[GushShalom] Gush ad // Avnery's on bi-national state // reminder+update

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

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[] 'Our generation has seen many wars' - Gush ad
[] The Wolf Shall Dwell With The Lamb - Avnery on bi-national state
[] At the court: reminder re Barghouti trial, update about internationals

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[] 'Our generation has seen many wars' - Gush ad

òáøéú áàúø 
www.gush-shalom.org

Our generation has seen many wars. 
All of us have blood on our hands.
Only peace will end the bloodshed.
The first step towards peace: release of the prisoners.

Gush Shalom ad in Ha'aretz, July 11, 2003


[] The Wolf Shall Dwell With The Lamb - Avnery on bi-national state

Uri Avnery:
12.7.03

òáøéú áàúø 
http://www.avnery-news.co.il/hebrew/index.html


(This is an updated version of an article I wrote two years ago that was 
published in the respected Journal of Palestine Studies, which is 
published in the United States under the auspices UC Berkeley)

               The Bi-national State: 

The Wolf Shall Dwell With The Lamb 

     "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb" prophesied Isaiah (11:6). This is 
possible in our times, too - provided you bring a new lamb every day.
     I am reminded of this cruel joke every time the idea of a bi-national 
state comes up.

     In desperate times, messianic ideas flourish. They permit an 
escape from the dark present to a better, brighter world; from a feeling 
of helplessness to a sense of creation.
     No wonder that in these dark times, the bi-national idea is raising 
its head again in some Israeli left-wing circles. It's a beautiful and noble 
idea, imbued with faith in humanity. But, like Isaiah's prophecy, it is an 
idea for the days of the messiah. If it has any realistic chance at all, 
this may come in another two or three generations. In the meantime, it 
is indeed an escape from reality. A dangerous escape, as we shall 
see. 
     According to the bi-national idea, the territory between the 
Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River - Palestine / Eretz Israel - will  
again constitute one state, as in the days of the British Mandate before 
1948. Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, will live there together 
as equal citizens. The exact form of the regime - bi-national or non-
national  - is secondary.
     All citizens will vote for the same parliament and the same 
government, serving in the same army and police force, paying the 
same taxes, sending their children to the same schools, using the 
same textbooks. An attractive idea, indeed.     
    It may seem strange that this idealistic vision is reappearing just 
now, after it has failed the world over. The multi-national Soviet Union 
has disappeared, and now even the multi-national Russian federation is 
in danger of falling apart (see Chechnya). Not only Yugoslavia has 
disintegrated, but so have its fragments. Bosnia, too, has fallen apart 
and been glued together artificially, with foreign soldiers trying to keep 
the peace somehow. Serbia has been compelled to give up Kosovo in 
all but name, and the integrity of Macedonia is in doubt.  For a long 
time now, the unity of Canada has been threatened by movements 
within the French-speaking population. United Cyprus, with its model bi-
national constitution, is barely a memory. And the list is long: 
Indonesia, the Philippines and many other countries, not to mention 
our neighbor, Lebanon.
     But there is no need to look far away. Our own reality is enough. 
The immediate roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are more than a 
hundred years. A fifth generation has been born into it and its whole 
mental world has been shaped by it. Basically it is a clash between 
the Zionist movement and the Arab-Palestinian national movement. 
After a hundred years, the force of Zionism is far from exhausted. Its 
main thrust  - expansion, occupation and settlement - is in full, 
offensive swing. On the Palestinian side, nationalism (including the 
Islamic version) is deepening and growing from martyr to martyr. It 
takes real faith to believe that these two nationalistic peoples will give 
up the essence of their hopes and turn from total enmity to total peace, 
giving up their national narratives and being ready to live together as 
supra-national citizens.
     The 20th century has seen several "utopias" that have caused 
terrible disasters. The communist vision, for example, was based on 
the assumption that there is a perfect human being or that human 
beings can be perfected. It clashed with a reality of imperfect human 
beings. As the German post-communist leader, Gregor Gysi, once told 
me: "We tried to impose the perfect system on imperfect human 
beings. So we tried to impose it by force." Thus a system of terror 
came into being and millions were slaughtered, from the Ukraine to 
Cambodia.  
    
