Eyeless in Gaza

The Gaza of yesterday is the continuation of a painful process in which the response of Israelis has become - because of the blood - a conditioned reflex that blocks out any other thinking on how to reach a settlement. Thus, we have gone "Eyeless in Gaza," to quote the title of the Aldous Huxley novel. Over the years, the use of this title in association with our entanglement in Gaza has gone from common to banal, but this does not make it any less accurate.

Israel is beating its head, and that of its sons, chasing a presumption that is beyond its powers and certainly beyond its national interests. The highest echelons of government came to terms with this truth this year. Then came the defeat conferred on the prime minister by the right. But this was only the slightest of exhaled breaths by those who reject the idea of a settlement, as compared to the other great success they achieved. Over the course of a decade they succeeded - with the generous help of Sharon himself and former leaders - to brainwash sizable segments of the public, as if any attempt at an overall settlement, from the Oslo accords to the Geneva plan, is a tragedy.

Now it can be predicted that even the format of a unilateral settlement in Gaza will evaporate. In this manner, the Strip will mire us in the same diplomatic eyelessness that the Sharon government shows toward the other occupied territories.

A brave stand would say just the opposite: with Sharon's diplomatic trough emptier than ever and fruitless proposals being bandied about, at these moments of crisis there should be a rejuvenation of the one thesis that has never really been tried. The horrifying propaganda against the "Oslo Tragedy" also managed to associate that historic turning point solely with the many Israeli victims since the accord with the PLO. It is of course strengthened by the weakness of the left-center, and even more so since Ehud Barak joined the brainwashers after the failure of his contacts with Arafat.

The hostility continues to hover over Oslo-Geneva, in utter contradiction to cold facts in the public opinion polls. Without interruption, the national majority since the days of Rabin have always been in favor of far-reaching concessions in a full settlement. The "Peace Index," conducted by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University and released in Haaretz this week, found that 53 percent favor evacuation of all of the settlements if that is the condition to reach a comprehensive settlement agreement with the Palestinians.

This figure appears in similar numbers in all of the polls. The majority do not like "Arabs," but know that Sharon has done nothing to talk with them. Many Israelis have been accustomed to detest Oslo and Geneva, but they understand that in the end there will be no agreement here, only the concession of nearly all of the territories and settlements. The brainwash succeeded because there is no one around to collect from the sidewalks of Israel the silent majority that is in favor of serious negotiations, and which is not deterred by failures and victims.

This Saturday a demonstration by the left will be held at Rabin Square. All week long there has been a scuffle among Shimon Peres' office (which is organizing the rally), the "Geneva HQ", and Peace Now: Peres wants to be the sole political speaker and to draw the event toward support for a Gaza withdrawal; Beilin and his cohorts want to push the negotiations angle; and Peace Now is concentrating on the damages of the settlements. The real argument, says Professor Avishai Margalit, one of the founders of Peace Now, is basically about who will speak at 8:00 P.M., when the demonstration will be broadcast live on television.

In spite of all that scuffling, the demonstration can be a convincing test of the city squares if enough Israelis raise themselves above the daily pain and leadership squabbles and vote with their feet. A time of stuttering leadership in the Likud and Labor is precisely when the street has to start talking from the left - yes, especially now - just as the right spoke with such impressive success last week.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/426344.html