December 18, 2003

Today's Contents:

Sowing Conflict and Division (Ha'aretz) Reacting to Netanyahu's racist Speech

Sharon Warns He Will 'Sever' Israelis From Palestinians  (The Independent, London) Sharon's own speech about his next moves vis a vis the Palestinians

[In this editorial from today’s Ha’aretz we find some reaction to the outrageous speech given at a conference in Herzliya by former Prime Minister and current Finance Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bibi, as he is colloquially called, chose to speak about Israel’s “demographic problem”. This usually refers to the concern among Israelis that Palestinians will, within some 10-15 years, have a large majority in Israel/Palestine. This raises fears that Jews will become a minority in the Jewish State, and is often cited as a reason for creating a Palestinian state. But Netanyahu turned the phrase around, and designated Israel’s Arab citizens as the “demographic problem”. The racism in this statement is as blatant as any that one can imagine, and speaks for itself.

But Bibi did not make this statement without reason. Ariel Sharon’s popularity continues to wane, as the mainstream Israelis who voted for him are increasingly critical of his inability to provide any security or hope for the future. But now, Sharon has also alienated the hard right in Israel, with his suggestions about a “unilateral separation” which would include the removal of some settlements. Netanyahu is stepping in to gather those disillusioned rightists into his own camp, no doubt eyeing the next elections for Likud leadership and his hopes of regaining the Prime Minister’s office. In doing so, he fans the flames of hate in a way that would have made the late fanatical Rabbi Meir Kahane (founder of the now-outlawed Kach party which called for the expulsion of all Arabs from Israeli territory, which it defined as all of historic Palestine/Israel) quite proud.

The editorial soft-pedals certain points (it describes Israel’s Arab citizens as having “equal rights”, despite the fact that some of the discrimination the editorial itself details is embedded in Israeli law), and it stops short of labeling Netanyahu’s speech as the racist diatribe it was. It also says that Israel’s “...Jewish identity will not be consolidated in fear, but only in an atmosphere of peace and liberty, out of integration into the regional expanse and prosperity for all its residents - the Jews and the Arabs.” The Israeli government would do well to heed this idea, in its dealings with its Arab citizens and the Arabs under its occupation. Demographic majorities have not created a secure place for Israeli Jews. It is not in numbers that Jews will find their safety, but in co-existence with their neighbors, however the numbers play out.

The second article reports on Ariel Sharon’s peculiar manner of working toward setting up a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qureia. Despite some of the clearest objections we have heard to date from the United States (clear, though still without any real pressure on Israel) Sharon is threatening his unilateral withdrawal in six months if the Palestinian Authority does not prevent further attacks against Israelis. It is this withdrawal that has so antagonized the Israeli right, yet Sharon’s method here seems unlikely to bear fruit. Qureia, who has been working for a meeting with Sharon for some time, reacted bitterly to Sharon’s threats. Sharon is trying to maintain his hard-line image while still also trying to make some progress toward satisfying American demands that he move to implement the Road Map, which the United States is trying to revive lest more promising alternatives devised by others (such as the Geneva Initiative) gain momentum over Washington’s plan. By trying to play the middle, Sharon is only angering Israelis, Palestinians and Americans.  –MP]

Sowing conflict and division

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/373747.html

It is difficult to understand what led Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let loose on the Arab citizens of Israel. In his address Wednesday at the Herzliya Conference, Netanyahu said, "We have a demographic problem, but it lies not with the Palestinian Arabs, but with the Israeli Arabs." This is a baseless statement, but even more serious is his determination that "if Israel's Arabs become well integrated and reach 35-45 percent of the population, there will no longer be a Jewish state," and that even if they reach a lesser proportion, "this will also undermine the [state's] democratic fabric." Damage to the democratic fabric does not stem from any particular demographic proportion of an ethnic majority in a national state, but from incitement, the likes of which was expressed by Netanyahu. The Arab residents of Israel are citizens with equal rights, and not the enemies of the Jewish state. Viewing any population through the womb and its birthrate makes the population's legitimate aspiration to integrate fully into society and the state irrelevant, and presents it as a threat to the Jewish majority. Presenting the Arabs in Israel as a threat to democracy, as if democracy is an exclusively Jewish matter, is serious in itself. But Netanyahu errs and misleads by ignoring the reality in which the Arabs in Israel are living. Despite festive promises and detailed five-year plans put forward by every government, the Arab public is still suffering ongoing discrimination - inadequate physical infrastructure; building restrictions that create distress among young families; and, primarily, almost total barring from the various ranks in the administration that stops the young, talented and educated from becoming a part of the establishment and having an influence from within on the lives of Israeli citizens, and on the future of the Arab citizens in particular. The high birth rate that Netanyahu speaks of is primarily characteristic of the Bedouin population, most of which lives under severe distress and does not have access to an education that would allow it to better its standard of living. Experience teaches that parents who are better educated and professionally skilled place greater emphasis on the issue of family planning. The urban and educated Arab families are similar, in this regard, to Jewish families on the same level. Presenting the Arab population as a single entity is nothing more than demagoguery. Netanyahu's statements are discordant particularly on the backdrop of the figures that were released yesterday by the Shin Bet security service, at the request of Ha’aretz, and that show there has been a 45 percent drop in the number of Israeli Arabs involved in terror, and also on the backdrop of the hope-inspiring cooperation between the mayors of Nazareth and Upper Nazareth following a long period of alienation. The timing of Netanyahu's statements is also puzzling. Now, with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon speaking of essential concessions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he chooses to divert the subject of the discussion toward the Arabs in Israel, and to fan, as was his way during his term as prime minister, the flames of fear and hatred. The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, and the home of the its Arab citizens. Its Jewish identity will not be consolidated in fear, but only in an atmosphere of peace and liberty, out of integration into the regional expanse and prosperity for all its residents - the Jews and the Arabs.

Sharon warns he will 'sever' Israelis from Palestinians

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=474555

By Eric Silver in Jerusalem

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Jewish Peace News Editors: 
Ami Kronfeld
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Mitchell Plitnick
Lincoln Shlensky
Alistair Welchman

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