As Israel approaches its 60th anniversary it must look back and examine the years that have passed. There have been many successes and many mistakes, as happens in any human venture. However, since the first-ever Israeli prime minister was assassinated, Israel has used one form of action which is causing the Middle East many problems today.
Like radicals all over the Arab world, official Israel has been acting like an extremist who can’t find any way other than force. This has lead to a violent Palestinian public, led by a leadership with its back to the wall and another that has made the headlines through terror, where a gain was achieved in the end by winning the Palestinian elections. Anger was transferred quickly to the rest of the Arab masses.
Upon seeing this and feeling the danger, King (then Prince) Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz inaugurated the Arab Peace Initiative at the Arab Summit of Beirut in 2002. Yet, Israeli officials totally ignored it. This ignorance of the initiative can be compared with Golda Meir’s ignorance of the Sadat peace initiative of February 4, 1971. Among the indirect results of this ignorance of the Arab Peace Initiative was the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hizbullah, when many innocents were killed in Lebanon and Israel alike.
It seems clear that Israel is in dire need of new leaders, leaders with vision and courage, ready to act for the sake of the Israeli future. They should think out of the box, and see the innumerable opportunities Israel has in the Middle East today.
However, one has to ask oneself, taking into account Jewish and Israeli history, what kind of leader Israel wants today in a Middle East that has changed dramatically over the past few years since the death of Yitzhak Rabin. Is it a Ben-Gurion type of leader, or a Sharrett or a Rabin; or is the answer: “None of the above”?
I believe that Israel today needs a Moses Mendelssohn, a man who can take Israelis outside their self-made 59-year-old large ghetto, to integrate it within the larger Middle East. However, this new Mendelssohn doesn’t have to translate the Torah into Arabic in order to do so. He just has to negotiate the Arab Peace Initiative, and agree or disagree on many or some of its clauses. In the end he would be required to sign an agreement for a new Jewish enlightenment that would include all in the area and would end a tireless conflict. It would bring an auto-emancipation for all in the area, apart from their belief in achieving the good for all.
Violence will never cease as long there is a “them” and “us” approach in the area. Force will never win, as has been proven throughout the last 59 years as the area slides from one war into another, without an end to animosity even after peace agreements, since there are still countries and people who are not parties to the deals.
We all want peace, but how can we reach it, while jumped-up wannabes guide us through the future, leaving a fractured history behind us, looking totally inadequate, and letting us seethe over events of the past, breeding more hate every day and thus spreading violence all over the Middle East?
The iron wall must come down, accompanied by a revival of the Mendelssohn formula, making it work in the region, where people are in need of development and education for their children. There has been enough fighting. Now the time has come for peace, and this is a strategic Arab will, not just an individual state expression.
When multilateral agreements are concluded between Israel and most or all Arab states, then the forces of violence will be defeated everywhere. They would then be conducting a Don Quixote act, fighting against the windmills of time. Their ideas would be eliminated in the shining reflection of the higher rate of development that would spread throughout the Middle East.
This is an idea even a child could formulate and a young person could develop very easily. However, leaders in Israel are still thinking about settlements; it is as if they are giving fundamentalists in the region a helping hand, in order for more blood to be spilled, and receiving nothing in return.
It is difficult to describe a man as a leader while he is being led by the people and not leading them. It is also problematic to think of the status quo as better, when all the options for peace could give Israelis more than they already have. Improving the quality of life for any given people is better than a million settlements and endangered lives. The cycle of violence can go on forever, but will end in the same way.
So why should we lose more time? Is it worth it, for more people to die? Is this what God created us to do?
Israel can lead the Middle East technologically in the years to come, but only if a new leader arises and is ready to make the painful concessions in return for flattering profits and benefits that can make of Israel a real power of prosperity.
Think out of the box, and seize the opportunity to live as your founding fathers wished you did, in peace and prosperity with your Arab neighbors. Don’t be afraid of peace. The first Jewish enlightenment happened when you lived with the people. Try again to co-exist with the people who live around you, to allow history to document the second Jewish-Arab Enlightenment.
Sharif Hafez is an Egyptian scholar specializing in Middle East politics.