JERUSALEM — Whether it’s Secretary of State Powell hosting the
signers of the “Geneva Accord” on the heels of their grand ceremony
in Geneva last Monday, President Clinton sending American spin
doctors to help Ehud Barak win the 1999 Israeli elections, the 1995
Oslo II agreement passing the Knesset by a one-vote majority
achieved by blatant vote-buying, or the drafting of the initial
1993 Oslo agreement (by — who else — Yossi Beilin) behind the
backs of the official Israeli delegation to the Madrid Conference,
those who claim the cause of Israeli democracy is dear to their
hearts show a surprising contempt for that mere factor in the
equation, the Israeli voter.
Or maybe we shouldn’t be surprised to find out repeatedly that
our votes count for nothing, since we’ve got used to the message
that our lives count for nothing; and now — the U.N. has made it
official — that the lives of our children don’t matter either.
Amid all the hoopla about peace plans, peace talks, peace
ceremonies, an inconvenient item almost went unnoticed last week:
“Israel forced to withdraw resolution on children,” as the
Jerusalem Post phrased it. Last November 6, the General
Assembly’s Third (Humanitarian, Social and Cultural) Committee
adopted by a vote of 88-4, with 58 abstentions, a resolution
calling for protecting Palestinian children from “Israeli
aggression.” On November 26, Israel had to withdraw a resolution
calling for protecting Israeli children from terrorism because of
decisive opposition by states from the Non-Aligned Bloc, led by
Egypt.
Yes, Egypt — Israel’s peace partner of 25 years ago, which got
back every grain of Sinai sand and every drop of Sinai oil amid all
the fanfare of “no more war” and a promising future for everyone.
But whatever took root in Egypt in those heady days of signings,
solemnities, and declarations, it wasn’t amity toward Israel. A
quarter-century later, Egypt — leading a group of states that
included such beacons as Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen — could
not abide the phrase “Israeli children” in the resolution that
Israel proposed. Instead, these countries demanded that the draft
include references to Israeli “military assaults,” “occupation,”
and “excessive use of force,” and that “Israeli children” be
substituted by “Middle Eastern children.” Well, it’s nice to know
that this morning we got our Middle Eastern children out of bed and
sent them off to their heavily guarded schools. It’s sort of like
the Soviet propagandists who for decades couldn’t mention the
nationality of the people who were killed at Babi Yar.
So, Colin Powell, Yossi Beilin, and all you other unflappable
devotees of peace, that’s the world ca. 2003 — a nasty place, no?
An attempt to get the UN to ratify Israeli children’s right to life
doesn’t even come up for a vote, and the one spearheading the
contemptuous dismissal is Egypt — today a country that’s saturated
with anti-Semitism, that helps terrorists smuggle explosives into
Israel, and that’s building a massive army, with state-of-the-art,
U.S.-supplied weaponry, that gives Israeli intelligence planners
sleepless nights. But why should you let that stop you? Peace
always beckons to ears so very attuned to it. And the fact that
nine months ago the Israeli voters consigned people like Yossi
Beilin and his comrades Avraham Burg, Amram Mitzna, and Amnon
Lipkin-Shahak to a political Outer Mongolia — why should you let
that stop you, either? After all, what do we know? We’re the ones
who just live here, who hear the bombs and go to the funerals, who
fear to let our kids walk down the street unattended let alone ride
a bus, who get frisked by security guards every time we enter a
supermarket or a restaurant — that is, if we dare.
But why should you listen to us? You, Colin Powell, Yossi
Beilin, Avraham Burg, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Shimon Peres, all
the way back to your granddaddy Neville Chamberlain — who at least
had the honor to admit he was wrong — always know better. You’ll
always tell us we have to give up half our capital city, our most
sacred shrines, and our most strategically vital territory in the
name of peace and democracy — while spitting at the very democracy
you claim to be saving; you’ll always, at the same time, fail to
distinguish between democrats and brutal killers, telling us that
Herr Hitler and Chairman Arafat are reasonable men who just want a
fair share of the pie; you’ll always wave inane documents in our
faces and bleat of peace in our time, and no evidence, no traumas
lived by real people who have to sweep up the body parts of your
grand experiments, will stop you from holding the same disgraceful
ceremonies and walking down the same blind paths again and
again.
