Death of a ‘process’
Leaders on both Israeli, Palestinian side appear to be satisfied with impasse
The Bibi- Barak duo traveled to America for a brief and solemn tour. Israel is “ready to make decisions,” said Ehud Barak to justify this needless trip. Bibi, as usual, remained silent. Barak’s assessment is wrong, of course. Israeli leaders are not ready to make diplomatic decisions, and the Palestinians are also not ready for such decisions. Neither are the Arabs or the Europeans.
Opinion
Moshe Dann
Moshe Dann analyzes current situation, reminds us that Israel is best under pressure
Such decisions would constitute an incredible mess, which all sides wish to avoid: A rift within Israel, a rift within Palestinian society, unrest in conservative Arab states, and demands for major financial aid from Europe and America (now, when Western governments are facing huge debts?)
Regional and global leaders are uninterested in peace and are not pursuing peace. They are chasing “peace kites” and are interested in the mirage of a “peace process”: An eipty process that is maintained through inertia, as Thomas freedman noted this week.
“The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play,” Friedman wrote in the New York Times. “It is obvious that all the parties are just acting out the same old scenes, with the same old tired clichés – and that no one believes any of it anymore.”
Friedman urged the current US Administration to walk out of the show, leaving the parties to the conflict on their own. In his view, the American demands for reviving the “process” merely serve to absolve Israelis and Palestinians of the need to make decisions. If they wish to maintain the status quo and remain inactive, and if it doesn’t bother them, it shouldn’t bother America. Or as I phrase it: You don’t want peace? No need for it then.
Flight to nowhere
There is indeed no point in holding negotiations for the sake of negotiations: It’s a flight to nowhere. The leaders are scared to take the helm and the passengers have become used to living their lives at the terminal, waiting for a miracle, for pressure, for next year, for the next prime minister, for the next president, or for the next elections. The “process,” which marked 16 years of existence in September, was created to that end.
Let’s take our time, say foot-dragging fans on both sides. We shouldn’t rush, they explain earnestly; we must not force an end to this. There’s a time and a place for everything. We can’t finish off the conflict in a hurry (that is, within 16 years.)
The Israelis are hoping that with the passage of time, the force of habit would win out. The Palestinians are hoping that with the passage of time, the force of demography would win out. And this requires time. More time. And more time. Until the solution appears on its own.
In the absence of American pressure for renewal of the talks, one of the two following options will materialize: Either a new Intifada will break out (the likelihood is 51%) or alternately, both sides will start seeking and creating new solutions (the likelihood of this is 49%)
Former Army Chief Shaul Mofaz already started the trend by presenting this week a revolutionary diplomatic plan (that is, revolutionary in respect to the common Israeli and Palestinian perceptions.) The conservatives both here and there rushed to dismiss it because it rejects the essence – that is, the Mofaz plan requires them to move, act, agree, and implement. Move? Act? Change? Who, we?
Jewish-Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem once described in a story two astronauts who land on a frozen planet. They hold their breath: The slightest movement may melt the frozen substance. Nonetheless, one of them notices melting signs around them. What are you doing? He asks his colleague. I told you not to move. I’m not moving, says the colleague. I’m lying in place quietly and thinking. So don’t think, responds the first astronaut angrily. Your thinking produces heat, and the heat leads to melting! We may end up dying here because of your thoughts! The most important thing, my friend, is not to think!
Indeed, the most important thing is not to think, because thinking makes the impasse melt. Lem’s story managed to get through the communist censors. They didn’t understand it was referring to them. We too are failing to understand it.
