Israel Cannot Live By The Sword Forever
Next month, the disciples of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will mark the anniversary of the Revisionist thinker’s death. This sober leader, who recognized that the principle of self-determination wasn’t applied to the Arabs of Palestine when the British Mandate of 1922 was written − something the international community also later acknowledged − sought to ensure the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel” by means of the “iron wall” policy.
From the start, Jabotinsky was aware of the legal and moral validity of the claims of both nations, Jewish and Arab, to the Land of Israel, and as a Zionist, he fought to implement this exceptional and unprecedented decision by the international community − by force if necessary. But Jabotinsky didn’t believe that we could live by the sword forever, as those who presume to be his disciples endlessly maintain.
It was actually Jabotinsky, in his great political wisdom, who wrote, “only when there is no hope left whatsoever, when there are no more cracks in the iron wall. Only then will the extreme groups, with their extreme slogans of ‘never ever’ lose their charm and the influence will shift to moderate groups. Only then will these moderate groups come to us with suggestions of mutual compromises.”
Next month, we will find out whether U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry succeeded in persuading the sides to resume bilateral negotiations and offer “suggestions of mutual compromises.” Netanyahu will have to propose such concessions and be satisfied with similar proposals from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu will have to leave his demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state outside the negotiating room, just as he is asking Abbas to do with regard to the Palestinians’ demand to exercise a “right of return.”
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http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-cannot-live-by-the-sword-forever.premium-1.533460
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