A Prospect of Peace

History is not to be judged by individual events, but by the sweep of long term prospects. For a brief time during the Rabin administration, the people of the Middle East could, for the first time, see a prospect of peace. Not everyone could see it. Sometimes one needed to climb to an especially high outpost, and often it was obscured by clouds of rhetoric and terrorism, but it was certainly there. This week again, after the dramatic announcement of the resumption of peace talks between Israel and Syria, we again have a prospect of peace.

If the negotiations go well Israel will soon need to make a critical decision regarding withdrawal from the Golan heights and dismantling of whole towns. Without examining whether this is a just or unjust demand of the Syrians, we only need to note that Israelis knew all along that this is the price of peace. It is a public decision that will be made democratically by plebiscite.

The pundits are now concerned with the details of the security arrangements, and whether or not the Syrian border will reach to Lake Galilee (Kinnereth). In the long run these details will make little difference. Skeptics will tell us that peace with Syria may not last, and they might be right. Nobody can provide a guarantee regarding history. However there certainly will be no peace without return of the Golan Heights to Syria. We must look at the prospect, at the big picture, rather than becoming obsessed by the details. Israelis shall soon be subject to a barrage of “Vote No” propaganda, showing little children playing in their beautiful gardens in Katzrin perhaps, and saying “This is our home.” Well, yes it is, and it is a bit sad. However we need to think of the good of those children, of all our children. We need to think of the possibilities of peace, of the chance to turn the Middle East from a perennial powder keg filled with refugees and terrorists and no-man’s lands into a good place to live for all of us.

On both sides, the same logic must drive the negotiations for peace with the Palestinians. The view of peace on both fronts is a heady prospect for the new millenium.

Ramadan Mubarak, Hannuka Sameah.

Color them Invisible

In contrast to our good news in the Middle East, Christmas and Ramadan seem to have skipped the forgotten land of Chechnya, In their war against “terrorism,” the Russian government has generated over 200,000 refugees. They have destroyed many towns, and they threatened to destroy Grozny, once a city of several hundred thousand (an ultimatum now postponed under U.S. pressure).

Chechnya may pose a  threat to legitimate Russian interests, but the way in which the Russians are dealing with that threat is certainly appalling. The U.S. issued some prefunctory warnings, and these were greeted by ominous nuclear saber-rattling by Mr. Yeltsin. The U.S. would not get involved with a nuclear power over a little thing like genocide after all, though it was perfectly willing to bomb Belgrade into oblivion for exactly the same reasons. The U.S. will issue warnings, and make sure that the genocide is “within reason” and in “good taste” perhaps. The U.N. does nothing at all. Likewise, the radicals of the world, those who were so concerned with the application of international law in Kosovo, behave as if Chechnya is not on the map at all. Perhaps it is not an oversight. Perhaps Russian bombs are so constructed that they can kill people without violating international law, and only ignoramuses like me don’t know this. Perhaps destruction of entire cities is not against international law. However, nobody seems to have commented one way or the other. The people of Chechnya seem to have acquired the same invisible color as the Jews of Eastern Europe had in the 1940s, or certain African countries have had in recent years. It seems the entire country has been colored invisible in the situation maps of most state departments.

Sadly, there is little that plain folks like you and I can do. We can remember the object lesson of Chechnya the next time some self-appointed guardian of truth, justice and international law issues a moralizing edict, and the next time a U.S. president uses suffering to justify massive intervention and violence as was done in the former Yugoslavia.

Ami Isseroff

Rehovot

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PEACE is a Mid - East Dialog Group commited to peace and neighborly relations.We have no official political opinions. PEACE was started by Ameen Hannoun, a Jordanian/Palestinian and Ami Isseroff, an Israeli. You are welcome to join, and to contribute ariticles and ideas for promoting peace and dialog.  More about PEACE.

An outsider looks at the Palestinian - Israeli Conflict - Anyone interested in creative solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict must read this essay by Matthew Hogan PEACEMAKING VIA NON-IDEOLOGY or CONFESSIONS OF A PRO-ISRAEL ANTI-ZIONIST.

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