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After all, I should have been very happy when Ehud Barak last week
proposed all this and more.
I should have been jumping for joy!
So why am I not jumping? Why do I
feel bad?
Well, first of all, there is the
question of timing. It's not good that such important matters, concerning
the very essence of the State of Israel, become mere gimmicks in a
repulsive political game. It is quite clear that one of Barak's propaganda
technicians (now called "spin doctors") pulled them out of a drawer, blew
away the dust and pronto - presented them as the Secular Revolution.
But that is not the most important
thing. More important is the fact that this "revolution" is offered as a
substitute for peace. That is its declared objective. "If peace cannot be
achieved," say the Sources in the Prime Minister's office, "we shall
instead pass the Citizen's Revolution. For making peace we needed the
Orthodox. For the Citizen's Revolution we need a government with the
Likud."
Meaning, either-or:
Either peace or the secular revolution.
Either peace with the Palestinians
or the enactment of a constitution.
One can go further:
Either peace with the Syrians or civil marriage.
Either peace with Iraq
or the dismantling of the Ministry of Religions.
Either peace with Iran
or the separation of state and religion.
Ridiculous? Indeed.
The last 33 years have proved that
we were right when, immediately after the Six-Day-War (The Seventh Day of
the War, as I called it then) we said that an occupation-state cannot be
democratic. A state that dominates another people cannot be liberal. Every
occupation is brutal by nature, and the brutality of the occupation is
bound to percolate from the occupied territories into society back home,
perverting all its parts.
A democratic constitution
promulgated while the occupation is still running wild in the Palestinian
territories will turn into an act of prostitution. (Both words, by the
way, stem from the same Latin verb: statuere, to set up.)
A secular democracy proclaimed
while messiah-crazed fanatics run amok in the streets of Hebron and in the
heart of Nablus under the auspices of the Israeli army and while
Palestinian prisoners languish in Israeli prisons without trial will be a
farce.
In South Africa, there was an
attempt to have democracy for the whites and an apartheid regime for the
blacks. We know how that ended.
Great Britain maintained a
democracy at home and a colonial regime overseas. But there is no ocean
between Kfar Saba and Kalkilia.
Without peace, there will be war.
The war will be cruel on both sides. Not a second Intifafa, as many
imagine, but an armed conflict between a whole people fighting for its
existence and a colonial army, spearheaded by the settler militias. Many
Israeli citizens will object to this war, many soldiers will refuse to
serve in it, there will be a struggle inside Israel and extreme things
will be said and done. Anyone who believes that a model democratic society
can flourish in such an atmosphere needs to consult a good psychiatrist.
The advocates of the Secular
Revolution do not bother to conceal their hope that a war will indeed
break out. Only thus can Barak's government be saved. The Sources say: "If
a confrontation with the Palestinians starts, it will be easier to
convince the Likud to join a Government of National Unity." They mean: it
will make it easier for Ariel Sharon to justify his joining the
government, in order to prevent the comeback of Netanyahu to the Likud
leadership.
So, it has come into the open.
Ariel Sharon, the bloody hero of the Kibia, Sabra and Shatila massacres,
will become the motor in Barak's limousine. The setting up of new
settlements, the confiscation of land, the building of new bypass roads
and all the other acts of war, which are now in full swing under Barak,
will be multiplied. Many more billions will be poured into this effort and
nobody will even think of the poor Israeli townships, like Ofakim and
Sderot.
This is not the liberal state we
have hoped for. This is not the secular revolution we have been striving
for.
The separation between state and
religion is essential for our future. But the separation between state and
occupation comes first.
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