AT ITS ONE-DAY summit in Jeddah on Sunday, the GCC — with the raging conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis and between Indians and Pakistanis in mind — issued a resounding declaration in favor of restraint and moderation. That may sound like a contradiction in terms. It may sound like weakness. It is neither. In both places, there is little enthusiasm for moderation. That is why the GCC’s support for it has had to be so uncompromising.
In the case of Pakistan and India, the mere prospect of conventional military defeat will be enough for one side to unleash its fledgling nuclear arsenal on the other. There would only be losers. It is much the same in the Middle East. Those who think that violence will bring victory delude themselves. All it will achieve is more violence. Violence perpetrated by the Israelis on the Palestinians — the assassinations, incursions, brutal slaughter of innocent bystanders, destruction of homes and communities — has not crushed them as Ariel Sharon calculated. It has made them more determined to withstand their oppressors.
But similarly, the violence of the suicide bombers is not going to defeat the Israelis. And in their case, like India and Pakistan, they too have the nuclear bomb. They would not have it if they did not contemplate using it. And Israelis, by their actions, have shown that they will use even Nazi methods to suppress and humiliate their opponents.
The only positive consequence that violence has had is that it has proved to the Israelis that the Palestinians will not be crushed and humiliated forever, no matter how superior the Israelis’ arms. But that lesson has now been achieved: Which is why, despite supporting Sharon, the majority of Israelis also support an independent Palestinian state. But there has to be a point where violence is laid aside if there is to be peace, and that point is now. All wars come to an end, invariably with negotiations and a peace treaty. Very few end in unilateral surrender and, as we know, it is not going to happen in the Middle East.
The GCC’s call to end violence may not be what some sections of public opinion across the Arab world want to hear. But what is their goal? Inflicting pain and destruction on the Israelis until it ceased to be? That is tantamount to saying there never will be a Palestinian state. The same Arab world, via the Arab League, has readily endorsed the Saudi peace plan. It has done so because it knows that it is the only workable solution to the Middle East problem. What the GCC is now saying, by calling for an end to all violence, is the logical corollary to the Saudi plan — because until violence is laid aside, by both sides, there is no chance of negotiations and a peace treaty.
The question now though is: How do we get there? Others need to play their part. The Israelis may now know in their heart of hearts that the Palestinians cannot be crushed by the Zionist military juggernaut but they still cannot bring themselves to cross the threshold or compromise. Real peace (and real security) will elude the region until Israel recognizes the limits to its power. That is where Washington comes in. So far, however, the Americans have failed their part of the deal. They do nothing to stop Israeli violence. The GCC has proposed the obvious, necessary step that can move the Middle East forward to negotiations — themselves based on the Saudi peace initiative. If the US truly supports the initiative — and it says it does — then it needs to ease the path. It has to put pressure on Sharon to pull back his storm troopers and himself to accept the principle of compromise. Until that happens, peace will remain a mirage and reciprocal violence the reality.
