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Sometimes the light shimmers in the Jordan Valley, as you see the waves of hot air bouncing off the rocks and sand, with visual distortions like crooked mirrors, or sudden strange visions, even of trees or water. Are these miracles of refraction or mirages, or is an oasis of peace and prosperity a possible reality? There is the chance for a new Palestinian leadership and national unity. Marwan Barghouti is waiting like Nelson Mandela or Eamon de Valera before him to get out of jail and make a fresh start. In South Africa Nelson Mandela pulled it together. But in Ireland Eamon de Valera tore it apart with a civil war worse than the war of liberation. The context is not good. The prospects for a twin state are fading as the remnants of Palestine are pacified and balkanized into Palustans in the North, South and center of the West Bank, with the Jordan Valley aside, Jerusalem separated from the rest, and Gaza in exile, like a Siberian gulag on the Mediterranean. That the Peace Quartet promoted the illusion that this carved up Palestine could be bribed, cajoled or forced into a twin-state framework, having itself blocked the democratic route to national compromise with an elected Hamas government, represented a desperate stretch of the imagination where fear of Middle East radicalism and rebellion resulted in denial of reality and abandoning of democracy. To Westerners the West Bank middle class dinner tables looked safer than the refugee camp rabbit warrens and scruffy streets of the Gaza Strip. But which reality was more real for the Palestinians? The Palestinians remain divided, between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in their hearts and minds between compromisers perceived as corrupt, bureaucratic and old-fashioned who gained nothing from Israel, while backed by the West, contrasted to more robust resisters who stood besieged, blockaded and impoverished but on their own feet, now to gain practical recognition from the Israelis. And the fading Egyptian conservative leadership proposes to build a wall of steel to try to stop the smugglers of the Gaza Strip, and to ban the niqab to try and build a wall in people´s minds against the political inroads of the Muslim Brotherhood. (The Jakarta Post, 24.12.12). So hopefully Gilad Shalit will be home soon. Arab and Muslim opposition to Israeli policies should not prevent to wish him well in returning to his family. He was a prisoner in a war, if not formally a prisoner of war. Sadly thousands of Palestinians are not going back to their families, or will never see Palestine again except in their dreams. Only 1,000 prisoners out of 11,000 will be released. Some will be deported from where they were born. (The Jakarta Post, 23.12.09). But it’s a step forward and Prime Minister Netanyahu is right to support this deal, and Israel has to move on. This should mean the end to the shameful blockade of Gaza and Hamas and the start of limited economic cooperation, with political cooperation later, as well as possible Palestinian reconciliation. But all this could easily fall apart. We will see if Marwan Barghouti will be a Nelson Mandela or an Eamon de Valera and if Benjamin Netanyahu can become a Mikhail Gorbachov or an F.W. de Klerk instead of a P.W. Botha. But strangely both P.W. Botha and Menachem Begin started what had to be done. Never underestimate realpolitick. Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated because he could have made a deal. Ariel Sharon could have done it. Netanyahu is positioned after bringing back Shalit to go on to try to make real history, but if not then Tzipi Livni should get the chance. Shalit gives Shalom one more chance for a fresh start. Better a new unknown destination shimmering in the distance, than no destination at all. Dr. Terry Lacey We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com |
