Possible Signs of Sanity in Israel?

Mitzna's Victory Must Become Our Shared Victory

Gershon Baskin *



Wednesday, November 20, 2002

We finally had some good news this morning. Amram Mitzna took the
Labour Party leadership with 54% of the vote. While recognizing the
need to caution ourselves from being burned in the past, it seems that
Mitzna truly does represent a new breed of Labour Party leaders.
Despite the campaign over the past weeks when politicians usually work
overtime to hide what are usually perceived to be unpopular views,
Mitzna has been steadfast in holding and presenting his positions.
Just
two days ago he restated that he would, as Prime Minister, immediately
evacuate Gaza, including all the settlements and the IDF, he would call
upon the Palestinian leadership to re-enter negotiations from where
they
ended. He says clearly that he will remove and evacuate settlements in
the West Bank. He believes that Jerusalem must be a shared city. In
short, he knows what is the price of peace and he is willing to pay it.

Mitzna's victory now presents a challenge to the rest of the peace camp
- the challenge of unity. In order to stand any chance of getting back
into power, the peace camp in Israel must unify its forces. It must
speak in one clear honest and direct voice. It must present the truth
of Israel's political options to the public. It must be a Jewish-Arab
united front. There is no justification for splitting ranks. Meretz,
Labour and Arab parties must come together to run in this election as
one united list. Palestinian Israelis must be allocated 20% of the
realistic places in the list. Women must be represented by the
Scandinavian standard of 40% representation.

It is time now - and there is very little time - for members of the
peace camp in Israel to come out of the feeling of despair and trauma.
Now is the time to rebuild. Now is the time to believe once again that
peace is possible. Now is the time for new hope. It is true that
changes must also take place on the Palestinian side. They too must
present new leaders with renewed visions of peace. The election of
Mitzna can be a catalyst for change on the Palestinian side as well.
But
even if that change takes more time to come, it is now time for
Israelis
to stand up and say: enough killing, enough violence, enough
occupation.
Even if the Peace Camp in Israel will not win the coming elections, for
the first time in the two worst years in Israel's history, we will have
a real alternative to the policies of violence, settlement and
occupation.

Mitzna victory can be a turning point. Now it is up to us to make the
real difference.


* Gershon Baskin, Ph.D. is the Israeli co-director of IPCRI - the
Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (http://www.ipcri.org

http://www.ipcri.org/> )


Gershon Baskin, Ph.D.
Co-Director, IPCRI
P.O. Box 9321, Jerusalem 91092
Tel: 972-2-676-9460 Fax: 972-2-676-8011
Mobile: 052-381-715
gershon [at] ipcri.org http://www.ipcri.org http://www.ipcri.org>
http://www.place4peace.com http://www.place4peace.com>
http://www.our-shared-environment.net

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