“We will have Peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

Golda Meir

Ah Israel/Palestine. There are few issues that provoke so much sound and fury from so many people with so little relation to the problem. Such is the emotion generated by the issue that I don’t claim to be able to influence anyone’s opinion, yet for what it’s worth I’d like to add my voice to the general din. Fools rush in . . .

As far as I can see it is abundantly clear to anyone who is not a fundamentalist settler or a fundamentalist murderer, that the only answer to the problem is a two state solution, with a divided Jerusalem and something close to the ’67 borders. Every right minded person knows the endgame (Hamas has its own version) so why the forty year wait for the denouement? The ‘separation barrier’ gets the headlines but the real roadblocks on the roadmap to peace are unseen, abstract and rhetorical; they are born of the sound and fury and they are far more damaging than any concrete wall.

While Israel might be the militarily superior power it is often on receiving end of attacks in the war of words. For example Israel is casually and bafflingly touted as an apartheid state, even though it is the only Middle Eastern state to offer Palestinians full political, legal and human rights. It is an absurd and pointless argument to make but it so widespread that it is even brought up in the world of international diplomacy. Part of the problem is that many, perhaps the majority, of those who want to fight for the existence of a Palestinian state also hate the Israeli nation and Israeli Jews as a whole. Golda Meir hit the nail on the head. Many of the arguments surrounding the issue don’t so much concern support for a Palestinian state but rather an all-consuming hatred of Israel. You don’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize winner to know that Islamists favour the destruction of Israel simply because it is a non-Muslim country. Only two Arab states have so far recognised Israel right to exist and you don’t have to do too much digging to uncover explicitly anti-Semitic comments made by Arab Governments. Nor is much research needed to gauge the prevailing mood of anti-Semitism on the Arab street. The issue is not so much ‘support for Palestine’ but ‘hatred of Israel’. This stance is echoed by ‘leftists’ and intellectuals in Europe and America. Sure there are difficult issues and Israeli Governments, like all Governments, do wrong as well as right, but again and again support for Palestine simply translates as hatred of Israel. When people start to accuse Israel of being an apartheid state then they just embarrass the Palestinian cause. Of course such rhetoric is bitter and empty but often support for a Palestinian state evolves into a manifesto for the right to kill Israeli civilians.

The Independent newspaper recently published a front page expose of abuses carried out by IDF forces in Hebron in which former IDF conscripts described how some of their comrades assaulted Palestinians and looted their property. The banner headline claimed to expose the IDF’s ‘Reign of Terror’, implying that the abuses carried out in Hebron were somehow acts of terrorism. If one was being supremely cynical then the headline could even be interpreted as a justification for acts of terrorism carried out by Palestinians. Abuses carried out by individual IDF soldiers are criminal and without justification, but they are not morally equivalent to suicide bombing and they do not justify murder. The IDF is guilty of failing to control its soldiers and it has failed to instil a proper code of conduct amongst its troops but it is not an IDF aim to attack and kill civilians, nor is it Israeli Government policy. Abuses carried out in the West Bank are criminal acts and they should be punished. Many Israeli soldiers, but not enough, have been convicted by the IDF, but how many militants have been tried by Hamas? If the actions of individual Israeli soldiers justified suicide bombing then suicide bombing would justify the actions of individual Israeli soldiers. It’s a ridiculous argument. The struggle for Palestinian sovereignty is a noble cause but the intellectual arguments in its favour have simply become excuses the murder of Israelis.

Both sides have committed atrocities in the past. The PLO murdered Israeli athletes and tourists, Ariel Sharon looked the other way when the Philangists butchered unarmed Palestinians. Neither side is innocent but in the last twenty years violence employed in the struggle for Palestine has been particularly shameful and abhorrent. Suicide bombings on buses and in discos, bars, restaurants and cafes do not further the cause of a Palestinian state. It is simply murder caused by hatred of Jews and there are no political grievances that can be used to justify violence. Ghandi overthrew British rule without resorting to murder, the IRA has put down its weapons, Serbia and Kosovo are pursuing a political resolution to their differences and Taiwanese accept their lack of statehood without resorting to the murder of Chinese civilians, why should Palestine be any different?. The actions of Hamas and Fatah simply shame the Palestinian movement.

The IDF is far from blameless but it does have a statuary right to protect its citizens. This is not hypocritical; bombing a disco in order to kill as many people as possible is not equivalent to killing a rocket team or a suicide bomber about to attack civillians. Since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 Hamas has continued to fire rockets at Israeli civilians and attacked border posts to kill and kidnap Israeli soldiers. In the last seven years over 6,300 rockets have hit the town of Sderot alone. Military action to protect civilians against attack is justified; blowing up civilians to spread terror is not. I’m sorry but there it is. I re-iterate that the IDF is not blameless but if it wanted to terrorise civillians, a la Hamas, then it would have the weapons to do so with extreme ease.

Much is made of Israel’s targeted assassination policy but I don’t think Israel takes those decisions lightly. It is worth bearing in mind that Sheikh Ahmed Yassin survived a targeted assassination attempt because the IDF limited the size of the bomb it used in order to minimise any civilian casualties. Sometimes a small number of civilians are killed in these assassinations but I believe this is morally justified. For example if a bomb maker is killed then it may save the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. It is of course tragic when any innocent dies but if Adolf Hitler, by way of analogy, could have been assassinated at the cost of one or two civilian lives then it would have been absolutely justifiable. Again the IDF’s aim is not to kill civilians, but innocents are caught in the crossfire.

