The atmosphere created by the Palestinian “presidential” election is nothing but a charade. The charade however is not new. Throughout the years, any hope for peace between Palestinians and Israelis has been the upshot of a faulty premise: That Palestinians must show serious interest in peace before Israel is expected to reciprocate. Even the road map, which many Palestinian officials lauded, is no exception.
The road map was the handwork of pro-Israeli elements in the US administration. It failed to rebuke Israel, even if slightly, for its disproportionate violence against the Palestinian people. The underlying premise has always been that only by reining in Palestinian terrorism can Israel and the Palestinian Authority achieve common ground for a lasting peace. The problem begins and ends with the Palestinians. Israel can only be urged to display patience, restraint and symbolic gestures of good will.
Predictably, the PA responded with a big unconditional “yes” so that Palestinians would not be viewed once again as the obstacle on the road to peace. Israel hesitated, deliberated, and finally agreed with conditions that disfigured the face of the already unsightly agreement. But the Israeli “response” was at once celebrated as a victory for peace and symptomatic of Israel’s very compromising nature.
Of course, the road map was neither the first nor the last of these Shakespearian dramas. The path to peace in the Middle East is swamped with staged shows totally divorced from reality. The overstated value of the Palestinian election fully conforms to these past experiences: Only by altering their backward political culture and fully committing to the everlasting principles of democracy can Palestinians achieve peace with Israel; only by being at peace with themselves can Palestinians be at peace with Israel; only by shunning the anti-democratic elements in their midst can Palestinians be a worthy peace partner with the “only democracy” in the Middle East. And once again, Israel is asked to do nothing in return, save some mythical steps of reciprocity and “confidence-building” measures devoid of any real political value.
And Israel carried on with its abrasive and bloody policies even during the election campaign. It repeatedly arrested Palestinian candidates, beating them on camera. One candidate was shown on TV being jerked by the necktie, and having his arm twisted in so painful a way by some thug-looking Israeli-boy soldiers. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti was arrested on more than one occasion during the brief campaign; he was beaten and harassed repeatedly. If this had happened to a presidential candidate anywhere in the world it would be a story to remember for years to come. But Israel is special. So nobody wants to admit the fact that the greatest obstacle to peace in the region is the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, and the dispossession and systematic murder that took place in 1948.
Is it possible that Israel’s violations of dozens of UN resolutions, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Court of Justice ruling are nothing compared to Palestinians not having democracy?
Why are Palestinian sins, the suicide bombings and such magnified and condemned while Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinians invites no reproach?
Ariel Sharon has made it so indisputably clear that he is neither interested in dismantling his illegal settlements from the West Bank, nor returning captive East Jerusalem to its rightful owners. According to Sharon, a Palestinian state is only possible on 42 percent of the West Bank, less than ten percent of the total area of historic Palestine, without the refugees ever exercising their right of return, without actual control over the borders, without Jerusalem, without removing the over 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers from the West Bank. And even then, a state can only actualize after the Palestinians guarantee Israel’s security. How could a defenseless nation guarantee the security of its occupier? Is this rational?
But we must render all of that irrelevant at the moment and simply reflect on this golden opportunity where Palestinians have finally seen the light of democracy, even if under the chains of a tank, and a soldier’s boot. This is, of course, the furthest possible scenario from genuine democracy. What is happening in Palestine is nothing but a construct, an illusion, which only indicates that Palestinians and their deficient political culture are in need of serious revamping, while Israel can only be expected to exercise restraint. But restraint never meant settlement freezes, and end of land confiscation, house demolitions, tree toppling and a mini-massacre every now and then. There is nothing new about this charade. It’s as old as the conflict itself.
So if you are holding your breath, expecting peace following the Palestinian elections, you can exhale now, Israel still holds the keys.
— Ramzy Baroud is editor in chief of PalestineChronicle.com and is a program producer at Aljazeera Satellite Television.
