smCOLUMN SEVENTY-EIGHT, NOVEMBER 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 The Blacklisted Journalist)
SECTION SIXTEEN
EMAIL PAGE TEN
sm
COLUMN
SEVENTY-EIGHT, NOVEMBER 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 The Blacklisted Journalist)
PALESTINIANS MUST SHARE BLAME FOR CONFLICT
Subject: Introspection as a Prerequisite for Peace
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 19:31:27 -0400
From: "Julian Tepper" jutepper@erols.com
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com
September 7, 2002
Introspection as a Prerequisite for Peace
By YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI
JERUSALEM? On this Rosh Hashana, a time of
self-examination, I confess that my capacity as an Israeli for self-criticism
has been exhausted. The terrorist war that began around Rosh Hashana two years
ago and provoked official campaigns of Jew-hatred throughout the Arab world has
convinced Israelis like me who are ready to make far-reaching compromises for
peace that there will be no acceptance of a Jewish state in the Middle East no
matter how much territory we concede.
Once I was prepared to reach different conclusions. During
the first intifada that began in the late 1980's, I served as a reservist in
Gaza's refugee camps. For one month a year I became an occupier, entering family
bedrooms in the middle of the night to arrest suspects for crimes ranging from
terrorism to failure to pay taxes.
That experience taught me that both sides share ample
rights and wrongs. I was hardly alone. The first intifada reduced to a minority
those hardliners who believed that only the Jewish people had legitimate claims
to the land. The majority of us learned to accommodate a competing narrative. We
neutralized our attachment to the biblical territories and accepted the
inevitability of uprooting most of the West Bank settlements. We offered to
share our most precious possession, Jerusalem, with our bitter enemy, Yasir
Arafat.
For me, that process of examination meant undertaking a
journey into Islam and Christianity. As a religious Jew, I went on pilgrimages
to mosques and holy places, seeking to experience something of the devotional
life of my neighbors. I joined the Muslim prayer line and learned the power of
its choreographed surrender. I prayed in a refugee camp that I had once
patrolled as a soldier.
In turn, I sought from Palestinians an acknowledgement that
I wasn't a crusader or a colonialist but an exiled son returning home. I waited
for Palestinian leaders to tell their people what the late Yitzhak Rabin told
us: that we must withdraw from our exclusive claim to the land. Those words
never came.
Few Palestinians seem prepared even now to examine their
own share of responsibility for the conflict. Instead, most remain barricaded in
a self-righteous understanding of history, apportioning all innocence to
themselves and all blame to us. Perhaps their inability to acknowledge the
historical complexity of this conflict is understandable: The Palestinians,
after all, were its losers. Yet that failure led them to commit their greatest
blunder in a history of missed opportunities. By declaring war two years ago
against an Israeli government that was as far left as any in history, they
turned Israelis like me from supporters of Ehud Barak into supporters of Ariel
Sharon.
What the first intifada was for Israelis, this intifada
should be for Palestinians: a precious moment of self-examination. The Oslo
process failed because of an asymmetry of self-criticism: Only one side came to
the realization that this is a conflict between two legitimate national
movements. The time has come for Palestinians to partition their sense of
historical justice. They need to admit that much of their suffering, especially
now, has been self-inflicted. And they need to confront the repeated moral
failures of their leaders, from supporting Nazi Germany to backing Saddam
Hussein.
Yet so far, there are few signs of moral unease. An ad
placed earlier this summer by Palestinian intellectuals urging an end to suicide
bombings because they are ineffective isn't good enough. Few Palestinians have
challenged the historical revisionism now increasingly prevalent in Arab culture
that denies the ancient roots of Jews in this land, the existence of the gas
chambers and even Arab involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.
In my journey into Palestinian Islam, I encountered the
profound Muslim ability to live daily life with a constant awareness of
mortality " an awareness that can create humility, a prerequisite for
reconciliation between enemies. Peace will come only through mutual
introspection and atonement. Many Israelis went far in trying to understand
Palestinian claims and grievances. To resume that necessary process among
Israelis now requires a self-critical moral dialogue among Palestinians.
Yossi Klein Halevi, Israel
correspondent of The New Republic, is the author of At the Entrance to the
Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for Hope with Christians and Muslims in the Holy
Land. ##
Copyright The New York Times Company
* * *
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN SEVENTY-EIGHT
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX
OF COLUMNS
The
Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
info@blacklistedjournalist.com
THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN SEVENTY-EIGHT
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX
OF COLUMNS
The
Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
info@blacklistedjournalist.com
THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