December 27, 2006

Today the Baltimore Sun featured

… an unprecedented exchange of letters between two of the Middle East’s most respected journalists: Salameh Nematt, an Arab, and Akiva Eldar, an Israeli. The exchange, which was commissioned by the Common Ground News Service (www.commongroundnews.org), appears today in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds and here in The Sun.

Akiva Eldar is respected in Israel, the same way that Paul Krugman is respected in America. There’s a leftist elite in both countries that finds the work of both to be profound. But I hardly think that Eldar is on the level with, say, a Walter Cronkite in his heyday. Eldar is significantly to the left of Israeli mainstream opinion, still it’s interesting how far apart these two really are.

Nematt (Hopefully I’ll provide the CommonDreamsNews link when the article appears there.)

You know very well that Israel, in defiance of international law, has deliberately and consistently worked to undermine and abort every local, regional or international peace plan that has ever been tabled. The aborting of these plans was also achieved with the help of Palestinian and Arab militants, but isn’t it Israel’s policies that have undermined Palestinian and Arab moderates? This “jihad” business was first championed by Arabs seeking the liberation of Palestinian and Arab lands, before it became an international phenomenon plaguing the entire world, overtaken by their more violent Islamic successors. Don’t you agree that Israel’s occupation inspired the secular, PLO jihadists before they were overtaken by their more violent Islamic successors? Is it conceivable that nobody knows, including the Israelis, where the borders of Israel are, or where they should be? What will it take, dear Akiva, for Israel to realize that it has to do the right thing before it can claim the higher moral ground? What would it take for Israel to realize that force alone does not bring legitimacy?

Eldar

Dear Salameh, I remember the day, in the early summer of 1994, when King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the peace treaty between both our countries. … A Jordanian newspaper editor who was introduced to me in Washington refused to shake my hand and respond to my excited congratulations on this historical occasion. Several years later, the Jordanian Press Association expelled a group of journalists who had visited the Ha’aretz offices in Tel Aviv. Most leading Egyptian intellectuals also boycott Israel and avoid contact with even the most moderate elements of Israeli society. The reason, or excuse, is always the Israeli occupation.

If Nematt is as open to Israel as anyone in the Arab world, there would seem to be quite a gulf between him and even someone as critical of Israel as Eldar. Eldar keeps wanting to see peace, but it keeps looking away from him but he doesn’t get the hint. Eldar’s slightly mistaken history is also telling.

Your claim that Israeli occupation inspired the first Arab terrorists as well as international terrorism is far from accurate (unless the definition of “occupation” applies to Haifa and Tel Aviv as well). The PLO first recognized Israel and U.N. Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 and renounced terrorism only as late as 1988. The Palestinian covenant, which called for the destruction of the Zionist entity, was only canceled following the Oslo agreement, signed five years later. Unfortunately, the light which shone over Oslo is dwindling, in great part because of our leaders, who missed countless opportunities, but also because of indolent Palestinian leaders.

Well the Palestinian covenant was never cancelled and certainly not in 1993. (then-Pres Clinton visited the PLC in 1998 for a phony vote saying that the the PLC had revoked the Covenant.) Eldar can’t stay away from criticizing his country’s leaders, but notes that they aren’t alone. Nematt can’t even muster a mild rebuke to Arab leaders for embracing terrorists or denying Israel’s legitimacy. Eldar and Nematt have apparently been having some joint appearances lately, this op-ed pairing seems to be in the context of these appearances.

And yet for all the latitude Eldar gives Nematt, the latter puts the onus of making peace on Israel, effectively denying any Arab responsibility (and justifying anti-Israel violence.)

It is a performance that reminds us that the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the failure of even moderate Arabs to accept Israel’s legitimacy. The exchange of letters may have been unprecedented, but Nematt’s views unfortunately were not.

Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

 Blogdigger tags: Akiva Eldar, Salameh Nematt.