Loading ...It's Time to Remember Sadat and Rabin
By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer
In the fall of 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat declared: “The Arab-Israeli conflict is 90% psychological.” After thirty years of conflict in the Middle East, including three wars (1948, 1967, and 1973), it stunned the world to hear the head of the most influential Arab state (at the time) call the conflict an emotional dispute.
However, the historic declaration facilitated the first breakthrough in peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt. The two sides signed the Camp David Peace Accords in 1979, after which Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in return for normalized relations with Cairo. Opinions vary on whether the Camp David Accords represented a step forward in Arab-Israeli relations or a clever Israeli strategy to neutralize Egypt’s political and military power.
Some argue it gave Tel Aviv the chance to sideline the Palestinian question in the half-century since. And indeed, since 1979, Israel has incrementally annexed a large majority of the Palestinian territories, as well as the Golan Heights in Syria. But Sadat’s words were clear and had a basis in truth. Experts agree that war and peace are sometimes determined as much by changes in attitude as by shifts in power. Political views are affected to a large extent by personal background, including character, group loyalties, and past experiences with the perceived adversary. While it is difficult to change political views, it is possible, with exposure to new experiences, education, personal relationships, and plenty of time.
Why raise the issue of behavioral politics today? Gaza. The long war in the Gaza Strip, which shows no end in sight or any sign of post-war imagination, has aroused too much fear, distrust, and hostility on all sides of the conflict. The conflict seems relentless. Sadat believed rebuilding trust between Arabs and Israelis was possible; he invested in this belief and paid for it with his life.
The same can be said of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Sadat was assassinated in October 1981, and Rabin in November 1995. Since Rabin’s assassination, the conflict between Israel and the Arab world, particularly with the Palestinians, has gradually worsened. It remains unclear whether the war in Gaza has brought the conflict to its limit, or if we should expect further polarization.
Each side has become louder and blames the other. Many in the Israeli Jewish community are convinced that they cannot share any part of the Holy Land with the Palestinians. They argue that Palestinians have become a community entirely of antisemitic hatred. They cite rising incidents of antisemitic episodes in Israel, the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. They blame Palestinians for being hostile to the occupation; distrusting Zionism; rejecting Israeli settlements; criticizing Washington’s foreign policy; using the term “apartheid”; teaching courses critical of Zionism; documenting the war in Gaza; boycotting products made in West Bank settlements; and even attending funerals for resistance fighters.
I want to make four points on what I see as a growing campaign to label, legislate against, and punish perceived “antisemites” in Israel and the U.S.:
- My first observation is related to cause and effect. There is barely any recognition by the sanctioning authorities that people who engage in hate politics toward Israel may be trapped in miserable living conditions caused by Israeli acts of aggression.
- My second point is about diluting a concept by excessive application. The definition of antisemitism is clear: hatred of all Jewish people, *as* Jewish people and *because* they are Jewish people, regardless of political or geographical affiliation. As insecurity about the Gaza war’s trajectory mounts in Israel and the United States, though, the target has widened. As currently used, the word has become nebulous and is applied indiscriminately to acts such as teaching courses in America deemed unfriendly to Israel; expressing sympathy for Hezbollah in Lebanon; and possessing photos documenting Palestinian resistance.
- Thirdly, I want to point out parallels in the rise of prejudice. A parallel rise matches the increase in current antisemitism in visceral anti-Islamic animus: Islamophobia. The statistics may vary, and the content of hateful acts may differ, but the underlying fear, anxiety, and hate can and should be compared. Denying the symmetry is unfair; it is also obtuse.
- My last comment has to do with hypocrisy. The current Israeli government is increasingly tolerating a Kahanist movement within the settler community, which is xenophobic and thuggish in its words and actions. Moreover, it is perverse for the Israeli state to make common cause with conservative Evangelical Christian Zionists, whose worldview is antisemitic at its doctrinal core.
Palestinians, on the other hand, need to reflect on how they have contributed to the growing emotional divide between Arabs and Jews. There should be no doubt that Palestinians are the victims of a ruthless occupation and expanding ethnic cleansing. Still, by allowing Hamas to govern Gaza for 17 years and lead the political resistance, Palestinians have given Israel a pretext to tighten repression and blame the victim at the same time.
I hesitate to argue that Palestinians may have to choose between pure armed resistance and creative, non-violent resistance with potential support from a broader international community. However, Sadat and Rabin’s thoughtful attitudes are very much needed today. When leaders are inspired and the sources of fear, anxiety, and hate are better understood, alternatives for coexistence can be revived.
Ghassan Rubeiz is the former Middle East Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Earlier, he taught psychology and social work in his country of birth, Lebanon, and later in the United States, where he currently lives. He has contributed to political commentary for the past twenty years and delivered occasional public talks on peace, justice, and interfaith subjects. You can reach him at rubeizg@gmail.com
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.
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