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Jerry Rapp , Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at SUNY College of Optometry in New York.
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By Jerry Rapp
November 9, 2006
The recent war of the summer of 2006 between Israel and the militant, terrorist group Hezbollah represents perhaps the most cataclysmic event ever experienced by modern Israel -- more than even the Yom Kippur War of 1973 or the Lebanon War of the early 1980's. This is because the outcome of the hostilities with Hezbollah has left the Israeli political establishment with no apparent viable strategy for dealing with the Palestinians.
After the decisive, swift and euphoric Israeli victory in the Six Day War of June, 1967, and the refusal of the Arab countries defeated in that war to make peace with Israel in exchange for a return of the land captured by Israel, a decision was made by the Israeli government to settle that land with Israeli citizens. The settlements that sprang up were mostly vibrant and productive communities in the finest sense of the Zionist pioneer ideal. But, their existence as the years went by lead to two Palestinian intifadas, including horrific suicide bombings, which terrorized the Israeli populace. This, in turn, necessitated an ever harsher presence by Israeli troops in the occupied areas to try and maximize the security of Israeli citizens. This is not to say that the existence of the settlements per se caused the Palestinian violence. The Arabs have been trying to annihilate Israel since its founding in 1948, way before the term Israeli settlement entered the lexicon. Nevertheless, most Israelis were traumatized by the escalating violence.
The average Israeli wants, more than anything else, to just lead a normal daily life ? to be able to go to work, school, the movies, the pizza shop ? without fear of being blown to bits and pieces. So, when Ehud Barak twice, in the summer of 2000 and again in January, 2001, tried to cede the overwhelming land mass of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for peace, most Israelis supported him. When the Palestinian leadership turned down this very generous Israeli offer and launched a new round of ever-escalating violence, the Israeli army had no choice but to clamp down. The quest for normalcy was fading away.
So now there emerged a new idea -- the flip side of a negotiated peace deal. Israel, under the courageous leadership of Ariel Sharon, decided to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip to be followed by phased withdrawals from the West Bank, an attempt to achieve normalcy by separating from the Palestinians -- again a move that was supported by a large majority of Israeli citizens.
So how did the Palestinians respond? First, they launched hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel (which the Israeli government, inexplicably, largely ignored). Then they elected a government dedicated to Israel's destruction. So, from the perspective of the average Israeli, the Palestinians demonstrated that they will not leave him/her alone -- even if they are handed land on the proverbial silver platter.
And now the coup de grace -- a war provoked by Hezbollah which, despite all the positive spin by Israeli leaders, was, at best, inconclusive and is perceived by most Israelis as a military failure. The main reason Ehud Olmert's government has not been toppled is that Israelis are too traumatized and shell-shocked, both literally and figuratively, to know how to respond. For the first time in modern Israeli history, and largely through the fault of the Palestinians and other Arabs, no approach seems likely to bring the longed for normalcy -- not a harsh military presence, not a negotiated peace deal and not a unilateral ceding of land.
And this is the dilemma.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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