There is one thing Netanyahu has failed to do
Photo: AFP
A. B. Yehoshua
Photo: Tzvika Tishler
Netanyahu must talk directly to the Palestinians
Op-ed: After all the condemnations and threats he has issued since the start of the 'knife intifada,' it's time for the prime minister to turn to young Palestinians in a human, direct manner in a bid to stop the violence and offer hope for a better future for them and for us.
Since the start of the "knife intifada,"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced the microphone many times: He has condemned, expressed anger, threatened to take retaliation steps and promised that Israel's security forces are capable of overcoming the attack.
In the history of Zionism, since its very beginning, the leaders of the Jewish Yishuv, and the leaders of the State of Israel later on, had the habit of turning to Arab states, and to the Palestinians beyond their leaders, in a constant call for peace and coexistence.
But there is one thing he has failed to do: He has failed to turn to the young Palestinians in a human, direct manner, offering them hope, in a bid to stop the acts of murder and outline a possibility for a better future for them and for us.
Building Trust
David Lehrer
Op-ed: Peace will ultimately be made by courageous visionary leaders, but until that happens, the role of peace-building NGOs is to restore trust between Israelis and Palestinians and build mutually beneficial and interdependent relationships.
Even in the darkest days, when the Arab states and Palestinians completely rejected our existence and waged an all-out war against us, Israel's leaders did not despair and appealed to our toughest and most radical enemies (like Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser), offering a dialogue, a compromise and clear words of peace which were not just lip service.
Together, Netanyahu and Abbas must try to outline a plan to stop the fatal desperation raging between the two people (Archive photo: Reuters)
Once the Zionist presence in the Land of Israel began, it was clear to the Jews that they would not be able to defeat their enemies or make them disappear, and that even the most serious blows they would deal them would only be temporary and partial, and that sooner or later they would have to make great efforts in order to allow the Arabs and the Palestinians to recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli existence, next to them and not instead of them.
And so, with great difficulties, they achieved a certain formal legitimacy from Egypt and Jordan after the peace treaties were signed, but the Palestinian issue remained the main obstacle.
I don’t want to repeat things that are already known, but there is no doubt that something new and serious has happened in the private and suicidal intifada of knives which is taking place right now.
There are two very dangerous new elements here: We are talking about a private and spontaneous resistance which does not require sophisticated means to carry out its evil scheme, it has a very wide range - from the Gush Etzion Junction to Ramat Gan or Herzliya - and it is unrelated to an organization which can be monitored and neutralized.
Its characteristics are horrible: A 16-year-old boy who sticks a knife in an 18-year-old soldier at a gas station and kills him before being shot and killed himself; or a 14-year-old girl who sticks scissors in a passerby and is then shot to death while lying on the pavement.
Desperation and indiscriminate killing and a quick, desperate retaliation without a trial are the most lethal combination possible between individuals from the two people, which should - according to one scenario - live in a joint bi-national state or - according to a second scenario - in two neighboring states with a long, shared border.
A leader which does not only have a short-term vision, but also thinks about the future, should realize that his words count. Beyond the battalions - and in the future perhaps the brigades too - which he sends and will send to every junction, beyond the demolition of houses, closures and additional roadblocks, he must also tell the young Palestinians that there is still hope for coexistence in peace and that they must therefore not lose it completely and only choose revenge and suicide.
The prime minister must also speak out against the raging racism and false visions of a transfer, which he will never be able to carry out as there is no country which will agree to take in the expelled.
A proper leader does not have to wait for the American secretary of state in order to provide a real ease of restrictions and an initiative for positive and necessary projects for the Palestinians, which will instill hope in them.
If Netanyahu announced to the cameras at the British prime minister's residence that he is willing to meet with the Palestinian Authority president in Ramallah without preconditions, he must repeat this statement every day in order to wake Mahmoud Abbas up from his drowsy and passive fatalism, so that both of them can try to outline together a significant joint plan in order to stop the fatal desperation raging between the two people.
The State of Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, understands that, and while he is officially in favor of a Greater Israel while Netanyahu is officially in favor of two states, he is being brutally attacked by extreme rightists simply because he talks about the hopes of peace, simply because he treats the Palestinians as eternal close neighbors.
Yes, the prime minister must learn from the president, his fellow party member, and go out of his way to try to moderate such a dangerous process, at the end of which we will have to watch out for the future.
