Weekly Commentary: Israeli doves failed mission – apologists for the
Palestinians instead of defenders of agreements
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 18 August 2011

A reminder from the past:

"... WHAT if they cheat? What if they take whatever we give them and demand
even more, still exercising violence and terror? Within the proposed
settlement, Israel will be in a position to close in on Palestine and undo
the deal...

Once peace comes, Israeli doves, more than other Israelis, must assume a
clear-cut "hawkish" attitude concerning the duty of the future Palestinian
regime to live by the letter and the spirit of its obligations. ...”
Amos Oz - "From Battles To Bridges", The Jerusalem Post, September 3, 1993

Did Amos Oz, who has consistently avoided criticizing the Palestinians for
failing to honor the Oslo agreements, abandon his commitment to press for
Palestinian compliance?

Here’s the trick: Amos Oz wrote about “[O]nce peace comes”.

That’s final status “peace” not the interim Oslo agreements.

And there is an internal logic to this if one subscribes to the secular
messianic belief that the day Israel withdraws to the ’67 lines that we will
enjoy utopian peace with the Arabs.

Because the flip side of blindly embracing that “ending the occupation
brings utopian peace” is that what the Arabs say or do before that day is
not relevant for policy making.

Are the Amos Oz’s of the world really so embarrassingly silly in their
belief system?

It could be.

But here is the catch.

These secular messianics are a miniscule minority in Israeli society.

Their ideas may get support and funding from overseas, but at the end of the
day, they have to convince rational Israelis to support a deal with the
Palestinians.

Rational Israelis do indeed care about what the Palestinians say and do
before the “end of the occupation.”

And thus, even the secular messianics have a vested interest in pressing for
Palestinian compliance today in order to garner the support of rational
Israelis.

This would not be the first time that the messianic camp took the rational
Israelis into account

This was the logic behind Beilin-Mazen, the Geneva Initiative and other
similar projects aimed at coming up with verbiage that at least
superficially could be used in order to prove to rational nonbelievers that
a “deal” indeed could be struck.

To paraphrase Oz: Israeli doves, more than other Israelis, must today assume
a clear-cut "hawkish" attitude concerning the duty of the Palestinians to
live by the letter and the spirit of their obligations.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il