Roy Isacowitz is a journalist and writer living in Tel Aviv, according to the tag line under his op-ed published on the Haaretz website today. I don’t remember reading anything else from him before, but among the hundreds of columns about the current negotiations that I’ve read over the last few months, his is among the clearest and most forthright.
Granted, like almost everything in the Israeli press, even from progressive writers, his framework is Judeo-centric: by “we” he means Israeli Jews, and he makes only passing reference to what “this mess” means for Palestinians.
Still, compared to most of what you read about the negotiations, Isacowitz’s column is pretty bracing stuff. He begins:
I don’t believe that John Kerry’s mission will accomplish anything other than finally proving that the United States is unable to be an honest broker in the Israel-Palestine dispute and should drop the charade. Even if the secretary of state forces Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas into a framework agreement, it will be a sham, a short-lived sop to American power rather than a sign of true intent on the part of either leader.
Nevertheless, in compelling the Israeli government to confront issues that it would much rather avoid, Kerry’s persistence has done some good. As the mission comes down to the wire, Israel has been forced into ridiculous posturing and inane sloganeering that only highlight just how hidebound the country really is, how stuck we are in 100 years of lies, bombast and self-delusion without the slightest idea of how to move forward.
Netanyahu’s statement to the Likud Knesset faction on Sunday that he has “no solution” to the so-called Palestinian problem was an astounding admission. Almost 68 years after the founding of the state, 46 years after the occupation of the West Bank and 18 years after Netanyahu first became prime minister, Israel still has no clue about how to handle the Palestinian issue. Astounding, but not exactly surprising.
…Surely, given all that time, effort and money, intelligent people would have come up with something. A teeny-weeny plan even?
Isacowitz understands, though, that the problem isn’t really that Israel is “hidebound,” and he recognizes that Netanyahu’s “no solution” line is just another lie:
The reality, of course, is that Israel does have a solution. It’s just that it’s difficult to talk about it with a straight face. Israel’s solution, ever since the time of Yitzhak Shamir, if not long before, is to do nothing. That’s the solution: not-so-benign neglect. Or, to put a more positive spin on it, to play for time. To hope that, given enough time, something will happen that will get us out of this mess.
Perhaps the Palestinians will decide on their own volition to get up and leave. And, if they don’t decide that, perhaps hedging them in with settlements, stealing their land and making their lives miserable will persuade them to do so. Maybe the West will suffer mass amnesia and leave us alone, maybe a nifty little earthquake will demolish the mosques on the Temple Mount or some deadly bacterium will only target Palestinians. Anything can happen – and we intend to be in possession of the land when it does.
So why does Israel even bother with the “peace process”?
The government’s job therefore is to buy time, to appear sane, rational and accommodating, while never giving an inch. To negotiate as much as possible – negotiations waste a lot of time – without ever reaching a solution. In the meantime, the settlements, landgrabs and oppression continue. God can be relied on to do what’s necessary when he’s good and ready, but there’s no reason not to help him along a bit.
…. Now, playing for time means rolling out all the old canards and shibboleths, the naked clichés, that might have worked once but are simply embarrassing in this day and age. Things like “Israel needs the Jordan Valley for strategic depth,” or “we can’t negotiate while the other side incites,” or “Beit El and Hebron are important to the Jewish people.”
This is crude, emotional and untrue stuff that might have worked in the ‘70s but is really showing its age in 2014. The tragedy is that military strength and Holocaust guilt were such effective palliatives, we never bothered to look for any other solution. It just never seemed necessary. And of course, there was always time – lots of time.
It’s like the joke about teaching the horse to talk. (You all know it, right?)
He tells the truth we’ve all known. The Israeli DUCK walks, talks, acts, etc., etc., like the Israeli DUCK he describes and that it IS that Duck. Time Obama, Kerry, USA, UN, EU got aboard this very, very accurate description.
Why is the secretary of state wasting capitol and time with these charlatans? They are probably laughing at him after he leaves. George Mitchell was the last name scratched off in the toilet room wall, Kerry is next.
Similarly, all the Palestinians have to do is “nothing.” Stay put. Persevere. Sumud. Let the Apartheid-Hafrada similarities/connection become more readily identifiable and broadly recognized as such, and one state it is. Backed by an international popular and political consensus advocating for Palestinian civil rights (propelled by the recognition of the squandered time and opportunities mentioned in the op-ed).
You’re right, this Haretz op-ed is yet another liberal lament about the risks to the Jewishness of Israel by castigating “right-wing” inaction to preserve it. But how can you lament the passing of something that was doomed to failure in the first place. The fundamentals for success were never there in that time and place.
If WWII/The Holocaust had not happened, there would be no modern Israel in its current form and/or location. But because WWII/The Holocaust happened all the rules changed on colonialization and universal human rights. Zionism/Israel meteored right into the middle of that irreconcilable conflict of historical trends, carving out it’s place as a lush European dream/colony in a desert climate using force, ethnic cleansing, and other people’s resources.
It’s not so much right-wing inaction that should be at issue in Mr. Isacowitz’s lament, it’s that there is no apparent 21. C solution to his narrowly-defined problem (Jewish and democratic). He should start looking forward instead of backward. The “What Happens Next” series here would be a good place to start contemplating how to rethink the question.
Aside, I believe Jews need a Jewish state, if only as a source of pride and self-determination (in the spiritual sense, not the steamroller sense). The world could benefit from that as well. But without any humility or acceptance of modern Israel’s unique timing, founding cover-ups, and Palestinians, this attempt seems to be finite as a solely Jewish state.
Thanks for the article.
”Anything can happen – and we intend to be in possession of the land when it does.”>>>>>>>>>>>>
Is the Israeli plan.
Just stall and continue to steal the land till something or ‘nothing’ happens.
The current Israel solution is to use up time while they do a slow attrition of Palestines by keeping their survival uncertain and making their living conditions bad enough to encourage many to leave.
Their preferred solution would be to use some event as an excuse to transfer all of them……they are testing the waters and world attitude on some kind of final solution to rid Palestine of Palestines with their latest scheme to transfer borders to put Palestine Israelis in Palestine.