Ladies and gentleman, he did it again!
Back in 1996, Shimon Peres had a "safe" lead over his opponent, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the elections for Prime Minister. After the Rabin assassination, the up –coming elections seemed like a "done deal" and Peres was predicted as the next leader of the country. After the national trauma of Rabin's assassination and the previous Right wing campaign of intimidation in which Netanyahu was one of its leaders, it seemed that nothing could take Labor out of government. But then, two things happened.
First, Hamas, with the permission of Arafat, launched a series of suicide bombings that shook the Israeli public and pushed is towards the Right side of the political map. The second thing is considered, to this day, a brilliant campaign trick by Netanyahu and his campaign manager, Arthur Finkelstein. They thought of one simple sentence for the Israeli public: "Peres will divide Jerusalem."This brilliant sentence won the elections. Netanyahu shifted the whole focus to an issue that was a non – issue. Peres never discussed Jerusalem before, but suddenly he had to prove he will not do something he was never planning to do. Now he had to prove "he didn't have a sister." But Netanyahu said it over and over again, made it a central campaign plot and won the elections because of people fears.
Fifteen years later, he did it again. President Obama has decided to lay out his Middle East vision in his courageous speech, saying the same things the political center and moderate left in Israel have been saying for years, and yet the Israeli right was still caught by surprise. Netanyahu and his camp were suddenly desperate; they had to come up with something, anything, and fast. And there it was, right in front of them, another magical sentence. "The 67' borders aren't defendable;" so simple and easy, a beautiful hook – line and sinker job.
As we can see in Israel in the past few days, people are eating it up like free food. Netanyahu got the "line" he needed. Everyone is throwing it around like it is a scientific truth (or for the religious readers: the word of god). A right wing group on Facebook has gone so far to call going back to the 67' lines, 'suicide'.These groups have been busy posting on Facebook the same short video from YouTube, titled "Why Israel mustn't withdraw to its pre 67' border line". They are doing this even though it is full of subjective facts, unrelated opinions and also false predictions. The simple truth is that everyone is relating to this short video because it is turning to the lowest common denominator: people's fears. Five minutes of "IFs" and a lot of animated missiles flying around, not much more. Apparently this is enough to scare people into believing it.
No matter what has been said in front of Congress and AIPAC, the brilliant line his advisors came up with on the way to the US, on an airplane in the middle of night, is taking over Israel. Just like in 1996, so simple, so catchy, such a lie.Or is it? Maybe we should take a closer look at these 67' lines…
When taking a closer look, it seems that there may be some truth in the sentence that the 67' borders are actually not defendable. Until the 67 line does not become a real border, with arrangements which take into account the demographic changes, the line isn't actually defendable. While we maintain less than a half a million settlers and a huge army of occupation, the 67 borders are not defendable. While we continue to send thousands of young soldiers into an impossible situation, controlling a hostile civil population of three million, whose hostility will continue to grow, through checkpoints and other forms of coercion, the 67 borders are not defendable.
The only way to transform the 67 line into a defendable line is through a peace process and a peace arrangement. For this we will we have to overcome our fears, stop falling for intimidation tactics and wake up from the reigning apathy. Netanyahu had the chance, and we believe still has it, to push forward into this process. He was able to establish the necessary conditions for a peace with the Palestinians: a demilitarized Palestinian State, the recognition of Israel as the State of the Jewish nation (and not Jewish religion as the orthodox and others are pushing forward inside Israel), territorial exchange which will include the big settlements in exchange for other land, and international (specifically US) guarantees to Israel's security. However, for this you need courage, and as Ariel Sharon once said, it seems Netanyahu has none. A Prime Minister occupied with one mission: staying at office at all costs, even if this means to co-opt the extreme right and the religious party will never push forward a program which he supposedly endorses.
On the other hand, as usual, the Palestinians play into Netanyahu's hands. The approach between Fatah and Hamas and the possible agreement between them played into the hands of right and of Netanyahu in a way they did not even dreamt about it. The same courage expected from Israel's leaders is expected even more from the Palestinian leadership, but once again the opposite occurs. Once again the moderates choose to co-opt the fundamentalist reducing the already poor options for negotiation.There is a popular saying in Israel, "Arabs only understand force." It is our belief that in these hundred years of living together, both Arabs and Israelis understand only force. You can see it in the everyday life in Israel and it seems that only violence is able to mobilize this region. In a place like this, fear reigns, a fear which leads to chauvinism, extremism and worst of all it freezes everybody allowing to opportunist politicians to reign.
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