The Truth About Israel As Only Gideon Levy Can Tell It
There have been societies in the past in whose name frightful injustice has been committed, but at least within some of them, genuine, angry and determined left-wing protest took place – of the sort that requires personal risk and courage, and which is not limited to action within the cozy consensus. An occupying society whose town square has been empty for years, with the exception of hollow memorial rallies and poorly attended protests, cannot wash its hands of the situation. Neither democracy nor the peace camp can.
If people didn’t take to the streets in large numbers during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, then there isn’t a genuine peace camp. If people don’t flood the streets now – when dangers lie in wait and opportunity is wasted time after time, and democracy sustains blow after blow on a daily basis and there are no longer sufficient resources to properly defend it, and when the right wing controls the political map and settlers amass more and more power – then there is no genuine left wing.
There is nothing like the debate over the future of the Meretz party to demonstrate the sorry state of the left. This comes in the wake of the strange and ridiculous report last week about the party’s poor showing in the last election, and which gives every possible recommendation. Meretz disappeared because the party fell silent; you don’t need a commission to find that out. But even during its relatively better days, Meretz was not a real peace camp. When Meretz applauded Oslo, it deliberately ignored the fact that the champions of the “historic” peace accords never intended to evacuate even a single settlement over the course of the great “breakthrough” that earned its promoters Nobel peace, yes, peace prizes. This camp also overlooked Israel’s violations of the agreements, its illusions of peace.
Above all, however, the problem was rooted in the left’s impossible adherence to Zionism in its historical sense. In precisely the way there cannot be a democratic and Jewish state in one breath, one has to first define what comes before what – there cannot be a left wing committed to the old-fashioned Zionism that built the state but has run its course. This illusory left wing never managed to ultimately understand the Palestinian problem – which was created in 1948, not 1967 – never understanding that it can’t be solved while ignoring the injustice caused from the beginning. A left wing unwilling to dare to deal with 1948 is not a genuine left wing.
The illusory left never understood the most important point: For the Palestinians, consenting to the 1967 borders along with a solution to the refugee problem, including at least the return of a symbolic number of refugees themselves, are painful concessions. They also represent the only just compromise, without which peace will not be established; but there’s no sense in accusing the Palestinians of wasting an opportunity. Such a proposal, even including the “far-reaching” proposals of Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, has never been made to them.
Meretz will surely find some kind of organizational arrangement and will again get half a dozen members elected to the Knesset, on a good day maybe even a dozen. This doesn’t mean much, however. The other left-wing groups, both Jewish and Arab, remain excluded. No one has any use for them, no one thinks about including them, and they are too small to have any influence. So let’s call the child by its real name: The Israeli peace camp is still an unborn baby.
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Haaretz reader:
March 7th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Gideon Levy is taking a risk. I admire him and Amira Hass for their courage. Both of them work for Haaretz. Thank you Alan for giving him the credit.
Michael Santomauro:
March 8th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Desmond Tutu famously said conditions in Palestine are “far worse” than anything he witnessed in Apartheid South Africa.
Do you not believe him?
See LINK:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analogy#By_South_African_individuals_or_organizations
syed mehdi hasan ashraf:
March 8th, 2010 at 8:54 am
One can not expect to hear more factual commentary of the conflict than this,it has nothing but substance for every one to read & assessing their actions against the reality mentioned here.
Ronald Douglas Kennedy:
March 8th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Regarding using the word “Settlers”. Zionist Propaganda Big Lie.
The proper English word should be SQUATTERS not Settlers, Squatters are those who take my home, or put building on my property without my permission. Settlers are those who build on land not owned by others, or contested as stealing. I also suggest the word “squatville” to replace the word “settlement.”
As you know words paint pictures in the mind of the reader, and reinforce his past thinking or cause him to reevaluate what he had originally thought.
I believe every time the word Settlers is used regarding the taking of Palestine land you are falling in to the Israeli big lie. And if you tell the lie long enough and it is supported, used by others it’s believe by those who do not now the history or facts.
We have not forgotten when Elected Prime Minister Rabin and Elected President Arafat were working on the finalization of a willing and United Agreement of peace, Both were called Peace Makers. But after the Zionist Bullet of Hate was fired in to the Back of A Jew looking For Peace by a Zionist Jew looking for More Palestine Land. The blame has now been placed on President Arafat, by the US, “No Genuine Palestinian Partner for Peace”
“In memory of my Friend Alex Odeh 1944 to 1985″ Who believed in the Power of words. He was assassinated when a bomb ripped through his office Oct. 11, 1985 as he opened the office door (American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee), in Santa Ana California across the street from the Orange County Court house of Law.
kim:
March 9th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
The liberal Zionism of Gideon Levy is telling by his words: “For the Palestinians, consenting to the 1967 borders along with a solution to the refugee problem, including at least the return of a symbolic number of refugees themselves, are painful concessions. They also represent the only just compromise, without which peace will not be established.”
It is not a “compromise.” If someone took over your home and then agreed to let you live in the garage, would that be a “just compromise”?
Unless Levy calls for Jews to relinquish all land stolen from the Palestinians and paying reparations, then berating his fellow Jews for the methods they use to obtain and hold onto that land — i.e., “Israeli society’s ‘moral blindness’ — his position (hold onto their land but don’t hurt them) is assailable.
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