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Settlements "threat To The Future" Of Israel |
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by haaretz via gehrig
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02 Apr 2003
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Opinion piece in today's Ha'aretz calls the settler community "a large movement, but isolated in Israeli society" since "Most Israelis express consistent readiness to dismantle the settlements as part of a peace deal." |
Settlements: The national danger
By Gideon Samet
The settlers are competing with Palestinian terror as the number one threat to the quality of life and the future of our country. That kind of statement will, of course, be met with the same kind of stormy, insulted, self-righteous and pseudo-Zionist reaction in which the settler community specializes. But it's no exaggeration. If a serious Euro-American move to resume negotiations does indeed begin, there is no one who can disrupt it more than the settlers of the West Bank and Gaza. Their threat of disruption is even greater than the prime minister's: He will be subject to American pressure. They will not. He knows how to fold under pressure. They'll turn that into a weapon in their fight.
The settlers' power is dangerous because it is does not emanate from the Israeli public. Most Israelis express consistent readiness to dismantle the settlements as part of a peace deal. The political clout of the settlers hinges on political aid from the ruling right. It is a large movement, but isolated in Israeli society. Playing into their hands is a sense of guilt by most politicians from the left and right for lending a hand to the growth of the settler movement. It's easy for the settlers to play on that historical responsibility. But they should not be allowed to do so. There is no reason not to reject their argument.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are once again to asked for heavy sacrifices to improve the economy. Some of the most basic conventions of the economic system, even pensions, will be shattered for a program that promises to improve our quality of life. Yet an Israeli minority is allowed to endanger the majority through the maintenance of another, more dubious convention, about their right to settle in the occupied territories.
Opposition to that assumption does not draw from morality and is not merely an alternative interpretation of the birthright to the Greater Land of Israel. It is the essence of the realpolitik that will obligate the state in the coming period. It has been for many years now, the logical conclusion from Israel's pragmatic needs.
The balance of the ideological, sometimes messianic, movement that feeds the settlements is deep in the red. In economic terms, it should have been said that most of the investment in the settlement movement has become lost debts in the national balance, and must be written off. That decision is not easy, even among historic opponents to the settlements. It involves personal and collective sacrifice by a dynamic section of society, which acted, among other reasons, on the basis of irresponsible promises made by Israeli governments. But there is no other way.
As expected, the demand is once again coming from outside. Domestic opposition to the settlements has not been effective over the years because of noncooperative political establishments and because of a nearly suicidal public apathy. One of the main achievements of the Yesha movement was to create a false connection between their settlement enterprise and what was always presented as resilience, determination, genuine Zionism, and the emotional health of the nation. That's a distortion unmatched in its dimensions by any other Israeli movement. Now there is mounting talk - and mostly talk for the meantime - about an expected American move. There is reason to suspect the new diplomatic initiative won't be as intensive as the talk about it, but the next round of American and European diplomacy is expected to be more determined than before. Too much is at stake now for the U.S. and Europe in the war for them to let Yesha run their regional strategy.
No less than them, Israeli patriots must realize that the welfare of the state is not to be found anywhere in the destructive concept of our rights over the hills of the West Bank. To realize that, Israelis don't have to be reservists sent to sacrifice their lives defending a pocket of grumbling settlers. The settlement activity endangers them at home on a daily basis. Or, more vehemently, as Jacob Talmon wrote about this very matter a generation ago, the homeland is in danger.
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