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Luring
Israel into the European Union
By
Jonathan
Power
March 25, 2004
LONDON - The lure of membership of the European
Union is working with Turkey, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia
and even to a lesser extent with Serbia. All have
upgraded their attitudes to justice and to minorities.
When Europe walks softly with a big juicy carrot it seems
to work far better than the old time policies of
sanctions, reprobation and isolation. So why not with
Israel? Europe could offer the Jews a security a fence
never could.
The security wall now being built to divide Israel
from Palestine will end up enclosing the Palestinians
inside an area that is 44% of the West Bank. This is a
mere 9% of historic Palestine. No quasi independence for
Gaza can compensate for this bald arithmetic. The Hamas
line takes on a renewed resonance among an increasing
number of Arabs: we have no choice, they say, but to
drive the Israelis into the sea.
There is a telling passage in Patrick Buchanan's
latest book. He records a visit to Richard Nixon. His
wife asks the ex president a question: "What do you think
are the prospects for Israel's future existence?" Nixon
"extended his right fist, thumb up in the manner of a
Roman emperor passing sentence on a Roman gladiator, and
slowly turned his thumb over and down".
Palestinian anger goes back a long way, at least to
1917, when the British government in the shape of the
Balfour Declaration gave the official nod to the Zionists
who wanted to re-create a biblical homeland on what for
700 years, until the break-up of the Ottoman Empire in
the wake of Turkey's defeat in World War 1, had been
Muslim territory. The Palestinians consider themselves
double crossed by the British. They have always
maintained that Palestine was twice promised. During the
struggle to undermine the Turkish Empire Britain had told
the Palestinians that they too would get their homeland
in return for cooperation.
By 1937 the British political establishment concluded
it had made a mistake in allowing the Zionist movement to
drag the country into the enterprise of remaking a Jewish
homeland. A bloody Arab revolt that they had to
mercilessly repress had ground down the earlier
idealistic vision. A year before the British had come up
with their own plan for partition. By today's standards
it was a very good deal. The Arabs would receive the west
bank of the Jordan River, the mountainous region and the
desert to the south. The Jews would receive Tel Aviv, the
coastal plain, the northern valleys and part of Galilee.
The British would retain Jerusalem.
But the Arabs refused partition. So did many of the
Jews, although the leadership, in particular Chaim
Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, were for it since it would
bring about a Jewish state. Ben-Gurion preferred
legitimacy to real estate.
In the end, faced with continuing Arab revolt, London
in a cowardly move shelved its own proposal. But by
refusing to bite on that bullet the British had to face
down even more Arab violence, then Jewish violence, all
the while favoring the Zionists endeavor of settling
increasing numbers of Jewish immigrants. When the British
upped and left- literally dropping the keys of the
central administration on the doorstep of the
closed-for-the-night UN office, it was inevitable the
Arabs would fight. It was also inevitable that the Jews
would win.
After the later 1967 war, when Israel overran the left
bank, the then retired Ben-Gurion said that Israel must
unilaterally withdraw from the occupied territories. But
he was ignored and the settlement movement began, though
it was only a small minority who thought it was a
sensible idea.
Now 37 years later the compromising efforts of
Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton and
Crown Prince Abdullah are all water under the bridge of
Arab/Israel enmity.
There are Israelis who are prepared to meet the
Palestinians half way but they are marginalized
politically. Public opinion in Israel is defensive, pro
Sharon, yet according to the opinion polls more open than
he to a fair deal.
Much Western opinion blames the Americans for the
present impasse. While it is true that the Bush
administration has behaved irresponsibly, it is not right
for Europe to shrug off its historical burden. Without
the romantic-religious decision of the British
administration of David Lloyd George and without the
Holocaust we would not face what we contemplate
today.
It is Europe that needs to take the lead to make
amends. It is not enough to let Israeli artists sing in
the Eurovision song contest- although this trivial
gesture suggests that many Europeans consider Israel a
slice of Europe. Israel should be encouraged to become an
applicant to the European Union. This would offer the
security the Jews crave and which a fence and guns can
never match. In return the Jews must be generous, very
generous, with the division of historic Palestine.
I can be reached by phone +44
7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
Copyright © 2004 By
JONATHAN POWER
Follow this
link to read about - and order - Jonathan Power's book
written for the
40th Anniversary of
Amnesty International
"Like
Water on Stone - The Story of Amnesty
International"
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