     One must pose three essential questions:

1. Will both sides accept this solution?
2.  Can a bi-national state function?
3.  Will it put an end to the conflict?

      My answer to all three questions is an unqualified 'no'.

     There is no chance at all that the present, post-holocaust, Israeli 
generation, or its successor, will accept this solution, which conflicts 
absolutely with the myth and the ethos of Israel. The aim of the 
founders of the State of Israel was that the Jews - or a part of them - 
could at last take their destiny into their own hands. A bi-national state 
means the abandonment of this aim, and, in practice, the dismantling 
of Israel itself. The Jews would return to the traumatic experience of a 
people without a state throughout the world, with all that that implies. 
And not as a result of a crushing military defeat, but as a free choice. 
Not very likely.
     And what about the Palestinian side? Some Palestinians do indeed 
talk longingly of a bi-national state, but I believe that for some of them, 
at least, this is just a code word for the elimination of the State of 
Israel, and for some others an escape from bitter reality to the dream of 
returning to their homes and villages of the past . But the great majority 
of the Palestinian people want to live, at last, in a national state of their 
own, a state that expresses their national identity, under their flag and 
their government, like other peoples.
     The chance that the two nations will accept the bi-national idea in 
the foreseeable future is remote indeed.

     Would such a state - if it came into being - be able to function?
     There is hardly any multi-national state in the world that really 
functions properly. (Have I mentioned Switzerland?) Because in order 
to function properly, one of two conditions must be fulfilled: either all 
sides cede their national identity or they must have equal economic 
and political power.
     The very opposite is true in this country. There is a gaping 
inequality between Israelis and Palestinians in almost every respect. 
The disparity is immense. In a joint state, if it were to be set up, the 
Jews would dominate the economy and most other aspects of the 
state, and try very hard to preserve that situation. At this point in time, 
a bi-national state would be an occupation regime in a new form that 
would thinly disguise a reality of exploitation and economic, cultural 
and probably political repression. The situation of the Arab citizens in 
Israel, after 55 years, is not very encouraging.  
     Therefore, I do not believe that such a solution, if it were possible at 
all, would put an end to the conflict. It would only set it on a different 
track, perhaps more severe and more violent. 

     All this is known, of course, to the adherents of the bi-national idea. 
In order to escape the contradiction between their vision and reality, 
they have developed a theory that goes like this:
       In the beginning, the joint state will indeed be some kind of an 
apartheid state. But the situation will change gradually. In time, the 
Arabs will become the majority in this state. Even now, some 5.4 
million Jews and 4.6 million Arab Palestinians live between the 
Mediterranean and the Jordan. The Arab birthrate will change the ratio 
soon. The Palestinian majority will fight for equality. The world will 
support it, as it supported the South-African struggle against apartheid. 
Thus we will achieve a real state of equality.
     This is a wishful dream. The white racists in South Africa were 
hated by the whole world. Unlike the Jewish Israelis, they had no 
powerful base of support. American Jewry has immense political, 
economic and media might, and they will not lose it for many years to 
come. Israel continues to rely on - and will do so for a long time - the 
guilt feelings of the Christian world inspired by the holocaust. At the 
same time, the Arabs are becoming more and more the bogyman of 
the Western world.  It will be far more difficult for international pressure 
to influence the Jewish community that will dominate the bi-national 
state. It will take generations, and in the meantime the expansion of 
the settlements will go on relentlessly. In a bi-national state every Jew 
can, of course, settle wherever he or she wants. The Palestinians will 
continually lose out economically, and the gap between the two 
peoples will grow.
      It can be assumed that the power struggle in the bi-national state 
will cause severe violence, as it did in South Africa.
     The conclusion is: two states are needed for two peoples. This will 
direct the national feelings of the two peoples into reasonable, 
constructive channels, that will make co-existence, cooperation and, 
finally, a genuine reconciliation possible.
     The independent political structure of the State of Palestine will put 
at its disposal international and national barriers against the danger 
that its far more powerful neighbor would exploit use its economic 
might to exploit the Palestinian people or even expel them. The 
Palestinian people will at long last feel that it has a solid base, as did 
the Jews after the establishment of the State of Israel.   
     The recent past has shown that even this is extremely difficult to 
achieve. We still have to overcome much mutual fear, hate, myths and 
prejudices to make it possible. But those who despair at these 
obstacles and so adopt the bi-national gospel resemble an athlete who 
can't manage a 100 yard sprint and therefore enrolls for the marathon.
     There is great danger even in propagating this idea. It is said that 
"the perfect is the enemy of the good." The very mention of the bi-
national vision will scare the great majority of Israelis, who are now 
slowly approaching acceptance of the two-state solution, will arouse 
their most deep-seated existential anxieties and push them into the 
arms of the extreme right-wing. It will give the Right a powerful  
weapon: "What did we tell you? The real aim of the adherents of the 
two-state solution is to abolish the State of Israel by stages!"
     Some of the new advocates of the bi-national solution use a very 
odd argument. They say: "Sharon declares that he is for the two-state 
solution, but he means some enclaves comprising 50% of the 
occupied territories. Therefore we must not support the establishment 
of a Palestinian state." The simple answer is: should we abandon a 
good and positive idea just because the enemies of peace pervert it 
and try to use it for their ends? Logic would dictate the opposite: to 
expose the perversion of the idea by Sharon and fight for a Palestinian 
state in the pre-1967 borders.
    
