to fight down all forms of terrorism, whether directed against Jews or against other people. Terrorism and democracy cannot live together. One must make way and advance at the expense of the other.
Only after the eradication of the web of terror will we be able to build bridges between the two nations, Israeli and Palestinian. Then we could take up various possibilities, such as the Gaza First plan, which I have long promoted as a way to immediately give Palestinians at least part of their state and real responsibility.
But not now.Raphael Cohen-Almagor is chairperson of information and library studies at the University of Haifa. He also teaches at the university's department of communication.
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