Democratic Palestine : 25 (ص 13)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 25 (ص 13)
- المحتوى
-
type accord, without political cover on
the Palestinian or Arab levels. Instead,
the Jordanian regime is normalizing
relations with ‘Israel’ through the
policy of joint administration of the
1967 occupied territories.
The vast majority of the Arab
regimes no longer object to an unjust,
capitulationist settlement to the Arab-
Israeli conflict and its core, the
Palestinian problem. So when Moroc-
co’s Hassan II received Israeli Prime
Minister Peres in 1986, there was com-
plete silence on the part of most Arab
regimes - a sad state of affairs. Times
sure have changed.
1967-1987: ISRAELI TENATS
Ironically, while the Arab state’s
policies have declined during the past
two decades, the Zionist policies have
kept a steady course, namely that of
subjugating, if not eliminating, the
Palestinian people. Despite tactical
differences between the Zionist leaders,
the strategy remains the same. Golda
Meir’s famous declaration that «there
were no Palestinians» is the theme that
dominates political circles in ‘Israel’.
Her declaration was in 1967. In 1981, a
book entitled Central Issues of the
State’s and People’s History was in-
cluded in the curriculum of Israeli
secondary schools. Among other
statements, it reads: «The Palestinian
people do not exist.» In 1982, ‘Israel’
invaded Lebanon, hoping to make that
statement a reality.
The basic Israeli tenats focus on
many issues and have been reiterated by
‘doves’ and ‘hawks’ alike whenever
there was a move to settle the Middle
East conflict or one of its aspects.
These tenats, which were reaffirmed by
the present ‘national unity’ govern-
ment, can be summarized as follows:
1. refusal to recognize the PLO, or to
negotiate or deal with it;
2. rejection of the idea of an indepen-
dent Palestinian state under any condi-
tions, considering this to be a disaster
for ‘Israel’;
3. insistence on undisputable Israeli
rights to Jerusalem as the ‘eternal
capital of Israel’;
4. rejection of the idea of returning to
the pre-1967 borders.
These tenats have been firmly
adhered to throughout the two decades
after the 1967 war, from Yigal Allon’s
plan and the conditional Israeli accep-
tance of the Rogers plan, to the section
of the Camp David accords pertaining
to the Palestinian issue, and Peres’
current plans. Not only does ‘Israel’ act
on the basis of these tenats, it has
demanded that successive US ad-
ministrations adhere to them as well. In
1985, ‘Israel’ strongly opposed the idea
of US officials meeting with a joint
Palestinian-Jordanian delegation that
was formed after the now defunct
Amman accord.
The Israeli tenats are based on a
number of considerations as follows:
First: The thesis that recognition of
the Palestinian people’s rights to an
independent state and_ self-
determination would threaten the ex-
istence of ‘Israel’ and the Zionist claims
about the ‘promised land’, as well as
the plans to attract the Jews of the
world to Palestine. Only about 20% of
the Jews of the world are in ‘Israel’,
and failure to bring a larger number
would mean the failure of Zionism’s
claim that ‘Israel’ is the solution for all
Jews.
Second: ‘Israel’ is unwilling to relin-
quish the political, economic and
security advantages obtained through
the occupation of all of Palestine.
‘Israel’ uses the occupation as a point
of pressure on the Arab regimes, in
order to orientate these regimes
towards imperialism, politically and
economically.
Third: Relinquishing any part of oc-
cupied Palestine, or recognizing the
PLO and the Palestinians’ legitimate
rights would threaten the unity of the
main Zionist parties and factions.
Despite the seeming divergence between
Labor’s principle about the ‘purity of
the Jewish state’, whereby some non-
colonized territory could be ceded, and
the Likud’s principle of ‘the unity of
the Land of Israel’, rejecting any con-
cessions, the two factions have not been
willing to dissolve the joint govern-
ment.
Fourth: The most important factor is
the Palestinian revolution. In early
1968, Moshe Dayan replied to a ques-
tion about the escalation of Palestinian
armed activities by saying, «The
saboteurs are but an egg in my hand
that I could crush whenever I want» - a
premature prediction for sure. Nineteen
years later, the ‘egg’ has not been
crushed. Rather it has become a great
revolution that refuses to be crushed.
Successive Israeli attempts to destroy
the PLO, supplemented by the attempts
of Arab regimes and sectarian forces
like Amal and the Phalangists, have all
failed. This failure is another cause for
Israeli adherence to their tenats and in-
sistence on maintaining the 1967 oc-
cupied territories.
It is thus elementary to conclude that
the Zionist rhetoric about ‘peace’ and
‘political settlement’ is actually a means
of gaining Arab approval for the Israeli
tenats. This is apparent in Israeli in-
sistence on direct negotiations, also if
there is to be an international con-
ference. The Israeli positions are
strategic ones, not tacticai. They can
only be changed by a radical shift in the
balance of forces in the region.
1967-1987: ONGOING
REVOLUTION
One can with certainty say that the
Palestinian revolution stands as one of
Arab boycott weakens - King Hussein, Mubarak and Sultan Qabus in 1982.
13 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 25
- تاريخ
- يوليو ١٩٨٧
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Contribute
Not viewed