[WCUSP] Ha'aretz: Israel does not want peace by Gideon Levy

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

w  w w . h a a r e t z . c o m   
_http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/846420.html_ 
(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/846420.html)    
Last  update - 10:31 08/04/2007 
Israel doesn't want  peace 
By _Gideon  Levy_ (mailto:levy at haaretz.co.il)  

The moment  of truth has arrived, and it has to be said: Israel  does not 
want peace. The arsenal of excuses has run out, and the chorus of  Israeli 
rejection already rings hollow. Until recently, it was still  possible to accept the 
Israeli refrain that "there is no partner" for  peace and that "the time 
isn't right" to deal with our enemies. Today, the  new reality before our eyes 
leaves no room for doubt and the tired refrain  that "Israel supports peace" has 
been  left shattered. 

It's hard to determine when the breaking point  occurred. Was it the absolute 
dismissal of the Saudi initiative? The refusal to acknowledge  the Syrian 
initiative? Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's annual Passover  interviews? The 
revulsion at the statements made by Nancy Pelosi, the  speaker of the U.S. House of 
Representatives, in Damascus, alleging that  Israel was ready to renew peace 
talks with Syria? 

Who would have  believed it? A high-ranking U.S. official says Israel  wants 
peace talks to resume and instantly her president "severely" denies  the 
veracity of her words. Is Israel even hearing these  voices? Are we digesting the 
significance of these voices for peace? Seven  million apathetic Israeli 
citizens prove that we are not. 

Entire  generations grew up here weaned on self-deception and doubt about the 
 likelihood of achieving peace with our neighbors. In our younger days,  
David Ben-Gurion told us that if he were only able to meet with Arab  leaders, he 
would have brought us peace in his time. Israel has  demanded direct 
negotiations as a matter of principle and Israelis have  derived great pride from the 
fact that their daily focus on "peace" has  concealed their state's lofty 
ambitions. We were told that there was no  partner for peace and that the ultimate 
ambition of the Arabs is to bring  about our destruction. We burned the 
portraits of "the Egyptian tyrant" at  our bonfires on Lag Ba'omer, and were 
convinced that all blame for the  lack of peace lied with our enemies. 

After that came the  occupation, followed by terror, Yassir Arafat, the 
failed second Camp  David Summit and the rise of Hamas to power, and we were sure, 
always  sure, that it was all their fault. In our wildest dreams, we wouldn't 
have  believed that the day would come when the entire Arab world would extend 
 its hand in peace and Israel would brush away the  gesture. It would have 
been even crazier to imagine that this Israeli  refusal would have been blamed 
on not wanting to enrage domestic public  opinion. 

The world has been turned upside down and it is  Israel that stands at the  
forefront of refusal. The policy of refusal of a select few, a vanguard of  the 
extreme, has now become the official policy of Jerusalem. In his  Passover 
interviews, Olmert will tell us that, "The Palestinians stand at  the crossroads 
of a historic decision," but people stopped taking him  seriously a long time 
ago. The historic decision is ours, and we are  fleeing from this crossroads 
and from these initiatives as if from death  itself. 

Terror, used as the ultimate excuse for Israeli refusal,  only helps Olmert 
keep reciting, ad nauseum, "If they [the Palestinians]  don't change, don't 
fight terror and don't adhere to any of their  obligations, then they will never 
extract themselves from their unending  chaos." As though the Palestinians 
haven't taken measures against  terrorism, as though Israel is the one to 
determine what their  obligations are, as though Israel isn't to blame for the  
unending chaos Palestinians suffer under the occupation.  

Israel makes a point of setting  prerequisites and believes it has an 
exclusive right to do so. But, time  and time again, Israel avoids the most basic  
prerequisite for any just peace - an end to the occupation. Of all the  
questions asked during his Passover interviews, no one bothered to ask  Olmert why he 
didn't react with excitement to the recent Arab initiatives,  without 
preconditions? The answer: real estate. The real estate of the  settlements. 

It's not only Olmert who is dragging his feet. A  leading figure in the Labor 
party said last week that "it will take five  to 10 years to recover from the 
trauma." Peace is now no more than a  threatening wound, with no one still 
talking about the massive social  benefits it would bring in development, 
security, freedom of movement in  the region and by establishing a more just 
society. 

Like a little  Switzerland, we are focusing  more these days on the dollar 
exchange rate and on the allegations of  embezzlement leveled against the 
Finance Ministry than on the fateful  opportunities fading away before our very 
eyes. 

Not every day and  not even in every generation do we encounter an 
opportunity like this.  Although it's not for sure if the initiatives are completely 
solid and  believable, or if they are based on trickery, no one has stepped up to 
 challenge or acknowledge them. When Olmert is an elderly grandfather, what  
will he tell his grandchildren? That he turned over every stone in the  name 
of peace? That there was no other choice? What will his grandchildren  say? 









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