ISRAEL: The Palestinians

Now that the Camp David talks have failed, peace hangs on a thread. The failure is generally regarded as a defeat for Clinton, and the world media charge that the US has been too quick to place the blame on the Palestinians.

We have many excellent observers of the Middle East, notably Harvey Sicherman, President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, who edits Peacefacts, devoted to monitoring the Arab-Israeli peace process. He has just visited Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

While I think that Truman was wrong in disregarding the advice of the State Department and recognizing the state of Israel, there is general agreement that it will be impossible to unscramble the Israel egg. The only possible solution is a truly secular Israeli state, which is what the majority of Israelis want. There is growing support for the Vatican's position that Jerusalem must be internationalized, although that would meet with fierce hostility.

It is forgotten that the Israel was the product primarily of East European terrorists, aided by American Jews who feared that an influx of Jews into the United States would stimulate anti-semitism. Some of the leading Jewish intellectuals questioned the creation of the creation of the state of Israel, notably Hannah Arendt. Her coverage of the 1961 Eichmann trial, entitled Eichmann in Jerusalem, was badly received in Israel, partly because of this and partly because she depicted Eichmann as a stupid bureaucrat just carrying out orders. (This clashes with the position of present historians like Goldhagen). Some Israeli scholars cut off all contact with her.

She believed that Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion personally ordered publishers not to issue a Hebrew edition of her book. Now, after 33 years, a Hebrew edition has appeared. This is a sign of the turmoil among Israeli historians and commentators.

Ronald Hilton - 7/26/00