     In the early 50s, when we raised the two-state idea again after the 
1948 war, we did not speak of "separation". Today, too, we reject this 
term absolutely. We speak of two states with an open border between 
them, with free movement of people and goods (subject, of course, to 
mutual agreements). I am convinced that, in the light of the 
geographical and political facts, a natural process will lead to an 
organic connection, perhaps a federation, and later, by common 
consent, to a regional community like the European Union.
     In the end, we shall reach the objective: to live together in peace, 
side by side. Perhaps a later generation will one day decide to live in 
one joint state. But today the propaganda for this utopia diverts 
attention from the practical, immediate objective, at a time when the 
whole world has accepted the idea of "two states for two peoples". This 
remote utopia blocks the way to a solution that is achievable in the 
near future and sorely necessary, because in the meantime "facts on 
the ground" are being created.
     I am convinced that the 21st century will bring vast changes in the 
structure of the world and the way of life of human society. The 
importance of the nation-state will gradually diminish. A world order, 
world law and world-wide structures will play a central role. I believe 
that Israel will whole-heartedly take part in the march of humanity. We 
shall not be tardy. But there is no point in expecting the Israeli public 
to be 50 years ahead of the times. 
                                                                               
[] At the court: reminder re Barghouti trial, update about internationals

--Tomorrow, Monday Marwan Barghouti trial

Meeting point for joint presence in the court room: 
Corner Weizman / Shaul Hamelech at 8.30 (sharp!)

On the spot will be a briefing on how to make our presence visible in 
case they won't let us in.
The trial itself  begins at 9.00 in the room of Judge Sara Sirota, NB: on 
the 6th floor (not the 4th).

For info: Adam Keller 03-5565804 / 056-709603

--Today, internationals on the way to bail

The appeal proceeding against deportations of the 8 ISMers lasted very 
short. The judge seemed surprised to see there 4 defence lawyers 
(Gabi Laski, Shammai Leibowitz, Yonni Lerman and Leah Tzemel), a  
very crowded courtroom and quite some obvious media people.

The judge immediately started with a very pointed suggestion to the state 
representatives to settle about bail terms until the evening. 
Representatives of New Profile and Gush Shalom as well as individual activists 
offered to help with posting the bail.
For info about ISM's actions - www.palsolidarity.org



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with
\\photos - of actions or otherwise informative 
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English 
\\the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
\\and an archive full of interesting documents

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