Palestinians (militants and civilians) make up a disproportionate number of victims in the conflict because the IDF possesses greater firepower and most battles are conducted in Palestinian areas. I disagree with many IDF tactics and they are often heavy handed and sometimes indiscriminate, however IDF incursions into Gaza have been limited in number and scope; Hamas rocket attacks have been endless. Again if the IDF wanted to kill Palestinian civilians it could do so without its soldiers leaving their barracks.

The most recent political trend is to accuse Israel of Collective Punishment, as if Hamas doesn’t use this tactic, yet Israel continues to send fuel, food and aid shipments to Gaza and Gazans are admitted to Israeli hospitals. Lat week two Israeli civillians were murdered by Hamas as they delivered aid to the Palestinian people. I don’t agree with Israel’s recent tactics but to accuse it of Collective Punishment is hypocrisy at the very least. When Britain fought Hitler was it expected to send food and fuel shipments to Germany? If people believe Israel is a terrorist state then it strikes me as strange that they should suddenly be outraged about it suddenly limiting fuel supplies, talk about having your cake and eating it! Considering how America rected to 9/11 and Sudan has dealt with Darfur then Israel is a model of restraint in comparison.

The violence of Hamas and Fatah is fuelled by hatred of Israel; but terrorism isn’t the only roadblock on the route to peace. Israeli settlers often racist, supremacist and fundamentally opposed to negotiations, are just as big an impediment to lasting peace. Settlement on Palestinian land, although sometimes technically legal, is based on religious supremacy and casual disregard for the peace process. The Israeli Government has destroyed some settlements but has secretly supported others. Yet the setters are opposed by a clear majority of Israelis; indeed Israeli citizens are often at the forefront of moves to disband settlements. Furthermore though the settlers are building on disputed land; they are not blowing themselves up in Palestinian cafes. Settlement and suicide bombing are not moral equivalents. I would personally like to see Israelis return to live behind the ’67 borders; but I am realistic enough to accept that this will not form part of the final peace settlement.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks on the road to peace concerns the ‘Right of Return’. Undoubtedly Palestinian refugees have suffered from the ongoing conflict, but an unconditional Right of Return is an obvious deal breaker for Israel. It would mean a clear Palestinian majority within Israel and, as Israel is a democracy, an end to the state of Israel itself. The end goal of peace in the Middle East means that sacrifices must be made on both sides and to press for the Right of Return is a clear hindrance to a final settlement. It is a sad fact that the world is full of refugees; from India to Darfur and Rwanda to Armenia. Indeed some 800,000 Israeli Jews were expelled from Arab states incurring property losses in excess of $1 billion, would they be compensated in any final settlement? To press for the right of return for all refugees is simply unrealistic, however desirable it may be. Should Native Americans be given property rights to the entire USA? Should African Americans be allowed to return to an African country of their choosing with ample compensation? Many of those considered to be Palestinian have never set foot in Israel or the Occupied Territories. My own father fled the violence of Ulster; does that make me Irish rather than English? Palestinian refugees remain rootless because most Arab countries steadfastly refuse to give them a permanent home and citizenship rights.

Israel is a country that respects the rights of individual citizens; it is the only Middle Eastern country to do so. It is a democracy with an independent judiciary, a strong code of law, a free press and trade unions. It is the only Middle Eastern country to provide Palestinian Arabs with citizenship, legal rights, democratic rights, the right to own property and the right to say whatever they want. Israel respects freedom of religion and the state provides Islamic and Christian education. Like any country in the world Israel is guilty of sins and transgressions and Israeli society represents the full spectrum of political opinion. The bottom line is that Israelis of all religions are free to question their Government and they are free to debate action carried out in their name. Equally they are free to follow their own beliefs and run their own lives. Any country in which the rights of the individual citizen are cherished is a country that should be respected. To blame ‘Israel’, or ‘Israelis’ for the crimes of the Israeli Government is equivalent to blaming all Palestinians for the crimes of Hamas. Criticism of Israeli policy is made by Israelis as much as anyone else, but hatred of Israel by Arabs and others has helped to condemn the region to forty years of war.

And what of Palestine? I wholeheartedly support the Palestinians’ right to a state; how that state is run is a matter for the Palestinians themselves. In the Gaza strip the democratically elected Hamas Government has burned down discos, libraries, cinemas and Christian bookshops. The Hamas Government does not currently respect the rights of the individual. An independent Palestine may become a democracy governed by the rule of law with individual freedom enshrined in the constitution. Equally it may become a democratic theocracy along the lines of the Gaza mini-state. We can only hope that the Palestinian leadership chooses the path that leads to peace and democracy. One thing that is clear is that Palestinians cannot hope to achieve anything militarily, Palestinians are infinitely worse off today in comparison with eight years ago when the second intifada started.

Hamas cannot defeat Israel militarily and it cannot achieve Palestinian statehood without formally ending the war. Yet still it presses for the destruction of Israel. Truly Hamas hates Israel more than it loves Palestine.