The new government of Egypt has announced that its border with Gaza will be opened for trade -- import and export.
Plans are moving ahead for the UN General Assembly to admit a new Palestine, within approximately the 1967 Green Line boundaries, as a UN member.
All this could lead in the direction of a true peace settlement, supported by peace treaties between all Arab governments, the new state of Palestine, and the state of Israel -- as the Arab League has several times proposed during the last decade. (Till now, these proposals have been ignored by the government of Israel and the Hamas government of Gaza.)
Or the very possibility of a breakthrough for peace might drive hawks on either or both sides, in or out of their governments, to sabotage these openings. If that happens, there could be another wave of violence as both the Israeli government and some parts of the Palestinian leadership react with fear and rage to yet another collapse of hope for peace.
So far, the Netanyahu government and the Obama government have rejected the notion of a Palestinian government of national unity that includes Hamas; have rejected the notion of a UN role in establishing Palestinian independence; and have failed to end the blockade of civilian goods from entering or leaving Gaza, to end the demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, and to stop the settlement of Israelis in the West Bank. This triple rejection makes peace impossible.
A great deal depends on what American Jews, speaking both to their own government and to the government and people of Israel, say and do at this moment.
The ever-quivering Jewish nerve of fear, honed by many many generations of oppression, has been sharpened in our own day by moments of murderous attacks upon Israeli civilians. But as Prime Minister Rabin argued in every Israeli town and village before he was murdered, Jews are no longer victims but possess great power. Ignoring that truth, and strumming only on the nerve of fear, would bring again the screeching music of Forever War.
But if American as well as Israeli Jews could see how strong the worldwide Jewish people is today, no longer pariahs, no longer victims, possessed of powerful weapons and a strong economy, it might be possible for them to choose the risks of peace --- far less dangerous in the long run than choosing the short-run habit of Forever War.
On the Palestinian side, giving up the wistful hope that not only actual refugees of 1949 and 1967 might return to their old homes inside what is now Israel, but also their children and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren in millions --- would mean leaving behind a fantasy in favor of a liberated reality -- a state with its capital in East Jerusalem, ports and airports in Gaza, a thriving culture and economy and politics throughout.
There is no hope of peace without Hamas. There is no hope of peace without the Israeli center-right. Those who say they want peace but only without Hamas, do not in fact want peace. Those who say they want peace but only on condition that millions of Palestinian refugee families can return within the borders of the State of Israel do not in fact want peace.
Those who claim to be for peace but refuse to take the only risks that can make peace possible, should recognize the truth: In actual practice, in reality, in truth, they are unwilling to make peace.
Martin Buber once said, "The real barricades are not between nations; the real barriers are not between political parties; the real barricades are within each human being."
Within each of us -- each Israeli, each Palestinian, each Jew, each Arab, each Muslim, of whatever nation and whatever political party -- is the barricade between fear and rage on the one side, desire and hope and even love on the other. On which side of our internal barricade do we choose to live, to act?
In the four decades and more since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem began, there have been many moments when those who really did want peace have warned that a failure to move forward would bring not merely a longer uneasy stalemate, but war.
They (we) were right: the first Lebanon War, the Second Intifada, the Second Lebanon War, the Gaza War all poured new blood upon the sand. The blood of Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Egyptians, Europeans, Americans, has indeed been drawn inexorably into the bloody sandstorm of war after war, terror after terror, torture after torture, fear after fear, rage after rage, hatred after hatred.
Now we are again at such a moment.
Plans are moving ahead for the UN General Assembly to admit a new Palestine, within approximately the 1967 Green Line boundaries, as a UN member.
All this could lead in the direction of a true peace settlement, supported by peace treaties between all Arab governments, the new state of Palestine, and the state of Israel -- as the Arab League has several times proposed during the last decade. (Till now, these proposals have been ignored by the government of Israel and the Hamas government of Gaza.)
Or the very possibility of a breakthrough for peace might drive hawks on either or both sides, in or out of their governments, to sabotage these openings. If that happens, there could be another wave of violence as both the Israeli government and some parts of the Palestinian leadership react with fear and rage to yet another collapse of hope for peace.
A great deal depends on what American Jews, speaking both to their own government and to the government and people of Israel, say and do at this moment.
The ever-quivering Jewish nerve of fear, honed by many many generations of oppression, has been sharpened in our own day by moments of murderous attacks upon Israeli civilians. But as Prime Minister Rabin argued in every Israeli town and village before he was murdered, Jews are no longer victims but possess great power. Ignoring that truth, and strumming only on the nerve of fear, would bring again the screeching music of Forever War.
But if American as well as Israeli Jews could see how strong the worldwide Jewish people is today, no longer pariahs, no longer victims, possessed of powerful weapons and a strong economy, it might be possible for them to choose the risks of peace --- far less dangerous in the long run than choosing the short-run habit of Forever War.
On the Palestinian side, giving up the wistful hope that not only actual refugees of 1949 and 1967 might return to their old homes inside what is now Israel, but also their children and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren in millions --- would mean leaving behind a fantasy in favor of a liberated reality -- a state with its capital in East Jerusalem, ports and airports in Gaza, a thriving culture and economy and politics throughout.
There is no hope of peace without Hamas. There is no hope of peace without the Israeli center-right. Those who say they want peace but only without Hamas, do not in fact want peace. Those who say they want peace but only on condition that millions of Palestinian refugee families can return within the borders of the State of Israel do not in fact want peace.
Those who claim to be for peace but refuse to take the only risks that can make peace possible, should recognize the truth: In actual practice, in reality, in truth, they are unwilling to make peace.
Martin Buber once said, "The real barricades are not between nations; the real barriers are not between political parties; the real barricades are within each human being."
Within each of us -- each Israeli, each Palestinian, each Jew, each Arab, each Muslim, of whatever nation and whatever political party -- is the barricade between fear and rage on the one side, desire and hope and even love on the other. On which side of our internal barricade do we choose to live, to act?
In the four decades and more since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem began, there have been many moments when those who really did want peace have warned that a failure to move forward would bring not merely a longer uneasy stalemate, but war.
They (we) were right: the first Lebanon War, the Second Intifada, the Second Lebanon War, the Gaza War all poured new blood upon the sand. The blood of Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Egyptians, Europeans, Americans, has indeed been drawn inexorably into the bloody sandstorm of war after war, terror after terror, torture after torture, fear after fear, rage after rage, hatred after hatred.
Now we are again at such a moment.
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