The Other War on Terror
From Al-Ahram Weekly, a useful breakdown of the different parties competing in the upcoming Israeli elections, and a primer on the issues at stake in that other war on terror. Veteran Territories correspondent Graham Usher reminds us that, "As always in Israeli politics the fundamental fissure is not over social, economic or cultural policies…It is over the national struggle with the Palestinians and the fate of the occupied territories."
In some ways, Israel today provides a glimpse of what happens when security becomes the defining issue of political life. Differences amongst the three parties are largely rhetorical. Kadima (Sharon’s adventure out of the Likud fold, initiated shortly before his stroke) and Likud tough it out on the right, but even the surprise victor of last November’s Labor Party leadership election, Sephardi trade unionist and member of the pressure group ‘Peace Now’, Amir Peretz, states that he would never "divide Jerusalem" or tolerate a right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The Palestinian conflict becomes the stage on which Israeli politics are acted out, with all parties working to maintain an air of constant crisis in order to maintain their legitimacy. Nothing could belie the claim that Palestinian resistance represents an existential threat to Israeli existence as starkly as last week’s prison raid. Once the international observers were withdrawn, Israeli tanks were shelling the Jericho compound within minutes, and Palestinian police and militia were powerless to stop them taking away Palestinian MP and General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, amongst others.
Indeed, given the international controversy surrounding the election of Hamas, it is astonishing just how weak Palestinian institutions are. At will, Israel has of late closed the borders of the Gaza Strip which has led to critical food shortages. Without the resumption of EU and US aid the ‘economy’ of the Occupied Territories will collapse. Meanwhile Saadat’s potential release from the Palestinian Authority jail was based on the fact that his original conviction came down from a kangaroo court convened under extreme Israeli pressure. The idea that this is a battle of anything like equals is impossible to uphold.
Even the alleged militants of Hamas realize that leadership of such a ‘state’ is a poisoned chalice and, although they won enough seats to form a majority government, have been desperately trying to draw Fateh into the ruling coalition only to be rebuffed. It is hardly the sign of a resurgent political movement which supposedly, in the words of a New York Times article that completely fails to mention such reticence, “has the paradigm-shifting quality of the Iranian revolution”.
Israel has long been fond of the David and Goliath myth, choosing to represent itself as the underdog. The results have been detrimental, creating a state organized around perpetual conflict. Social conflict or utopian thinking about the future is subsumed to the necessities of continuous crisis. And when the threat is no longer particularly palpable, the politicians work overtime to resurrect it. Israeli politics provide an object lesson in the danger of the permanent state of exception, which we all would do well to absorb.
In some ways, Israel today provides a glimpse of what happens when security becomes the defining issue of political life. Differences amongst the three parties are largely rhetorical. Kadima (Sharon’s adventure out of the Likud fold, initiated shortly before his stroke) and Likud tough it out on the right, but even the surprise victor of last November’s Labor Party leadership election, Sephardi trade unionist and member of the pressure group ‘Peace Now’, Amir Peretz, states that he would never "divide Jerusalem" or tolerate a right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The Palestinian conflict becomes the stage on which Israeli politics are acted out, with all parties working to maintain an air of constant crisis in order to maintain their legitimacy. Nothing could belie the claim that Palestinian resistance represents an existential threat to Israeli existence as starkly as last week’s prison raid. Once the international observers were withdrawn, Israeli tanks were shelling the Jericho compound within minutes, and Palestinian police and militia were powerless to stop them taking away Palestinian MP and General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, amongst others.
Indeed, given the international controversy surrounding the election of Hamas, it is astonishing just how weak Palestinian institutions are. At will, Israel has of late closed the borders of the Gaza Strip which has led to critical food shortages. Without the resumption of EU and US aid the ‘economy’ of the Occupied Territories will collapse. Meanwhile Saadat’s potential release from the Palestinian Authority jail was based on the fact that his original conviction came down from a kangaroo court convened under extreme Israeli pressure. The idea that this is a battle of anything like equals is impossible to uphold.
Even the alleged militants of Hamas realize that leadership of such a ‘state’ is a poisoned chalice and, although they won enough seats to form a majority government, have been desperately trying to draw Fateh into the ruling coalition only to be rebuffed. It is hardly the sign of a resurgent political movement which supposedly, in the words of a New York Times article that completely fails to mention such reticence, “has the paradigm-shifting quality of the Iranian revolution”.
Israel has long been fond of the David and Goliath myth, choosing to represent itself as the underdog. The results have been detrimental, creating a state organized around perpetual conflict. Social conflict or utopian thinking about the future is subsumed to the necessities of continuous crisis. And when the threat is no longer particularly palpable, the politicians work overtime to resurrect it. Israeli politics provide an object lesson in the danger of the permanent state of exception, which we all would do well to absorb.
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