Until last week, the popularity of Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was very low, reaching single digits and at one stage approaching zero. In the latest opinion polls conducted in Israel in the last few days, Olmert’s popularity has witnessed a dramatic increase. Up to 35 percent of the Israeli public now approves of his policies. What has changed to cause this steep rise in Olmert’s popularity? The answer, according to Israeli sources, is the latest Israeli air force incursion into Syrian skies deep inside Syrian airspace above Dir El Zoor city, where Iraqi-Iranian-Syrian and Turkish borders meet. This raid / incursion was ordered by Ehud Olmert, and this naked aggression is being rewarded by increased popularity.
The above story is significant, as it sheds more light on the psyche of the Israeli public. A spoiled public that lends support to a leader, not for his perceived moves toward making peace, but because he sanctions unprovoked aggression against a sovereign neighboring state (Syria). This despite the Syrian-Israeli border being the quietest in the region, without any serious cease-fire violation since 1973. Syria, despite the need for an explanation, is so far cautious in releasing any additional information on the Israeli air raid on its territory.
The Israeli public, reminded always of its victories against Arab armies that lead to the “redemption of the land of Israel”, is subjected to a systematic media campaign, constantly feeding it with fear, reminding it of events relating to its recent past during World War II in Europe, and stirring in it fears for Israel’s future in the Middle East. All of this, among other things, has turned Israelis into what it is today a mostly right-wing extremist people, greedy, selfish, ruthless and void of any humanity when it comes to the Palestinian people under their occupation.
This Israeli public finds it easy to close its eyes and not to acknowledge the atrocities its occupation army inflicts on the Palestinian civilian population. They don’t want to know about the almost daily killing of Palestinian youngsters, including children, the suffering, agony and humiliation of Palestinians at the more than 500 Israeli checkpoints scattered throughout the occupied territory, the long queues of Palestinian vehicles waiting patiently for a nod from an Israeli soldier, busy chatting with his female soldier colleague, to move.
A situation like that which exists in Israel now, where ministers and officials are always competing on who is more tough with the Palestinian people, and who is not willing to “divide” Jerusalem, and who cares more for Jewish settlements in the occupied territory, and who is more in favor of inflicting additional suffering on 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza, can only prove that Israeli society and its government can not and are not ready for a peace. If anything, their actions and behavior on the ground is designed to solicit more hatred, more animosity, turning peace prospects among both peoples into a pipe-dream. A sample of this Israeli public is epitomized by an Israeli woman who writes that her (Israel’s) existence in the “redeemed land” is in danger saying: “If you don’t strike when some advantage is still yours, you don’t deserve to exist.” Addressing the Israeli public she adds, “Take over the land and evict all collaborators (meaning Palestinians). Re-educate the next generation or send it packing.”
What is being said above is not meant to discourage the optimists, but to clarify the situation as a majority of the Palestinian people under occupation sees it and feels it on the ground.
Palestinians keep hearing about economic recovery plans submitted by this or that envoy or representative, when they, even as individuals, can hardly travel from one city in the West Bank to another. They hear about security plans and wonder about their own security, hear about one peace initiative or another, when in effect, nothing changes on the ground, except for the worse.
Without substantial changes indicating an imminent end to the Israeli occupation regime in Arab East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, without the total removal of the checkpoints and the siege, without the total freedom of movement for the Palestinian people on their land, without families being able to be together, and business people being able to access their investments, and universities being able to retain teachers and students, talk of a future Palestinian state is meaningless.
As has often been said, Israel, as the occupying power, under international law has irrevocable responsibilities in preventing a further deterioration of the economic, social and humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
It is up to the international community, the United States and the Quartet in particular, and every single state signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention to make sure Israel end its occupation, and is held accountable.
— Walid M. Awad works for Fatah Central Media Commission in Ramallah/ Palestine. ([email protected])
