Down and out in The Hague

It's been a long time since I've felt so small, uncomfortable and red-faced as during the show of whining and whimpering organized by Israel at The Hague. Colorful posters displaying photographs of 935 terror victims; Zaka rescue team workers led by Yehuda Meshi Zahav wearing their "work clothes"; memorial candles; parents talking about the pain of bereavement; doctors describing the savage nature of the suicide bombers; the wreckage of a burnt-out bus with a bereaved mother standing next to it, distributing "one-way tickets" - these are just some of the sights. At the Foreign Ministry, these demonstrations are seen as an appropriate "J'accuse" against those who dare to put us in the guilty seat. In practice, it is a display of wretchedness and woe designed to tug at the heartstrings of international public opinion - like beggars who show off the stump of an arm or leg to make the world feel sorry for them. These sights create a lingering sense of discomfort, not least because Israel is thought of - not only in the Middle East, but all over the world - as a powerhouse. In keeping with that image, the last thing one would think Israel needed was pity. Just this week, Israel received two snazzy new F-16Is capable of flying to anywhere from Libya to Timbuktu. When the rest of the shipment arrives, Israel, with all its problems, will be bigger and stronger than ever before. To see it playing "poor Samson," as Levi Eshkol liked to say, is just not credible.

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Talking with an Islamist
by Helena Cobban

Here's a little fragment from my recent trip to Israel/Palestine that I wanted to share. I was sitting with a colleague at Bir Zeit University who'd been telling me about the Islamic List having recently swept to (yet another) victory in the Student Council elections. I enquired if I could have a quick talk with one of these student leaders; and soon thereafter a very interesting young man came by.

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Land grab in Gaza casts doubt on pullout

Israel is seizing Palestinian land in Gaza to expand one of the most controversial Jewish settlements three weeks after Ariel Sharon said he intended to remove all settlers from the territory.

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Palestinian refugee issues
by Helena Cobban

I've been thinking a lot about the Palestinian refugee issue these past few days, in connection with a big writing project I'm working on. It's hard issue to discuss much, publicly, here in the US, where much of the hardest of hard-line Israeli rhetoric about the refugees has just been accepted at face value. That is, such mendacious old canards as (1) the refugees all left their homes in 1948 because the Arab leaders told them to. (Therefore they don't have any "right" to return to their homes... ) Or (2) that the refugee camps are all run as training camps for the Palestinian militant groups and should be disbanded immediately. Or (3) that the Palestinians should all just resettle in the countries where they now are. (What's all this about a "right" of return, anyway?). Or (4), that Arafat only raised the issue of the refugees in late 2000, suddenly and "capriciously", with the sole aim of torpedoing the negotiations. Or (5), that anyway, before the Jews started going to Israel in the 20th century there weren't even many Arabs there at all; the ones who were there just before 1948 were nearly all recent migrants who'd been attracted only by the Jewish wealth being poured into the country to "make it bloom"... Are those the main ones? Any more? I've been trying to figure out just why it is that the Palestinian refugee issue pushes such ultra-sensitive buttons for so many Israelis and so many of their supporters worldwide. What's the big deal? Why is it that these ultra-Zionists feel they have to be so combative (defensive) about the refugee question that oftentimes they just refuse to discuss or even examine the claims of the refugees at all?

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Can Israel Ever Live At Peace With The Arabs?

America's Albatross
The Israeli Crisis