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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2008, page 67 Waging Peace With the Israeli Public, “It doesn’t Hurt,” Explains Ori Nur
ORI NUR, FORMER U.S. correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz and a Washington representative for Americans for Peace Now, spoke at the Peace Café at Busboys and Poets restaurant in Washington, DC on Jan. 27. Peace Café organizers, mainly Jewish Americans, had asked that a representative of the Israel Embassy address the group concerning Israel’s position on the current state of the peace process with the Palestinians. The official declined, and asked Nur to come in his place. “My guess is he didn’t feel very comfortable doing it,” Nur observed, “and felt having a lefty come here would be a better fit.” Nur said he had recently been in Israel sitting Shiva for one of his family members. He conversed with hundreds of people paying their respects, he said, and only once did someone mention the Israeli conflict with the Palestinians. To Nur, this lack of discussion by Israelis is an expression of how resigned they are to the status quo. Nur cited several reasons for this malaise on the part of the the Israeli public. For one, he said, the corruption found in Israeli politics has created a general feeling that the whole political system no longer functions. Secondly, Israelis also view the peace process as not delivering. Most Israelis believe that Palestinians are programmed to be violent, Nur said, and no matter what they’re offered they will respond with violence. Nur made it clear he does not share many of his countrymen’s viewpoints. The third factor he cited is that the horrors of the occupation have no effect on the general Israeli population. “It doesn’t hurt,” he said. He noted that Palestinian violence against Israel was very low in 2007—only one suicide bombing during the whole year. In the past, cross border attacks haunted the Israeli public. “When it doesn’t hurt there is very little incentive to change the situation,” he explained. In Nur’s opinion, last year’s Annapolis summit suggested a somewhat new approach to moving forward with the peace process. The Israeli government is attempting to impose a flexible deadline for the talks, he said, and at the same time attempting to address the problems on the ground, the so-called road map issues. “To remove illegal outposts, freeze settlement activity, take down roadblocks, there needs to be a serious bulwark of central support from the general public to fend off the inevitable push back from the Israeli Right,” he explained. Nur said he was encouraged by the fact that most Arab countries sent representatives to Annapolis and that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert both gave inspiring speeches. Olmert was the first Israeli prime minister in history, he pointed out, to touch on the injustices done to the Palestinian civilian population in 1948 by the Israeli armed forces. “The mere fact that an Israeli prime minister is willing to have flipped just a little bit what we call the 1948 file, which the Israelis have always maintained should be kept signed and sealed and never be touched, is quite exciting in terms of showing where this may go,” Nur said. Following the summit, Olmert was quoted as saying that if the two-state solution collapses and Israel faces a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights for Palestinians, then “the State of Israel is finished.” Nur called it monumental that Olmert would even broach the taboo subject of Israel’s situation in relationship to that of South Africa and apartheid. There most likely will not be full peace and reconciliation in the foreseeable future, Nur predicted. Instead he sees the possibility that an accord (or a stalement) will be reached which will stop the violence and a bring about a somewhat quieter relationship between Israelis and Palestinians. According to Nur, the state of Israel has a vested interest in ensuring that the West Bank and Gaza become a Palestinian state which will allow the Palestinians to fulfill their national aspirations. This would prevent the creation of a bi-national state, “which may occur without us being aware of it,” he said. “And then it’s irreversible.” In closing, Nur reminded his audience that, in the past, only a handful of Israelis advocated a two-state solution, but that now 70 percent of the Israeli public supports the notion. Today, the United States has not only made a two-state solution its policy, but has made it clear that a Palestinian state is in the interest of the region. “There are still people who are deeply committed to peace,” Nur concluded. “As long as that’s the case, there is still a lot of hope.” —Jamal Najjab |
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