Democratic Palestine : 32 (ص 24)
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- Democratic Palestine : 32 (ص 24)
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resolutions and the international sup-
port they received. The Israeli govern-
ment has yet to present a viable plan for
peace; its program does not add much
to the 1984 program which was based
on NO negotiations with the PLO, and
«self-rule» for Palestinians in the oc-
cupied territories. Israel is against the
establishment of a Palestinian state
anywhere between the Jordan river and
the Mediteranean Sea. This is an in-
direct suggestion by both Likud and
Labor that a Palestinian state should be
established in Jordan, rather than in
Palestine.
The new government of «national
unity» is in reality a government of na-
tional paralysis. Likud has not offered
anything outside the framework of the
Camp David agreements, while Labor
is in harmony with Likud over the three
No’s: No to negotiations with the PLO,
No to withdrawal from the 1967 oc-
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According to Haaretz, the inner
cabinet discussed a report prepared by
Israeli experts in its mid-March
meeting. This report suggests that the
Israeli government should conduct
negotiations with the PLO and find a
political solution, because «the intifada
might continue for years to come.»
The report warned of Israel’s
deteriorating image in the world and
the weakening of US-Israeli relations in
the continued absence of a political
solution.
On the other hand, the latest report
by the Brookings Institute urges the US
administration to place the Arab-Israeli
conflict on its priority list, and warns
against a protracted stalemate which
might endanger US interests. The
report adds that what is needed is more
than bringing the two sides to the
negotiating table. There is an urgent
need for a realistic strategic policy to
formidably and has now become a way
of life for Palestinians living under
Israeli occupation, who are now erec-
ting the structure of the future Palesti-
nian state. There is now international
consensus for a negotiated political set-
tlement. The US has finally come to
realize the futility of excluding the PLO
from such negotiations. The Palesti-
nian people and their leadership want a
negotiated settlement; the majority of
Israelis want a negotiated settlement;
and the Israeli government is still
holding out. A continuation of Israeli
intransigence will only prolong the
bloodshed and isolate the Zionist state
even more. )
1 Database Project on Palestinian Human Rights,
February ist; Shomron was speaking at a Knesset
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee briefing
on January 10th.
2 Destour, Arabic, February 10th.
3 Ibid.
cupied territories, and No to a Palesti-
achieve peace.
nian state.
The intifada has established itself
4 AP, February 13th.
5 Haaretz, March 20th.
A Garrison State
In previous issues of Democratic Palestine we have printed a study on the role of the Zionist state in the
Middle East, focusing on its wars, nuclear power, reactionary alliances and special military operations in
the service of imperialism. Below, the concluding installment of this study deals with aspects of its internal
structure that allow the Zionist state to play this role.
The connection between the Zionist state’s internal structure
and its regional role lies in its origin as a settler colony.
Predicated on the Palestinians’ dispossession on the one hand
and massive external support on the other, ‘Israel’ carved out
its enemies and alliances which provided the rationale and
source, respectively, of its military build-up. At the same time,
it created its own crisis which was described from the
demographic angle by Yigal Allon (former Palmach com-
mander, deputy prime minister and foreign minister), as
follows: «... the rate of Jewish immigration which followed the
establishment of the State of Israel proved to be much lower
than expected and the Jewish birth rate in the country did not
exceed that of the indigenous Arab population, and so the
dream of the Jewish people rapidly becoming a solid majority
within an undivided Erez Israel, without an exodus of the
Palestinian Arab population, vanished into thin air. The
military victory of 1967 did not change an iota of this basic
demographic reality despite a temporary rise in Jewish im-
migration figures which followed the Six Days War» (Middle
Fast Review 12, no.2, Winter 1979-80).
22
It is clear from this statement that aggression is the only
outlet for fulfilling the Zionist dream - How else to effect the
desired Palestinian exodus? It is equally clear that aggression-
like that of 1967 - only brings another stage of the built-in
Israeli crisis.
FIRST STRIKE POLICY
The Israeli policy of preemptive first strikes as seen in the
1956 and 1967 wars, repeated invasions of Lebanon and in-
numerable air and commando raids, actually began «at
home». According to Samuel Divan, Ben Gurion’s advisor on
Arab affairs, in a 1958 interview: «Ben Gurion always
reminded us that we cannot be guided by subversion which the
Arab minority (in ‘Israel’) has not engaged in. We must be
guided by what they might have done if they had been given the
chance» (quoted by Sami Hadawi, Palestine in Focus, 1969). It
was this thinking that guided the organization of the IDF,
border guards, Shin Bet, police and the Israeli state apparatus
in general. Because the society was a settler colony and the
enemy was within, the Israeli military build-up was not
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