Colette Avital is a former consul general of Israel in New York and a former member of Knesset for Labor. On Sunday in New York, she was asked by Bradley Burston at the Haaretz New Israel Fund conference what steps should be taken to move Israel away from its intransigence on the peace process. She said only international pressure would have that effect.
Let me start by saying something personal. For almost 40 years I was a member of the Israeli foreign service and not only my job but my passion was to build support for the state of Israel in every single shape or form, whether by convincing journalists, politicians… trying to influence people how to vote at the United Nations. That was what I did.
Today I am coming here to say that without foreign intervention, without pressure on Israel, nothing will move. It certainly is not easy for me to have made that change. And that change is necessary, it has been necessary to me. I love the country, I am Zionist, but I do not approve of the policies. So there is a difference between supporting Israel as a country and objecting to its policies. And it’s in the spirit that I would like to say what I think should be done.
And what I think should be done is to try to get through the bubble in which the Israelis live. It is not only Netanyahu or [Naftali] Bennett or [Uri] Ariel who are the drivers. For that you need the public. And I would say the public has swayed very much to the right. It is living in a kind of bubble where everything is possible. The prime minister is doing anything he can conceive or think because he thinks that this is being done with impunity. He has managed to convince the Israelis, not only that we do not have a partner but that the Arabs have always hated us, they always hate us… There’s no way in normal civility to ever have any kind of agreement with the Palestinians.
So what I think has to be done is a combination of things to reach the Israeli public. I do not think we can change the mind of Netanyahu. He is immune to criticism, he has brought relations with the United States to the point that we know, the lowest point. He objects from time to time to what the foreign minister of Sweden says, but he is really doing what he wishes because he thinks that nobody is going to punish him, because he thinks for instance that in America at the end of the day any politician will need the support of the Jewish community, so there is no real pressure of America on Israel.
I think that many things can be done on the political level, if for instance the United States and Europe got together, seriously, as they have done on the issue of Iran and tried to see how to move whatever what they want to call it– the peace process is a word we’re not using anymore– but to move to some kind of peace conference in the Middle East. I think we need to reach the public opinion. We need to try to get to the Israelis to understand that this occupation has a price.
Avital opposed labeling of settlement goods by European countries as insufficient to convey that understanding. She also did not endorse Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, saying that Israeli academics oppose the settlements and don’t need to be pressured to do so. But she did call for European countries to demand that Israelis get a visa before visiting Europe. This would create an “outcry.” She emphasized that the pressure could not only be on the Israeli government:
I believe that without an international intervention, without putting some form of pressure, not only on the government, but on the people… that is a necessity.
Avital’s message about Netanyahu’s impunity is one that many critics of US foreign policy have tried to make, from Walt and Mearsheimer to MJ Rosenberg to Stephen Sniegoski, even Tom Friedman, when he said that the Congress is bought and paid for by the Israel lobby; and that analysis has been redlined. It has been called anti-Semitic. She is plainly talking about money, the Adelson primary that is taking place in the Republican theory and the Saban clinch that Hillary Clinton is performing. The Israel lobby is (sadly) a theory of Jewish influence. Netanyahu shares it.
‘Israeli academics oppose the settlements and don’t need to be pressured to do so’
Some of them are individually, but the institutions are involved in military and propaganda undertakings. And the academics aren’t boycotted as individuals, they’re boycotted when they represent those institutions.
while i appreciate her sentiment and that it was “certainly” not easy for her to make “this change” i think she is woefully lacking in courage. asking israelis to get a visa in response to a decades long occupation and land theft is not going to make any sort of significant difference. perhaps inconvenience and it might jog their mentality a little bit. but it doesn’t amount to pressure. pressure means sanctions.
yeah, i am really not getting the point of saying United States and Europe got together, seriously, as they have done on the issue of Iran and tried to see how to move
serious meant years of sanctions. you can’t just get together and chat. the reason iran was motivated at the P5+1 conferences was because they wanted the sanctions lifted. this is sort of a no brainer. and if she wanted to not endorse bds because of “academics oppose the settlements” she could go for a watered down bds w/the exception of the academic boycott.
but what’s the point of suggesting outside pressure without placing a mechanism with which to pressure on the table. because visas are the sort of thing that are not that much of a hinderance. too bad.
I’ve long said that the ultimate price to Israel will be cultural isolation. I’m skeptical if they can be defeated economically, and militarily they are very strong.
In the end, it’s the same thing that brought white-ruled SA down: the cutting of all ties. Israel may fare better, because while they see themselves as part of the West, there are still more differentiating factors than the case of the white Christians of SA, who were mirror-images of the general public in the West. It was literally like family turning on you, so Apartheid simply had to end.
Nevertheless, Israel has no other cultural sphere to turn to. What do the average Israeli share in common with the average Chinese or the average Indian other than empty bromides of “we value education”? Do they have significant overlap in their cultural history, their current references, their philosophy and language? No. Israel has no other place than the West to turn to for kinship.
And if they lose that, will they endure the isolation it entails? SA didn’t. But Israel just might. It’s hard to say, because they haven’t really paid any price. That’s why Avital is so scared of cultural BDS. It’s why she brings up the visa issue. It’s all touching this third rail.
I do wonder for how long would Israel maintain it’s military supremacy if they did not have access to american ammunition and american spare parts for it’s military hardware. I remember reading somewhere (DEBKA file?) that during operation Protective Edge Israel had to dip into American stocks of ammunition as it’s own stocks became depleted ( and we are talking of 5 weeks of “war” against infinitely less well equipped Hamas partisans. If they had to produce their own ammunition, they would have to import each and every one of raw materials from outside – and only by sea or air.
Obama replaced all the munitions and bombs Israel dropped on Gaza over summer of 2014.