This means that Israel, surrounded by
gangs, should behave like a gang. But the Supreme Court has decided that
Israel must behave like a civilized state, according to the norms of the
Western democracies.
However, the reaction has a deeper
significance. It concerns the basic attitude towards the Arab world. The
spokesmen see it as a wild area, devoid of culture and law. As Ehud Barak,
the chief spokesman, has said several times: "Israel is a villa in the
middle of a jungle." Meaning: We are civilized, all our neighbors are
savages.
Many Israelis will be surprised to hear
that out of all persons, the most unpopular Israeli in the Arab world today
is Shimon Peres, he of the "New Middle East". Throughout the region, writers
mention again and again a statement made by Peres at an international
conference on ecology: that Israel is an island of cleanliness in a polluted
region. (The very term "Middle East" is, of course, of British-colonial
coinage. East from where? East for whom? Some 54 years ago I proposed to
adopt the term "Semitic Region".)
Once I asked a well-known cartoonist to
draw a map with a long arm coming out of Greece and extracting Palestine
from its location, so as to place it in Europe. That seems to reflect the
hidden desire of many Israelis.
Lest we conclude that this attitude is
the result of a hundred years of war, let us remember that before it all
started, the founder of modern Zionism, Theodore Herzl, wrote in his booklet
"Der Judenstaat" (1896): "For Europe we would be (in Palestine) a part of
the protective wall against Asia, we would serve as the vanguard of culture
against barbarism." ("Barbarism" presumably includes Eastern Jewry too.)
Israelis wonder why nearly all the Arab
intelligentsia, from Iraq to Morocco, furiously refuses to have anything to
do with Israel. After peace agreements have already been signed and contacts
established with several Arab countries, this attitude of Arab
intellectuals, writers, journalists and scientists becomes more and more
extreme.
There may be a number of reasons for
this, such as the widening gulf between the Arab regimes and the
intelligentsia, guilt feelings about the betrayal of the Palestinians, a
sense of failure because of the inability of the Arab world to cope with the
modern economy. But above everything else, it is a reaction to the
insufferable arrogance of Israel, this Western-colonial villa in the middle
of the jungle.
Many in the Arab world are keenly
conscious of the many conspicuous faults in some parts of Islamic-Arabic
society, such as public executions, the amputation of limbs, the terrorism
of fanatic groups. They find solace in the torture, hostage taking,
occupation and expulsion taking place in the Israeli villa. And among Arabs,
as among Israeli, the struggle for human rights in growing.
With the ascent of Ehud Barak, it seems
that Israeli arrogance has reached a climax. When he came to power, he
resolutely put forward plans for peace with Syria and the Palestinians,
fixing in advance terms and time-tables. Arab attitudes did not interest him
a bit. He believed that everything will be settled between him, Assad and
Arafat. He did not understand that Arab leaders, too, must take into account
public opinion in their countries. Because of this, his plans collapsed.
For example: Barak did not understand
the deep spiritual significance of the Jerusalem question, and even less the
profound feelings evoked by the refugee problem. He was convinced that
Arafat would give all of this up for a few percent of West Bank territory.
As most of Barak's advisors understand even less than him (and, anyhow, he
takes advice from no one), it was not difficult for him to convince himself.
Now he faces complete failure.
In order to save what can be saved, I
would advise him to get rid of the whole bunch of overbearing counselors
surrounding him and to turn peace-making over to people who do not believe
that Arabs are jungle-dwellers. It would be worthwhile for him to read some
good books about his interlocutors. He could do worse than start with Fuad
Ajami's book, "The Dream Palace of the Arabs". (Even more so as the author
is a Shi'ite born in the present "security zone".)
An old joke has it that Moses was not
only "hard of tongue", as the Bible tells us, but also hard of hearing. When
God told him "Take my people to Canada," he understood "Take my people to
Canaan." And so, instead of being a Western people in the land of snow, we
live in the land of Hamseen. On the eve of Passover, let's reconcile
ourselves to this fact. We cannot live inside the region and pretend to be
outside. We cannot voice on every occasion an utter contempt for the peoples
of this region and make peace with them - not if we mean real peace and not
just a temporary cease-fire.
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