What Israel Must Somehow Risk

Edge Left: Notes for Israel. By David McReynolds

I understand better than younger people on the left why Israelis say "Never again will Jews trust themselves to anyone else". Non-Jews and younger people do not really grasp the Holocaust (let alone the long history which preceded it).

I'll be honest in my doubtful feelings about Israeli survival - at the end of just sixty years of struggle Israel remains deeply embattled and, paradoxically, militarily stronger than all the Arab states combined. It has nuclear weapons. But I doubt Israel will be there a hundred years from now. This is not a hope - it is a fear.

Let's look at some of the things which very small states must do to survive.

First, it is folly to place confidence in the protection of a great power at a distance (ie, the US). The US (like all States) is fickle, it will follow its own interests. In twenty years the gradually shifting tide of American public opinion (away from a pro-Israeli position to one more sympathetic to the Palestinians) will undercut the political leaders who this week gave their total support to Israel. Political leaders are not leaders at all - they are people who can sense the wind, count the votes. And that wind is shifting.

Second, a small nation should consider its weapons. Yugoslavia, which faced real threats from the Soviet Union when it broke away in 1948, did not choose an arsenal of attack weapons, which might threaten its neighbors (who were still part of the Soviet Bloc) but defensive weapons which would make an invasion costly. Of course, as a pacifist I would urge much more radical approaches, but at the least Israel should explore every possible opening for a non-nuclear Middle East. It should put great emphasis on anti-aircraft weapons, and much less on the attack jets it is using in Lebanon. Already small arms are widely scattered within Israel, and the 1948 war showed that Israel is willing and able to defend itself. Stock up on anti-tank guns, not on tanks. It is true that no war is won by defense, only by attack - but Israel's job is to avoid a war. Thus far Israel has won all the battles (except, at the moment, along the Lebanon border), but it has lost the wars. It lost Lebanon, from which it was driven by badly armed but very determined Hezbollah fighters. It also chose to leave Gaza because the cost of the Intifada was too high.

Third, make itself of economic value to its neighbors. Israel is a powerhouse at some things - such as computers. Israeli investors turn up in odd places (such as Cuba). Whether as a government policy or simply by encouraging private investors, who can operate below the line of political fire, Israel should build trade relations with its neighbors, ignoring the question of whether the governments in charge are "terrorist" or not. Give the business in Palestine, Syria, Iran, a reason to profit from trade with Israel.

Fourth, Israel needs to try a new state of mind - which will involve profound risks. Younger people (these days everyone I know is younger) don't quite understand the Israeli feeling that whenever they make a peaceful move the Arabs bite. The reality is that the majority of Israelis desperately want peace - and so do the majority of Arabs. My fear is that the wounds Israel has inflicted, first on the Palestinians, and now on the Lebanese, are so deep that a new state of mind may not work. But let's remember that it was not Begin who traveled Cairo - it was Sadat who flew to Israel. A couple of years ago there was a truly remarkable offer from the Arab states which the Israelis simply ignored, as they have ignored UN Resolution 242. It is time for Israel to take the risk of reaching out.

There have been wonderful steps taken at unofficial levels between Palestinians and Israelis - but always the governments have backed away, and I fear for the most part this has been the Israeli side.

Fifth, and finally, it is deep folly, politically, militarily, and philosophically, for any small nation to say that it will never trust itself to others. The smaller the nation the greater the need for establishing international frameworks that are respected. There is no doubt the Israeli attack on the UN outpost was deliberate. Why? What in the name of God did Israel think it could accomplish? What in the world does it think it is doing in Lebanon, destroying a pro-Western government and extending the influence of Iran? Do those of us in the US have any idea at all of the impact the Israeli bombing of Beirut is having on the entire Islamic world? We don't begin to see what the rest of the world sees. The best we can get is BBC - and sometimes CNN. We don't have an Arab channel. We have media that is almost uniformally pro-Israeli.

On the matter of the prisoners the Israelis must turn to negotiation. Anything is preferable to the literal insanity of their current course. Switzerland didn't escape the Nazis because their tunnels were mined but rather because they were a useful financial center for both sides. Sweden just barely escaped in WW II by staying very carefully neutral. Strong nations can engage in folly and hope to survive - The Soviet Union did in Afghanistan, the US did in Vietnam. But very small nations cannot engage in the kind of actions Israel has so consistently understaken. There are prophets in Israel trying to say these things. I hope they are heard. As for those in the American Jewish community who are pro-Israel, the greaest help they can give Israel is to urge them to look at these points, and to stop the endless support.

(David McReynolds was the Socialist Party candidate for President in 1980 and 2000, the Green Party candidate for US Senate in New York in 2004, and the former Chair of War Resisters International. "Edge Left" can be distributed and used without permission)