Harry Shannon
I keep hearing people saying that Israel has always been ready to reach a peace settlement with Palestinians, but there’s no “Partner for Peace.” This argument is best exemplified by former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s sly and often-repeated saying that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” But the evidence shows that pre-state Zionists and Israeli governments since 1948 have rarely if ever, attempted to reach a settlement with Palestinians. Indeed, the current government is moving even faster at seizing and annexing Palestinian land,[1] which could make a peace settlement with a Palestinian state almost impossible.
So what’s the evidence? There’s plenty:
Theodor Herzl, considered the father of political Zionism, wanted to remove the indigenous population from Palestine. In 1895 he wrote:
“We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us [Jews]. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our own country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the people must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”[2]
David Ben Gurion, who became Israel’s first Prime Minister, made it clear in a letter to his son in 1937 that he wanted all the land of Palestine: “A Jewish state must be established immediately, even if it is only in part of the country. The rest will follow in the course of time.” [Emphasis added] He believed that the non-Jews living there should be removed.[3]
Israeli historians have found that the Israeli leaders have often failed to respond to overtures from Arab leaders. For example, Oxford historian Avi Shlaim notes that early Israeli Foreign Ministry files “burst at the seams with evidence of Arab peace feelers and Arab readiness to negotiate with Israel from September 1948 on.” As well, Arab rulers “were prepared to recognize Israel, to negotiate directly with it, and even to make peace with it.” [4]
Benny Morris takes this further: “For decades, Ben-Gurion, and successive administrations after his, lied to the Israeli public about the post-1948 peace overtures and about Arab interest in a deal.”[5] And Ben Gurion himself said that if he were an Arab leader he would never make terms with Israel; that this was natural as Israel had taken their country.[6]
Another Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir admitted to an Israeli journalist that he did not intend for any progress and wanted to drag out negotiations for 10 years with no result.[7]
Golda Meir, Israel’s Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974, was notorious for her intransigence. In those years, Israeli policy consisted of ‘military activism and diplomatic immobility.’[8]
Following talks hosted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in which Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin agreed to some autonomy for Palestinians, Begin stated that the only autonomy which mattered was “the one that gave the Israeli government a veto on the progress of any negotiations.”[9]
Immediately after the 1967 war, officials in Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, were asked to report on Palestinian attitudes in the West Bank. They found that almost all West Bank leaders, even the most extreme, were ready to reach a permanent peace agreement with Israel based on Palestinian independence without an army. The officials recommended establishing such a state as soon as possible. However, this was ignored. And in the mid-1970s mayors in the West Bank and Gaza (mostly pro-PLO) endorsed a Palestinian state at peace with Israel.[10]
The period between 1993 and 2000 was one of negotiations following the Oslo accords. The accords required both parties to avoid actions that would change the situation ‘on the ground’. But Israel violated the agreement and expanded its occupation in several ways. Here is a partial list:
Expropriated 200 sq km of agricultural land from Palestinians for Israeli settlements and roads.
Uprooted 80,000 olive and fruit trees to allow Israeli construction and deny ownership to Palestinians
Established 30 new settlements
Demolished more than 1,200 Palestinian homes
Imposed permanent closure over the occupied territories
Exploited Palestinians’ natural resources, especially water[11]
These were hardly the actions of a government acting in the spirit of finding a solution to the conflict.
Israel often refers to the Camp David talks in 2000 and claims they failed because of Yassir Arafat. Yossi Ginnosar, a participant in the summit, stated in an interview with the Yediot Ahronoth (an Israeli newspaper) that this idea was to justify the failure of the summit and was “a duplicitous campaign that contributed to sowing despair in Israeli society and caused damage to the process that was conducted afterward.”[12] This analysis is supported by Professor Menachem Klein, an advisor to the Israeli delegation, who strongly rejected the view that Israel made “generous offers” to the Palestinians and that the Palestinians were intransigent.[13]
The latter myth is of course inconsistent with the fact that a short while after Camp David, further talks were held at Taba, talks which many believe could have succeeded in reaching a peace agreement if they not had been broken off because of the up-coming Israeli election.[14]
After Israeli settlers were removed from Gaza, Prime Minister Sharon’s close advisor Dov Weisglass told a reporter: ‘The disengagement … supplies the amount of formaldehyde that’s necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.’ He said the withdrawal was to divert international attention and preserve Israel’s hold on the West Bank.[15]
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister for almost all of the past 15 years, has based his career on rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel’s current governing coalition signed an agreement of principles. One part states: “The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right over all areas of the Land of Israel [which includes Gaza and the West Bank].”[16] This of course precludes a Palestinian state.
Indeed Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s current finance minister, has stated that it is his “life’s mission” to prevent a Palestinian state.[17]
The government has moved significantly to fulfill that aim. They have transferred many powers on the West Bank from the military to pro-settlement civil servants and removed legal barriers to increased settlements. Israel has always claimed it has had a temporary military occupation. So transferring power to a civilian authority is a major step, although the Defence Ministry is still involved to make it seem that annexation is not happening. Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard commented: “The bottom line is that [for] anyone who thought the question of annexation was foggy, this order should end any doubts. What this order does is transfers vast areas of administrative power from the military commander to Israeli civilians working for the government.”[18] Bezalel Smotrich “admitted that the government is annexing the West Bank behind the world’s back and using the army to conceal its actions.”[19]
[1] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-04/ty-article/.premium/israel-approves-nearly-5-300-west-bank-homes-ngo-calls-out-largest-land-grab-in-decades/00000190-7f66-da1d-a19a-ff7e671e0000
[2] Theodor Herzl, Complete Diaries, ed. Raphael Patai (New York: Herzl Press, 1960), p. 88
[3] https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2013/04/06/the-ben-gurion-letter/
[4] Shlaim A. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. New York: Norton. 2001: 49-53
[5] Morris B. Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001. Paperback edition. New York: Vintage. 2001: 268.
[6] Nahum Goldman, cited in Mearsheimer JJ, Walt SM. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: Farrar, Srauss and Giroux. 2007: 96.
[7] Ibid. 615, although Shamir later claimed he was misquoted.
[8] Shlaim, 2001: 288-289. Shlaim states that ‘[i]ntransigent was not only her middle name. It was the hallmark of Israel’s policy’ while she was prime minister.
[9] Avishai B. The Tragedy of Zionism: How Its Revolutionary Past Haunts Israeli Democracy. New York: Helios Press, 2002: 286.
[10] Avishai, 2002: 280.
[11] Jeff Halper, The Key to Peace: Dismantling the Matrix of Control. Chapter 3 in Carey and Shainin, 2002.
[12] Akiva Elder, Ha’aretz, (11 June 2004).
[13] Menachem Klein. The Origins of Intifada II and Rescuing Peace for Israelis and Palestinians. http://www.miftah.org/display.cfm?DocId=1813&CategoryId=5
[14] Akiva Eldar. “Moratinos Document” – The peace that nearly was at Taba. Ha’aretz, February 14, 2002.
[15] Zertal I, Eldar A. Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007. (Translated by Vivian Eden) Nation Books. 2007: 447
[16] https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/37_govt_position_paper_Eng_100123.pdf
[17] https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jun/24/israel-gaza-war-live-troops-to-move-from-gaza-to-lebanon-border-says-netanyahu-as-us-warns-of-widening-conflict
[18] https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/idf-transfers-powers-in-occupied-west-bank-to-pro-settler-civil-servants
[19] https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-06-24/ty-article-opinion/.premium/smotrich-has-a-plan-to-annex-the-west-bank-and-netanyahu-supports-it/00000190-46a8-d91c-abba-efb8e7f90000