Nobody wants to know 
  By Israel Harel 

Appeared in Ha'aretz Op-Ed, October 28, 1999 

Israelis rarely see a rain cloud nowadays, yet our skies are darkened
by clouds - related to issues of national security and the peace
process. While Egyptian generals are engaging in saber-rattling, the
Syrians have come out with the threat, highly useful in any internal
crisis (such as the one presently developing in that country), that they
will call a halt to all the preliminary contacts designed to resuscitate
the talks with Israel.In the meantime, a mini-Intifada is transpiring in
Bethlehem. Day after day, Palestinian youths attack the Israeli security
forces guarding Rachel's Tomb. It has been reported that the attacks
are by no means an expression of spontaneity. Furthermore, the
conflagration, which has led one of the attackers to get within stabbing
distance of one of our soldiers, was started by official Palestinian
elements. However, the average Israeli, who is so preoccupied with
much juicier issues, has no time to deal with such petty matters.

The same, apparently, can be said for those whose job it is to listen,
to understand and to react while those of us who are caught up with
the latest scandal refuse to hear or know anything. "Ehud Barak is not
listening to us," Yedioth Ahronoth quotes Israeli experts who
specialize in assessing Palestinian affairs. In this report, the unhappy
experts complain that, in addition to refusing to look at the concrete
evidence, the prime minister is keeping them in the dark regarding
developments in the official negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinians and, of course, in the secret talks. According to these
specialists, this state of affairs is undermining our national security. The
reason for their being kept in the dark, they believe, is their pessimistic
forecasts. Apparently, rulers never like to hear opinions that run
counter to their ambitions.

One thing worrying the heads of our military intelligence community is
related to the practical implications of the extreme statements being
made by Palestinian leaders. According to these military intelligence
chiefs, such statements should not be regarded simply as threats
uttered to fill tactical needs. Instead, these are expressions of
authentic feelings that are sincerely grounded in the knowledge that
Israelis are so captivated by their own understanding of
Israeli-Palestinian relations that they are willing to tolerate almost any
utterance, even the kind that generates acts of violence, such as what
is happening today in Bethlehem.

A few weeks ago, Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg invited Abu
Ala'a, Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, to visit our
parliament building. In his speech at the official reception held in his
honor, this guest of the Knesset spat in the face of his hosts, declaring
that Jerusalem is an Arab city. The lands on which the Knesset, the
Supreme Court building and the adjacent government ministry
buildings are built, he taunted his tongue-tied hosts, are the site of the
Arab village of Sheikh Bader.

Declarations of this nature, our intelligence experts now admit,
accurately reflect the thoughts - and thus the political and operative
intentions - of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority. In addition,
such statements prove that these leaders are interested in conducting
the negotiations with Israel in an atmosphere of incitement intended to
enflame the passions of the Palestinian populace.

What is happening, however, is that these war-mongering declarations
are not only creating turmoil in the Palestinian street. They are also
arousing the passions of both the opponents of peace in the Arab
states, and - as was demonstrated a few weeks ago in Tiberias and
Haifa - part of the Israeli Arab population.

The refusal to see reality - just as in the period immediately preceding
the Yom Kippur War - has nothing to do with rational thought. The
decision by somecabinet members to ignore the air-raid sirens now
being sounded stems from blind dedication - one that cannot be
refuted even by the facts - to a single goal, and that goal is a
Palestinian state. Those who are ready to give up (almost) anything
and to receive nothing in return are even prepared to deny the
significance of the declarations made by Abu Ala'a, just as yesterday
they denied the significance of the declaration made by Arafat on the
ultimate goal of the Arabs in this land and just as they denied the
declaration of Nabil Sha'ath (who has said that, if the Palestinians'
demands are not met at the negotiating table, they will be met through
armed struggle).

The peace cult, Israel's leading messianic movement, claims - as we
can see, the religion of peace is no different from any other religion -
that the journey to the messianic era is an arduous one and filled with
pain. Nonetheless, the messiah - that is, peace - will come, in the
wake of all the compromises and concessions, and will console us
after we have suffered so much in the past.

It cannot be assumed that a rational, pragmatic and suspicious
individual like Barak has recently joined this cult because of all the
difficulties he must weather. It is therefore incomprehensible why he is
not responding to the warnings he is being given. The concept of
separation, which he has introduced in recent weeks, is not enough. A
much more comprehensive revision of our thinking is needed,
especially with regard to the Palestinians 

    (C) copyright 1999 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved