Miriam Tramer
Israel's deputy minister for foreign affairs, Dr Yossi Beilin, was in Australia recently and spoke to the National Press Club in Canberra in very optimistic terms of the prospects for peace in the Middle East.
He said, ”Provided negotiations are continuous and provided the Americans are a full partner in the negotiations, I believe Israel will be able to achieve permanent peace with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and an interim agreement with the Palestinians by the end of the year.
“We know we will have to pay a price for peace, as will the Arabs. We are ready to pay a territorial price.
“The Arabs, including the Palestinians, and we have competed with each other in missing opportunities. There won't be many more opportunities. Islamic extremism is the enemy of all who want peace in the Middle East ... It is important to make peace before the extremist opposition can be a realistic threat.”
Discussing the impact of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza on Israel, he said, “The territories became our biggest curse. We controlled another people who hated us. The Palestinians are not just refugees but a nation. We have paid a very high price, politically, morally, demographically and economically. We have directed resources away from health, education and welfare.”
These frank words are encouraging. But since they contradict the positions enunciated by Prime Minister Rabin, how much weight can be placed on them? They need to be set in context, both of the actions of the Labour government since coming to power and of Beilin's own words which ascribe a considerable innocence to Israel as a victim of circumstance.
He claimed, “Victory was imposed on us in 1967. We
were afraid Gamal Nasser would be, God forbid, conducive to another holocaust. We had to win this war -- no-one came to our aid. When we were left with the territories no one would take them off us.” A singularly gross distortion of history!
While doves like Beilin spread their words of peace and good will, the closures of the territories continue, with their denial of the right to earn a living. The killings of Palestinians continue, as do all the other human rights abuses. Most of the 400 Palestinian deportees still languish in southern Lebanon. The Palestinian delegation is forced to scale down its representation because Israel has not fulfilled the commitments it made to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
Is Beilin's message no more than a sophisticated propaganda exercise -- a soft cop/tough cop routine? It is more probable that Beilin does reflect a genuine conflict in the Labour cabinet, and as deputy to Peres, who is making similar pronouncements, his words may signal an imminent challenge to Rabin's leadership.
Rabin has already complained that the doves are undermining the peace talks. Even if the doves takes over, the substance of any peace they might conclude is singularly vague.
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