ISRAEL: Divisions grow over war

February 27, 2002
Issue 

BY ROHAN PEARCE

Israeli society is becoming increasingly polarised. On one side there are those who have lost, or are losing, faith in a military strategy to crush the current intifada, and who are beginning to understand that without justice for Palestinians there will be no peace. On the other, there are those, including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who advocate an escalation of the war against the Palestinian people.

This division was reflected in an opinion poll published mid-February, in the newspaper Ma'ariv, which showed that 49% of Israelis agreed that the "national leadership has lost control of the security situation", while 44% disagreed.

More than 270 soldiers and officers have signed the "Courage to Refuse" letter, refusing service in the occupied territories (see GLW #480). Ten thousand people rallied in support of the "refuseniks" on February 9, probably the highest attendance at an Israeli peace demonstration since the current intifada began in September 2000.

Despite this, the Israeli installment of George Bush's "war on terror", begun long before the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, is in full swing. On February 17 the Israeli government approved a justice ministry bill that criminalises "incitement".

Sharon told his cabinet that it was inconceivable that government MPs, some of whom opposed the bill in its previous incarnations on June 25 last year and again on July 11, would vote against it in the current "time of war".

The legislation is phrased very broadly. It makes a crime of any "call for perpetrating an act of violence or terrorism, or praise, sympathy, and encouragement for the act of violence or terror, or support for or identification with it".

Some members of the government objected to the original version because it didn't include the current provision that there needed to be "a reasonable possibility" that the call would "bring about the perpetration of the act of violence".

The government has come under further pressure after the Israeli Council for Peace and Security, composed of 1000 top-level reserve officers and officials from Shin Bet (Israel's counter-intelligence and internal security service) and Mossad (Israel's secret service).

On February 17, the council released the details of its campaign calling for withdrawal of the Israeli military from most of the occupied territories (West Bank and the Gaza Strip), the dismantling of 50 Zionist settlements within the territories, the establishment of a Palestinian state and immediate peace talks — whether or not Palestinians agree to a cease fire.

The council placed an advertisement in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, announcing plans for meetings, bumper stickers and the release of a pamphlet, Saying shalom to the Palestinians ("shalom" can mean both peace and goodbye), to promote their cause.

The council's list of demands were reached after four months of discussion within the organisation, and is alleged to have the support of around 80% of its members.

There are no doubt varied motives for council members supporting the peace plan. Not only is the violence against Palestinians, and the recent string of deaths among Israeli soldiers and civilians, a cause for their opposition to a continued military "solution" to the intifada, but also a loss of faith that Sharon's approach will deliver anything approaching stability, or security, for the Zionist state.

The far right within the government has also been making noises about a "final solution" to the intifada of a very different kind. In the first week of February, tourism minister Benny Elon, who is also a member of the extreme-right Moledet party, began a campaign to promote "transfer" as a solution. "Transfer" is the Zionist right's euphemism for driving all of the Palestinians out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

While Sharon has not repudiated Elon's call for another round of Zionist ethic cleansing of Palestine (a government spokesperson said that "There is a difference between wishful thinking and realpolitik... What Elon is saying is not something that today seems possible."), he has explicitly rejected the total destruction of the Palestinian Authority as an immediate goal, calling it "fool's advice" at a meeting in Jerusalem of members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The strengthening opposition to Sharon will continue to pose a problem for him, particularly in a context when, according to Israeli scholar Avishai Margalit, "I don't remember ever, including as a kid during the independence war during the worst days in Jerusalem, when ... people were as depressed and dejected as they are now".

Despite the dissent within its ranks and growing calls for peace, the Israeli military continues its war against the Palestinians.

On February 7, Israeli military officials announced that they plan to create an US$8 million mock Palestinian city to replace the current, smaller, mock Palestinian village they use for training their soldiers. The "city" would allow simulations of the variety of operations the military carries out in urban areas controlled by Palestinians. It will include apartment blocks, houses, a market place and orchards.

From Green Left Weekly, February 27, 2002.
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