An Open Letter To The Israelis And Palestinians
By Dr. Alon Ben-Meir
10 July, 2014
Countercurrents.org
I have been writing about your conflict for more than three decades.
Invariably, I find myself delving into the same themes time and agaihemes
time and again. The nature of the conflict remains the same. You coexist,
and short of self-inflicted catastrophe, you are destined to coexist until
the end of time. You must now choose to live in harmony and peace, or in
self-consuming enmity and hate.
No Israeli or Palestinian child should ever die for a cause that defies
reality and reason. Taking teens hostage and horrifically killing them in
cold blood, or abducting a child and grisly burning him alive defies your
religious beliefs and the basic tenets of your humanity.
Like beasts, the militant madmen among you creep in the shadows for their
prey, to satisfy their lust for revenge and retribution. They disgrace you
as a people and a nation, while poisoning the next generations with
hostility and disdain, robbing them of their future and destroying the
little hope left to live in harmony and peace.
A majority of you Israelis and Palestinians are crying out for peace,
yearning still for that elusive day when you can retire to bed without
fear and face tomorrow excited about what lies ahead. Every day that
exacts blood and torments so many is a day when your graves are dug ever
deeper, burying innocent children and any hope for a better future.
The gap between you grows ever wider, feeding the vicious cycle of death
and destruction. Instead of reaching out compassionately, you obliterate
the last traces of empathy toward one another, knowing that there is no
place to go but together.
You, the so-called leaders, are the culprits behind this miserable state
of being. Immersed in blind ideology or misguided religious dogmas and
possessed by a messianic mission, you incite your people and fan the
flames of acrimony and violence.
Shame on you Naftali Bennett, you are a zealous madman. You want to annex
much of the West Bank and openly preach the invasion of Gaza. You proclaim
that war with Hamas is inevitable and â?oItâ?Ts preferable that weâ?Tre
[the Israelis] the ones who initiate it.â?
You are a menace to the people of Israel whom you presumably wish to
protect. It is alright that hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians die as
long as you continue to amass fortunes and enjoy the opulence that life
can offer.
And what about you, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamasâ?T misguided leader, you are a
fanatic fool who refuses to see the light. You extolled the kidnapping of
the three Israeli youth, you call for another Intifada and encourage
â?othe escalation of the resistance,â? only to watch thousands of
Palestinians die as sacrificial lambs to satisfy your twisted ego and
hollow religious convictions.
And Israelâ?Ts Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, you have long since
lost your moral bearings; unabashedly you advocate collective punishment
of the Palestinians, proudly announcing: â?oIf terrorists find refuge
among Palestinians, then Palestinians will pay the price.â?
Khaled Meshal, Hamasâ?T brazen political leader, you encourage more
abduction of Israelis and with venom you â?ocongratulateâ? the abductors
as if this is the recipe to be â?o[free] from the prisons of the
occupation.â? You invite more misery on so many innocent Palestinians,
who simply want to live a normal life devoid of constant anguish and pain.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, you cannot hide behind your tempered reaction to
the abduction of the three Israeli teenagers and your expressions of
sympathy to the family of the young Palestinian boy who was beaten and set
on fire. You are now reaping the fruits of your relentless expansionism
and blind ideological bent.
You have created this untenable situation between you and the Palestinians
and largely contributed to the impasse and the hopelessness of ever
reaching a peace agreemeing a peace agreement.
This is your plight, Israelis and Palestre led by inept, self-centered
leaders with no vision and no courage. Have you ever paused and asked the
simple question: where do we go from here? None of you â?" Bennett,
Haniyeh, Netanyahu, Meshal, and Abbas â?"know what will be the fate of
Israel and Palestine in five or ten years should you continue to pursue
your bankrupt policy.
You, Israelis and Palestinian leaders and people, must come to terms with
the harsh reality you refuse to face. You are stuck; there is no escape
and no future without the other.
You radical Palestinians who seek the destruction of Israel will do so at
your peril. Israel is here to stay and will never die alone. And you
Israeli zealots who conspire to thwart the Palestiniansâ?T aspiration for
a state of their own will irreparably erode Israel as a Jewish state.
Israel will become a garrison state, isolated and loathed by the community
of nations.
Paradoxically, Netanyahu and Abbas, you can still change the current
perilous path. If you truly desire to achieve peace based on a two-state
solution, then prove it by rising to the call of the hour and reverse the
tragedies of recent days into a triumph over the evil of extremism.
This is the time when you must stand tall together and proclaim your
unshakable commitment to realize peace now, in our time. You have the
moral responsibility to make the sacrifice of innocent Israeli and
Palestinian children whose lives were cut short the catalyst for peace and
not the cause of more violence and death.
Netanyahu, you can no longer use the potential fall of your coalition
government as an excuse for making gratuitous concessions to the
Palestinians. Do not listen to the hawks and invade Gaza time and again.
Once the calm is restored, you must muster the courage, dissolve your
government and form a new coalition dedicated to the path of peace.
In spite of your past mistakes, you still possess the leadership qualities
needed now to prevent the looming disaster. This could be your long
careerâ?Ts finest hour, or the hour of infamy and shame for failing to
rise above the fray.
Abbas, you too must make the hard choice. Whereas your unity government is
preferred for peace negotiations, you must demand that Hamas adhere to the
rules of engagement and no longer permit Hamas to have it both ways.
You must insist that Hamasâ?Ts leaders forsake violence once and for all,
or dump them to wallow in their own morass. They will pay dearly for
betraying their fellow Palestinians in Gaza, who are despairing for a
taste of freedom and a glimmer of hope.
You, Israelis and Palestinians of conscience, must now raise your voices
and be heard loud and clear: enough is enough, no more bloodshed, no more
waste of precious lives, no more tears and heartbroken mothers and
fathers.
The time has come for you to strive for peace as the continuation of
conflict will never yield a winner but mutual death and destruction. There
is no glory, no heroism, no dignity and no martyrdom in death, when peace
is within your grasp.
Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center
for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and
Middle Eastern studies.
[email protected] Web: www.alonben-meir.com
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