By Uri Avnery, 6.5.06
SHALL WE start
with the good news or the bad news? As confirmed optimists, let's start with
the good news.
To paraphrase an old Hebrew saying: Don't look at the
vessel but at what's not in it. Avigdor Liberman is not in the Israeli
government.
He made a huge effort to board the ship. He put on an
almost liberal mask, ate juicy herring with Yossi Beilin, who called him a nice
person. After the elections, Amir Peretz made no mention of Labor's pledge not
to sit with him in the cabinet. It seemed that the brutal racist would succeed
in achieving legitimacy for his fascist views.
But the brutish wolf did not reckon with the wiliness
of the fox. Ehud Olmert twisted the gross braggart around his little finger. At
the last moment, Liberman was left on shore, looking on with longing eyes as
the ship, bedecked with gay flags, put out to sea without him.
Furious, he threw away his amiable mask, and gave a
speech in the Knesset demanding the execution of the Arab deputies who had met
with the members of the Palestinian government. After that, even Beilin will
not be having breakfast will him any more.
THE SECOND piece of
good news is that Shaul Mofaz has been removed from the Ministry of Defense. This
primitive man, the king of "targeted liquidations", has been thrown
from the high tower of Defense into the empty well of Transportation. One can
enjoy the cartoon showing Mofaz driving a tank down the streets of Tel-Aviv.
This joy is mixed with deep anxiety. It is difficult
to get used to the appellation "Minister of Defense Amir
Peretz". Only a few hours before
he took the oath of office in the Knesset, soldiers shot an innocent
Palestinian taxi driver in the back and killed him. The day before, they had
killed "by mistake" a Palestinian woman at her home. From now on, Peretz
will bear the responsibility for such acts, which have become part of the daily
routine of occupation. He has put himself into an almost impossible position. The
next demonstrations we hold will probably have to be against him.
THE THIRD item of
good news is that this is a civilian government. The four key players (Prime
Minister and Ministers of Defense, Finance and Foreign Affairs) are civilians. Undoubtedly,
a sign of maturity.
Among the 25 cabinet ministers, there are
"only" two generals (Mofaz, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer), both in junior
positions. Even the number of Shin-Bet officers in the cabinet (Gideon Ezra,
Avi Dichter, Raffi Eytan) is larger than that.
But let's not rejoice too soon: a civilian government may be browbeaten
by the might of the generals and feel the urge to prove its military prowess
(echoing the song: Anything you can do, I can do better…) Will these civilians
dare to act against the advice of the Chief-of-Staff, who takes part in every
cabinet meeting and dictates policy in the name of "security"?
In this government, there are no lions. This is a
government of foxes, headed by the leader of the pack. With Ariel Sharon, the
last of the great figures of the 1948 war is gone. The presence of the pathetic
Shimon Peres only underlines this. This is a government of gray party hacks.
There are two glaring holes in it. Olmert made his
first major mistake when he did not include a member of the Russian-speaking
community in the new cabinet. A million immigrants from the former Soviet Union,
many of them imbued with a rabid racism they brought with them, will now be
pushed even further into a corner. This is a great danger. Bad news.
Another community of a million and a quarter is also
left outside: the Arab citizens. Like all its predecessors, this government,
the 31st in the state's 58 years of existence, is a Jewish government, not an
Israeli one. It doesn't have a single Arab member. This large community will
also be pushed to the margins. Bad news, indeed. All of Olmert's empty phrases
about equality between all citizens cannot cover this up.
SO WHAT will top
the agenda of the Olmert government? It seems that the most plausible answer is
prosaic: its very existence. It is unified by the ardent desire to survive until
the end of its four and a half years' term. (The half is a leftover from the
last government).
This was most vividly expressed by the orgy of kisses
in the Knesset when the new ministers took the oath of office. Such an outburst
of childish happiness is more typical of lottery-winners than ministers called
upon to deal with fateful problems.
The Knesset Speaker, Dalia Itzig, the first woman ever
to occupy this post, became a Mezuzah, kissed by all the ministers (except for
the Orthodox) on her raised podium. Afterwards, the new ministers kissed each
other and all the Knesset members they came across, accompanying this with
hearty embraces and slaps on the back. If we assume that every minister kissed
a dozen persons on average, that makes 300 kisses.
It is difficult to imagine such a scene in any other
parliament, not to mention the first Knesset. David Ben-Gurion was no great
kisser.
THE FLAG flying
from the mast is, of course, the flag of Convergence. That was and is Olmert's
main slogan. But one should not hold one's breath waiting for its
implementation.
Olmert himself has announced that before the
realization, much time should be devoted to dialogue. Dialogue with whom? Well, with the settlers. And with the United
States. And with the "international community".
Anyone missing from the list? Only the Palestinians. With
them it is not possible (nor necessary) to talk - until they recognize the
right of existence of Israel as a Jewish State, accept all past treaties, stop
the violence and confiscate the weapons of the organizations. In short,
surrender unconditionally. And become members of the Zionist Organization, too,
while they are at it. Olmert is patient. He is ready to wait for two years.
During these two years, the United States and the international
community are expected to recognize the "permanent" borders that the
Olmert government wants to fix "unilaterally", at its pleasure,
without the agreement of the Palestinians and without even talking with them.
In the two years, the government will do nothing for
peace. On the contrary, it will enlarge the settlement blocs - in order to
prepare housing for the settlers who will be moved there, when the time comes,
from the isolated settlements. That's to say: first of all the big settlements
will be annexed and enlarged, and after that - God willing - some small
settlements will be dismantled. According to the plan, all the settlers will
remain on the other side of the Green Line. Olmert has already rejected out of
hand the suggestion that compensation be paid to the settlers who are willing
to come back to Israel now.
AND WHAT is the
really good news? This government speaks publicly about the "partition of
the country" as the "lifeline of Zionism". It speaks of
withdrawal from "most of Judea and Samaria" and the dismantling of
settlements. That shows a big shift in public opinion.
One of the leading racists in the Knesset, Effi Eytam,
shouted that "there is no Jewish majority for withdrawal". He should
be sent back to third grade to learn his arithmetic. True, according to the
racist-nationalist accounting, there are only 58 Jewish members of the Knesset
in favor of withdrawal (28 Jewish members of Kadima, 17 of Labor, 7 Pensioners,
5 Meretz, the 1 Jewish member of Hadash). But against them, only 50 Jewish
members oppose withdrawal (Likud, Shas, the Orthodox, the Liberman people and
the National Union). The remaining 12 members are Arabs, who can be presumed to
support withdrawal (1 of Kadima, 2 of Labor, 2 Hadash, 3 Balad, 4 of the United
Arab Party).
Accordingly, there is not only a large majority in the
Knesset (70 against 50) for the partition of the country, but even a
"Jewish majority" (58 against 50). That is a geological change in
public opinion - a sign of a slow but massive and ongoing process.
FEW BELIEVE that this
government will indeed last for four and a half years. The general guess is
that it will fall in two years, when the "convergence" is slated to
start. At that time, Shas will probably secede.
Olmert asked us to be patient. Alright, then, let us
be patient as we wait for the next
elections.