The dream of a Palestinian state

By Riza Sihbudi

JAKARTA (JP): The fundamental source of the Middle East conflict is the Palestinians' right to freedom in a free state.

Israel and the United States surely know this. But it is difficult to fathom why they do not want to see a free Palestine state. In one of his speeches at the University of Indonesia, Palestine envoy Ribhi Awad said he once found an official U.S. document explicitly saying that the U.S. would support any people setting up their own state, except the Palestinians.

In other words, the U.S. would do everything in its power to prevent the establishment of a free Palestinian state.

This may sound strange when associated with America's constant claim of promoting democracy and human rights. But perhaps the U.S. fears a potential threat to Israel's existence should the Palestinians have their own state. This reasoning makes sense on the surface, but not in political reality.

Until now the entire Arab world has not been able to remove Israel. The Arabs never won large battles with Israel in 1947, 1956, 1967 or 1982. Israel's comparative advantage lies not only in their sophisticated defense system but also in their skills in commanding the world's technology network, and in their lobbying to "control" super powers such as the U.S.

A clear example has been the inability of Washington to check Jewish hardliners as represented by Ariel Sharon. Sharon and others like him have firmly rejected any compromise with the Palestinians, the Arabs, and the entire Islamic world -- as confirmed by their provocation of Muslims.

Earlier this month Sharon demonstratively visited the Al-Aqsha Mosque in Jerusalem which immediately drew protest from Muslims in various parts of the world.

Oddly enough (or not, in hindsight) Israeli authorities did not take any firm action to appease angry Muslims. Instead, their soldiers continued to kill Palestinian civilians.

On the other hand, hardline Jews used the actions of anti- Israelis such as the Hamas, the Palestine Jihads or the Hizbullah, to obtain world sympathy, mainly from the U.S. and Europe, by labeling Palestinian outrage as "terrorism."

The causes of the Palestinian actions -- such as the expansion of Jewish settlements in occupied lands and provocations by Jewish hardliners -- are never mentioned.

And Washington just expresses approval, among others, issuing a veto against a United Nations draft resolution condemning cruelty of Israelis against Palestine civilians.

But there could be more logical reasons behind the U.S.-Israel reluctance against a Palestinian state, namely Israel's need for an eternal "outside foe." Jews in Israel seem solid but are in fact quite vulnerable to internal factions.

There are wide social and cultural differences, particularly between the Asian-African Jews (Sephardics) -- who are relatively more fanatic but lack economic and political access -- and the Jews of European descent (Ashkenazics) -- who are more secular but control the domestic economic and political scene.

Then there are the variations of visions among those who are pro peace, initiated by the Peace Now Movement, and those who are against peace among Arabs and Israelis.

As written by Robert S. Wistrich in a 1997 edition of the Partisan Review, in his article "Reshaping Israeli Identity", the source of the Middle East trouble is not merely the conflict between Palestine and Israel or Arabs and Jews, which has earned the world's spotlight.

Writes Wistrich, "It also is about those internal Jewish factors which have shaped Israeli collective consciousness and national -- cultural identity during the past 100 years -- in all their pluralism, ambivalence, and contradictions".

This is why Israel and also the U.S. always need an outside foe -- a common short cut in politics to maintain unity -- to prevent disintegration of Israel itself.

In this light it would be impossible to realize the Palestinians' dream of their own state, let alone hope for peace in the Middle East.

The writer is a political researcher at the National Institute of Science in Jakarta.