There's no question that Israeli policy aims to keep the conflict going

Human Quest, Jul/Aug 2006

There's no question that Israeli policy aims to keep the conflict going. The only question is, Why? The answers are endlessly complex. Some Israelis (like some Palestinians) get money and power by keeping the battle going. But not very many. Most Israelis just suffer from it.

Yet Olmert and other Israeli leaders are probably right to figure that they'll get more votes by refusing genuine reconciliation. Most Jewish Israelis want to prevent a genuinely independent and successful Palestinian state, even if it formally recognizes Israel. They are convinced that a Palestinian state not controlled by Israel will try to destroy Israel sooner or later.

You can tell them that it's the Palestinians, not the Israelis, who have backed down time after time after time, as the Hamas moderates are backing down now. You can point out the obvious reason why: They know that Israel is here to stay. With one of the strongest armies in the world and some 200 nuclear weapons, Israel will always be able to crush Palestine (or any other Arab nation) in a day.

But facts and logic don't matter here. Insecurity is embedded deep in the identity of most Jewish Israelis, and thus in the identity of their nation. Many would hardly know what it means to be Israeli, or to be Jewish, if they did not have an enemy sworn to destroy them. So no Israeli politician can hope to succeed by offering the Palestinians genuine rapprochement.

Here in the U.S. the hardline Israeli supporters, who are the most insecure, wield influence far out of proportion to their numbers. Maybe that's why the dramatic new sign of moderation within Hamas went virtually unreported in the mainstream U.S. press. It should have been headline news. It offers at least a glimmer of hope that there is a way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And it's almost a banal truism to say that this conflict is at the heart of all of America's troubles in the Middle East.

Leaders like Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahamdinejad know that well. They use the cause of Palestinian justice as a rhetorical weapon to promote anti-U.S. sentiment throughout the Muslim world. And it works, because Muslims - like anyone else who is paying attention - know that the Palestinians have indeed been treated unjustly. When Israel and the U.S. ignore this latest move toward peace by Palestinian leaders, they only confirm the view that American and Israeli leaders don't really want peace; they want power and control.

As we watch peace moves by Hamas get ignored, just as conciliatory statements from the government of Iran are ignored, it becomes harder and harder to argue with that gloomy assessment. It's all just too tragic for words. But those of us who see what's happening have to find words and speak out as loudly as we can before these precious opportunities for peace slip away.

Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is the author of American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea and later this year will publish Monster to Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin. This article was published May 12, 2006 by CommonDreams.org

When Israel and the U.S. ignore this latest move toward peace by Palestinian leaders, they only confirm the view that American and Israeli leaders don't really want peace; they want power and control.