Peace, not propaganda

Editorial

The restrained jubilation over what appears to be the most promising hope for Israeli-Arab peace in several years is not without merit. Now that Saudi Arabia and Israel's closest Arab neighbors view it in their own self-interest to stand against the Iranian-Syrian axis, we can tentatively anticipate a genuine possibility to make peace. Maybe, possibly.

Israel faces an Arab and Muslim world that falls generally into three camps: complete rejectionists who openly and proactively seek the destruction of Israel (which, until 1977, consisted of every Arab state); those who pretend Israel does not exist and give tacit support to those who proactively seek to destroy Israel; and Jordan and Egypt – the only two nations in the region that even so much as recognize that Israel exists, but both of which have tepid relations at best with the Zionist entity. It's a tough 'hood.

Now, given the growing influence of Iran in the region, especially among the massive proportion of Arabs and Muslims who are young and radical, there is a movement to close ranks among the other, comparatively moderate, Arab states. To call the regimes of Saudi Arabia and other regional powers "moderate" is, obviously, a somewhat ludicrous differentiation. But, given no other partners with which to make peace, Israel has ceaselessly held out an olive branch to those who even remotely might be persuaded to acknowledge the right of Jews to live in peace.

Of course, world media appeared surprised at last week's welcome of the Saudi proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – as though it had been Israel that was standing in the way of peace for the past seven years. Israel, of course, has never backed away from its prior commitments to peace. Israel was still at the negotiating table when the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000 and Israel has made only the most minimal demands – recognition of its citizens' rights not to be driven into the sea, primarily – to rejoin the negotiating table. The only demands that Israel has not accepted are those that would be tantamount to national suicide.

The time may finally be approaching when, for their own particular interests, a large part of the Arab world is prepared to accept the existence of Jews in their midst. Conversely, on the campus of the University of British Columbia, this week is "Palestine Solidarity Week," when a cluster of extremist students annually purvey a distorted, historically and morally corrupt mythologization of Mideast events. The fictionalized chronology being handed out by the pro-Palestinian students notes the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and UN Resolution 194, upon which Palestinian claims to a "right of return" are founded, but makes no mention – not a whisper – of the attack by all the combined neighboring Arab armies against the nascent state of Israel at the precise moment of its birth. The chronology notes that 750,000 Palestinians were dispossessed, but offers not a hint of the whole truth, which is that a comparative number of Jews were dispossessed from their ancient homes in Arab-controlled lands. From here, the propaganda being disseminated follows a familiar refrain: Israel is evil; the Palestinian cause and the tactics that support it, no matter how vile or violent, are universally justifiable.

While Israel's neighbors may finally be realizing that continued conflict is not in their best interests, the same cannot be said of Israel's North American and European enemies. For a range of reasons, peaceful co-existence between Arab and Jew has never been the objective of the European and North American anti-Zionist movement. Continuing, indeed exacerbating, the conflict helps swell the ranks of the left and other "activist" circles in the same way that conspiracy theories and fear are the best recruitment tools for religious cults. As the mythologized interpretation of Palestinian history being handed out at UBC indicates, there is no room for Israel in the worldview of many Canadian critics. If history progresses and Arab states come to an entente with Israel, it will be interesting to see whether the extreme elements here will recognize the new accord. Or, like the leftist zealots who rejected Khrushchev's "secret speech" to the 1956 Soviet plenary rejecting Stalinism, whether the great Canadian defenders of the Palestinian people will stick steadfastly to their ideological blinders.

There may be a glimmer of hope for peace coming from Riyadh. Whether this hope for peace extends to Canadian campuses and to the hateful agenda of European and North American anti-Zionist zealots is far less certain.

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