A Recipe for Israelis' Security

This article was published by the EI
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9391.shtml and reprinted by "Occupation magazine"
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=25748

Time and again, it is very obvious that Israel cannot provide its citizens with either actual security or even a sense of security, whether inside or outside the country. This is so despite the fact that it possesses all means of military power and superiority including the nuclear weapons making it the strongest regional power in the Middle East. In fact, despite all its power, Israel lives a continuous security crisis. Despite its power, Israel has been unable to prevent even Palestinian children from picking up stones and throwing them at Israeli tanks and forces. Fares Audah a 12 year old Palestinian boy from Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, was doing just that when he was killed by Israeli bullets in the summer of 2002. Moreover, despite Israel's continuous shelling and bombardment of most of the iron workshops in Gaza, home-made rockets still keep falling on the Israeli town of Sderot. Furthermore, despite all the security measures taken by Israel, Palestinian suicide bombers have repeatedly entered Israeli areas and exploded themselves on buses and in markets.

The question at this juncture, then, is why has Israel been unable to provide security despite all its might. And what is the solution to this complicated problem, one that has become part and parcel of the psychology, the rhetoric and the culture of Israeli society?

In my opinion, the insecurity in which Israel finds itself since its foundation and its citizens' persistent feelings of fear, can be attributed to a variety of reasons. I would like to highlight two of these in particular. The first source of Israeli insecurity lies in the very power possessed by Israel, which engenders the mistaken belief that military superiority can and will solve any problem the country might face. Adopting the logic of power and the heavy handed policies this entails has been a consistent feature of Israeli politics for decades. However, power alone cannot bring security or peace. It is a means or a tool which, on its own, is unfailingly insufficient. Solutions that are forcefully imposed are such that can never attain security, solve political problems or bring a lasting peace. It was only when white South Africans finally realized that their superior armed power could not and would not solve their problems with black South Africans, that the two groups created the opportunity to reach real solutions.

The second source of Israeli insecurity that I wish to focus on here is the weakness of the Arab regimes in the Middle East and their consequent adoption of a strategic "peace process" towards maintaining the status quo of so-called “no war no peace” with Israel. Most of these regimes are not elected and do not represent their people, a fact bearing a direct connection to what we might call the "insecurity"- "dilemma". The choice of "no war no peace" maintained through a strategic "peace process" is a policy of regimes rather one of than peoples, geared towards keeping US support and ensuring the continued flow of foreign aid to the regimes in question. Israel's security, however, lies in the hands of the peoples of the region, not with the regimes. For these peoples, the Palestinian cause is deeply embedded in the past, present and future. Many individuals were imbued with the cause of Palestine from infancy and throughout their lives; it still plays a role in their tears and aspirations and they continue following the tragedies Palestinians live in the Occupied Territories on the satellite channels. Needless to say, they have been deeply affected by the wars in Lebanon and the bloody summer of 2006, by the massacres of Sabra and Shatilla and by many other events that have become part of the typical Arab vision or perception of Israel or Israelis. Arab people see Arab lands still occupied, including the Syrian "Golan" heights and the Lebanese Shaba farms. To the extent that these people continue to feel they are not at peace with Israel, Israelis cannot feel secure.

Given these central reasons for the chronic insecurity of Israeli society, we can map out some guidelines towards solving the "insecurity dilemma". These, I wish to propose, may be a recipe for Israel security.

First, if Israel seeks security for its citizens then a comparable security must be sought and achieved for Palestinians. Palestinian people must be on an equal footing with Israeli people, must have a homeland, must be guaranteed justice, their basic human rights and their dignity. Towards achieving that, Israelis need first to recognize Palestinians as humans with an equal standing, entitled to all the rights that are granted to Israelis. One cannot live in security while imposing a living hell on one's neighbors. Gaza cannot be starved, besieged, cut off from and out of the world, denied the most basic rights and meanwhile send roses to its oppressors. It contradicts the norms of nature for a desperate patient to stay smiling throughout the pain or for an angry starving prisoner to talk calmly and quietly with his jailer. I'm reminded of Socrates’ story about the little mouse that annoyed him for a long time. As he carried it at his hand, studying its tiny size and weakness, the mouse bit his figure and escaped. For a minute, he was astonished to be defeated by such a small creature. However, wisely summing up the situation, he concluded that resistance, no matter how small, is a significant step towards change and a path to a new life. The path towards almost any major change is undoubtedly made up of small attempts like those of Socrates' mouse.

Much like it failed to help Socrates, possessing power has not helped Israel ensure its citizens' security. Ensuring the security for mega-mighty Israel requires a recognition of the other and the other's limited but existent resistance and might. In order for security to prevail for all, military occupation must end and the repressive measures of denial must be repudiated. The unjust and brutal blockade against Gaza's 1.5 million people must end, as must the apartheid regime and the expansionist policies practiced in the West Bank. Just last week Israeli bombardment and repeated invasion of Gaza, resulting in the highest number of causalities for decades, have not achieved a solution to the problems of Sderot. Just as it failed to work this time, it will fail to work again.

Palestinians need to live a normal life like that of others, no more and no less. Their children need to go to schools without being held up at checkpoints or shot along the way. They need to study in a normal environment, in classes that don't number 55 students. They need to realize their right to dream and plan for the future and the future of their children. No reason in the world can justify the fact that Palestinian children are subjected to such harsh lives and forced to endure the humiliation of occupation.

Palestinians are entitled to, and long for, freedom of movement as well as free passage for their products and goods. When they wish to visit their families or when the summer vacation begins, Palestinians like Israelis need to pack their bags and head towards the borders without fear of being either stranded there or turned back, making normal mobility an unattainable dream. They want and deserve respect in airports instead of being held for hours or even days due to being stateless or to the fact that the computer system doesn't recognize their country's name. The sick deserve decent hospitals and competent treatment. They must be transported to the nearest hospital when taken ill, rather than being denied access like Fawziya Abdelalfatah who died last month in the West Bank when Israeli soldiers at El Ghsoun checkpoint refused to let her reach Tulkarem hospital. It is the right of the wounded to be transferred to hospital, rather than being left to bleed to death. And on arrival, the sick and wounded must find the necessary medications at the hospitals, rather than dying due to the shortage in medications.

Palestinians are entitled to dignity both in life and in death. Nowadays, due to Israel's blockade, Gaza is short of raw materials for manufacturing coffins. My grandmother is searching for a coffin for fear that the shortage will prevent her dignified burial in keeping with our religion and culture. All in all, this daily man-made humiliation must end. Palestinians must be recognized and respected as human beings.

Is this unthinkable or abnormal – what the Palestinians are asking? If it is, then it seems that Israel's security problems may never end. For until the Palestinians' basic rights are recognized, I fear that Israel will continue to live in fear and insecurity.