by Eric Margolis
MADRID -- The quickening pace of Mideast peace diplomacy has produced
growing euphoria that the half-century old Arab-Israeli conflict may be
finally nearing an end.
Here in Spain, which long helped the Palestinian struggle, there is
particular satisfaction that a just and enduring settlement may be within
reach.
Israel's new prime minister, Ehud Barak is calling for a fast-track
resolution of all issues between his nation and the Palestinians, peace
with Syria, and a pullout from Lebanon. President Bill Clinton, who is
anxious to take credit for a peace deal befo re he leaves office in 18
months, is pressing hard for a quick settlement. Syria is strongly
expressing its desire for a peace pact with Israel, and just ordered
die-hard, Damascus-based Palestinian rejectionist groups to lay down their
arms.
By booting the obstructionist Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies,
Israeli voters revived the Mideast peace process and sent a powerful
message of positive intent to their Arab neighbors, which has been
reciprocated from Rabat to Damascus. PM Bara k, a former general, seized
the opportunity of his landslide victory to launch a high-intensity
diplomatic blitzkrieg.
So far, very good. Salutes to Barak. But once all sides get down to
serious business of bitter compromises, the euphoria will quickly vanish.
The key issue for both sides is legitimacy.
The Arabs have never accepted Israel's legitimacy. While some undemocratic
Arab leaders have made peace with Israel, most of their people, and much
of the Muslim World, still views it as an illegal foreign entity created
to assuage western guilt over the Holocaust at Palestinian expense,
physically divide the Arab World, and promote US interests in the Mideast.
Most important, the plight of 3.5 million Palestinian refugees - victims
of a state created for other victims - continues to poison relations bet
ween Israel and its neighbors. By what right can Israel import Jews and
non-Jews from Russia, Arabs ask, while denying the right of return of
ethnically cleansed Palestinians?
Israel is rightly wary of peace with neighbors harboring such bitter
feelings. An assassin's bullet could change any of the 'friendly' Arab
regime overnight, bringing to power a new ruler hostile to Israel. How
could Israel, already short of space and wat er, accept back even some of
the stateless Palestinians? Israel's politically powerful settlers won't
give an inch and are preparing to open new outposts on expropriated
Palestinian land. What if Hamas bombers resume their bloody attacks?
A minority of Israeli hard-liners, backed by wealthy American supporters,
who seem ready to fight to the last Israeli from the safety of the
Hamptons and Hollywood, is still issuing alarms that a Palestinian
mini-state will threaten Israel's existence. T his is nonsense, as PM
Barak underlined, when he dismissed the potential threat from a
Palestinian state as "insignificant." The other military weak, backward
Arab states offer little more conventional military danger to Israel.
Most Israelis accept the inevitability of a Palestinian state. But what
kind of state? The current Palestinian 'entity' is no more than a series
of bantustans overwatched by Jewish settlements and divided by Jewish-only
security roads. Unless the final Pa lestinian state has geographic
continuity and economic viability, it will remain dangerously unstable, a
breeding ground of anger and terrorism. If the Arabs are to finally
accept Israel's legitimacy, then Israelis will also have to accept the
legitimacy
of a viable Palestinian state that has at least a minimum of land, water,
communications, and self-respect, as well as at least a symbolic toehold
in Jerusalem, a city as sacred to Christians and Muslims as to Jews.
Whatever Palestinian state emerges, it will be a military protectorate and
economic dependency of Israel. A stable, successful Palestine is thus much
in Israel's self-interest. A peace between Israel and Syria will end their
dangerous but futile 20-year r ivalry to dominate Lebanon, Jordan, and the
West Bank.
When you hold all the cards, as Israel does, its understandably hard to
trade them for vague assurances of peace and good relations. But able
general Barak knows the importance of timing. His diplomatic offensive may
be the last chance to halt the growing
Mideast race for weapons of mass destruction. Iran and Syria are racing
to counter Israel's large nuclear and chemical arsenal by developing
chemical and, eventually, nuclear warheads for their growing,
medium-ranged missile forces. Unless this race is h alted by a general
peace, the Mideast will shortly enter a period of extreme danger. For the
first time since its birth, Israel could be facing a true life and death
threat.
Barak understands that neither Israel's new "Arrow" anti-missile defense
system nor American pressure can fully eliminate the threat of Arab or
Iranian missiles. The Arabs and Iran equally fear that Israel may lash out
and strike them with tactical nuclea r weapons - or worse. Security is a
two-way street.
In the end, to make peace work, both sides will have to betray their most
cherished promises. Israel will have to force some of its militant settlers
from Brooklyn to give up their little Fort Apaches on the West Bank. Arab
regimes must convince millions of enraged Palestinians that the loss of
their ancestral homes, however unjust, is irreversible.
[Eric Margolis is a syndicated foreign affairs columnist and
broadcaster based in Toronto, Canada.]
Copyright © 1999 Eric Margolis - All Rights
Reserved
