Lessons not learned...
12/01/2009
By DR JAMES J ZOGBY President,
Arab American Institute
The horrors that are unfolding in Gaza are but a tragic
replay of past confrontations: The same bluster and
threats, the same miscalculations by all sides, the same
massive and overwhelming use of Israeli force designed
to "stop once and for all...", and the same absence of
any constructive US role - with no one learning lessons
from the past.
Because we have seen all this play out before, we can
easily predict the outcome. There will be many
Palestinians who die, leaving grieving and angry
families behind. There will be increased Palestinian and
Arab anger spreading throughout the region, reinforcing
extremist trends, threatening not only Israel and the
US, but the US' Arab allies as well.
And because this drama has played out before, there are
lessons that ought to have been learned from the past -
but, sadly, have not.
Let me share two instructive stories from an earlier
instance of Israel's "decisive use of force" - this one
from 1996. In that year, Shimon Peres, who had become
Prime Minister following the assassination of Yitzhak
Rabin, was facing a stiff electoral challenge from
Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu. Peres was considered
generally supportive of establishing peace with the
Palestinians while Netanyahu ran on a platform that
specifically called for ending the peace process.
In the midst of the election, both Hamas and Hizbollah
inserted themselves into the process, engaging in lethal
provocations. Netanyahu accused Peres of being weak, and
Peres launched a massive bombing campaign (40,000 bombs)
against Lebanon, designed (as he claimed) to "send a
message".
Despite 400,000 refugees, 10,000 homes destroyed and
scores of lives lost, for days the Clinton
Administration said nothing other than to affirm
"Israel's right to defend itself". This continued until
the now-infamous Qana massacre, in which 106 Lebanese
civilians were killed and another 116 wounded when the
UN compound in which they had sought refuge was shelled
by Israeli artillery.
It was in the midst of this horror that I debated an
Israeli minister on CNN's Crossfire. I said that I was
finding it difficult to debate him, watching him defend
what I believed he knew was an immoral war. He said
nothing on air, but afterwards noted, given the
provocation and the tightness of the election, they [the
Labour government in Israel] felt they had no choice but
to act. They could not have confronted their own right
wing, unless the US had provided justification for it!
In the end, Peres lost the election because tens of
thousands of Israeli Arab voters refused to cast their
ballots for him. Israel stood embarrassed in the eyes of
the world. Anger against Israel in Lebanon further
intensified. And with Netanyahu as Prime Minister,
Israel began to take a series of steps that inevitably
led - as he had intended all along - to dealing fatal
blows to the peace process.
Clinton later said he would not make the same mistake
again (although he did much the same in 2000-2001 when
Ehud Barak was facing Ariel Sharon).
At this point, the Bush Administration cannot make a
difference. And, in any case, real damage is being done.
The Palestinian dead will not come back, their families
will not stop mourning, nor will their anger easily
subside. Hamas will emerge stronger, building off the
anger and the loss of hope in peace.
On January 20th, Barack Obama will inherit all this -
with a choice to make.
He can either repeat the failed patterns of the past, or
learn its lessons and provide the needed leadership that
can pull Israelis and Palestinians back from the
precipice, and provide them a way forward.
jzogby@aaiusa.org
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