As the Israelis are becoming conscious of their
inevitable tragic circumstances, a final desperate
attempt to rescue the Zionist project has come to
life. Astonishingly enough it is the Israeli right
that is now pushing for ‘one binational State.’ It is
pretty staggering to find out that while the Israeli
so-called ‘left’ is locked within the 1967 territorial
paradigm that is fueled by Judeo centric racial
ideology, it is actually the hawkish Zionist thinkers
who are willing to move the discourse forward.
In a mind provoking piece Noam Sheizaf outlines in
Haaretz the new revolutionary Israeli idea. However, I
will maintain at this stage that the new Zionist call
for ‘one binational state’ suggests that Zionist
ideology is on its last leg. Israel has come to
realise its inevitable end. And amidst its terminal
conditions Israel tries to buy time.
Israel should apply its law to “Judea and Samaria and
grant citizenship to 1.5 million Palestinians,” says
Moshe Arens, a former Israeli defense minister, a top
leader in the Likud party and a political patron of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Arens is not put
off by those who slander him for promoting the idea of
a binational Jewish-Palestinian state. "We are already
a binational state," he says.
This approach is now being advocated by leading
figures in the Likud and amongst the settlers. A year
ago, Uri Elitzur, former chairman of the Yesha Council
of Settlements and Netanyahu's bureau chief in his
first term as prime minister, published an article in
the settlers' journal Nekuda calling for the onset of
a process, at the conclusion of which the (West Bank)
Palestinians will have "a blue ID card (like
Israelis), yellow license plates (like Israelis),
National Insurance and the right to vote for the
Knesset." Emily Amrousi, a former spokesperson for the
Yesha Council, also takes part in meetings between
settlers and Palestinians and speaks explicitly of
"one land in which the children of settlers and the
children of Palestinians will be bused to school
together."
This Zionist political novelty doesn’t take me by
complete surprise. Unlike the Jewish left that is
tribally orientated both in Israel and in the West,
the right wing Zionist philosophy was grounded on a
dream of an eternal bond between the Jew and the
alleged ‘promised land’. In Zion the Jew was supposed
to transcend oneself beyond the race and the tribe.
Israel was there to demolish the ghetto wall. As it
happened, in practice, Israel had become the biggest
ghetto in Jewish history.
However, there is a clear trap here. As much as the
peace loving Zionist hawks seem to champion
Palestinian civil rights, the vision of a ‘one
binational state’ is still totally Judeo centric. The
Israeli advocates of the one binational state are not
talking about a neutral "state of all its citizens",
nor about "Israstine" with a flag showing a crescent
and a Shield of David. One state still means a
sovereign Jewish state, but in a more complex reality,
and inspired by the vision of a “democratic Jewish
state” without an occupation and without apartheid,
without fences and separations.
One may wonder at this stage what the notion of
“Jewish democratic state” stands for. It is obviously
an empty signifier, there is no such a thing as Jewish
democracy. As far as I remember Democracy was born in
Athens rather than Jerusalem. And yet, the dream is
compelling. In such a state, “Jews will be able to
live in Hebron and pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs,
and a Palestinian from Ramallah will be able to serve
as an ambassador and live in Tel Aviv or simply enjoy
ice cream on the city's seashore.”
It is clear beyond doubt that a coin has dropped.
Some Israeli hawks have come to realise that the
occupation cannot be maintained forever. They were
also quick to grasp that, in the long run, the
separation wall put an end to the Zionist expansionist
program. They also gather that the negative exposure
of Jewish lobbies in the West will eventually lead to
the down scaling of Israeli political maneuvering.
However, the Zionist tribal orientation is never too
difficult to trace. When Elitzur was asked “What do
you say to the allegations that you have joined the
radical left?” he was quick to reveal his political
mantra.
"There's a clear separation between us. I am talking
about a Jewish state, the state of the Jewish people,
which will contain a large Arab minority. The left is
talking about an Arab state containing a Jewish
minority, even if they do not explicitly think that.
The leftist demonstrators in (the West Bank village
of) Bil'in have totally joined the Palestinian cause."
I guess that this what it is all about. The Israeli
hawks want to counter the inevitable 'demographic
disaster'. They would offer West Bank Palestinians
Israeli ID cards, and offer them to “enjoy ice cream
in Tel Aviv” as long as they are kept as a minority.
The Israeli hawks ignore Gaza and the right of return.
In practice they dismiss the Palestinian cause for
they are certain that the Jewish one is superior. In
short, this is not a solution or a resolution. It is
just another Zionist spin that is planted in our
discourse in order to disseminate confusion.
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