By J. Zel Lurie
DELRAY BEACH, Florida — Many lovers of Israel were disgusted by the brilliant speeches by the American, Palestinian and Israeli leaders at the United Nations General Asembly. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in eloquenant addreses to erase 18 years of talks sunce the Oslo Accords were signed on the White House lawn in the jooyful presence of hundreds of Jewish makhers.
President Mahmoud Abbas didn’t even mention talks with Israel. He simply held up his application for statehood to the wild cheering of thousands of Palestinian who were watching TV in the streets of Ramallah.
All political speeches are local, are they not? Tom Friedman wrote in the New York Times that Netanyahu’s address read like a speech to the Likud Central Committee. Obama pandered to the anti-Palestinian Congress and Jewish donors to his reelection campaign and Abbas had Hamas looking over his shoulder.
The funny thing is that Palestine statehood is supported by the Israeli military and intelligence eestablishment while the government, media and public call it a train wreck.
J.J. Goldberg of the Forward analyzed the public statements of all the living retired heads of the Israel Defense Force, the Shin Bet and the Mossad. With one exception, who has never spoken on the issue. All of them– that is the Israeli equivalents of the CIA the FBI as well as the army of Israel — are in favor of Palestine statehood.
If Mahmooud Abbas reaches a succcessful outcome at the United Nations his reputation as a colorless bureaucrat will be replaced by one of a charismatic leader like Yassir Arafat and he might be able to recapture Gaza by democratic means. Also his current reluctance to meet with Netanyahu will be replaced by a desire for an agreement that would end the mililitary occupation of his country.
Why isn’t he willing to accept Obama’s dictum and start all over again discussing the four core issues — borders, Israel’s security, East Jerusalem and Arab rrefugees? In his talks with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a couple of years ago he reached an agreement on the borders, Jerusalem and Arab refugees, three tough items that have dominated discussions by experts for years. But no one has ever mentioned Israel’s security and that is the toughest of them all. Because Israel’s demands, as we shall see in a moment, might violate the sovereignty of the Palestine State.
Netanyahu said that he spoke dugri. Dugri is Hebrew slang for straightforward talk. I believe that it is Arabic for straight. It is one of several Arabic words and phrases which have infiltrated into Hebrew talk. They show how close the two Semitic peoples are and how easy it would be for them to live together in peace and dignity as do Israaeli Arabs and Jews in the Israeli village of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam.
In his dugri speech, Netanyahu adopted Obama’s formula of of 1967 borders with swaps of territory with one notable reservation — he needs Israeli soldiers on the Eastern border.
Israel faces great danger from the East. He did not mention it but everyone knows that the President of Iran has promised to eradicate the Jewish State. He revealed that he had talked to Abbas about it and the Palestinian said that it would not be consistent with the sovereignty of a Palestine State.
Israel is too tiny to rely on its borders for defense. It needs strategic depth, said Bibi, talking dugri.
But this was not straight talk. In this era of missiles soldiers don’t give enough protection. Protection is provided by the emdot, the Hebrew term for the powerful underground sensors which are somewhere in the hills that line the Jordan valley. No one talks about them just as no one talks about Israel’s nuclear reactor.
The underground sensors are being suplemented by Israeli satellites but no one will talk about them either. Until more satellites are in place Israel will need a lease on the Jordan hills.
Abbas is in no hurry to resume negotiations and Netanyahu provides a good excuse by refusing to freeze settlement construction. The Palestine government is subsidized by the United States and Europe and the occupation ends at the entrance to Area A, where the majority of Palestinians live and do business. No Israeli soldiers can be seen in Area A in the daytime. Every now and then Israel receives good intelligence where a wanted man is sleeping, probably supplied secretly by one of Prime Minister Fayyad’s men. In the dead of night a squad of Israelis will enter Area A and pick him up. The next day Fayyad will denounce the intrusion on his sovereignty
The Palestinian economy is thriving and so is the Israeli. The protests of the tent dwellers have been blunted by the proposal to build 200,000 housing units in five yeears.
But young Jewish hooligans who were brought up in the settlements continue their depredations against Palestinian farmers in Area C, which is controlled by the Israel army. Last week 40 Palestinian owned trees were uprooted in Area C near Nablus.*
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Lurie is a freelance writer based in Delray Beach, Florida. He may be contacted at jzel.lurie@sdjewishworld.com