The 90`s

Can Rabin Make Peace with Likud?

Note: Written by Howard Barbanel, Published Week of August 12th - August 18th, 1994

The ghost of peace plans past has arisen from the depths of the diplomatic graveyard and is now cavorting about the corridors of the Knesset, Foggy Bottom and the Royal Palace inAmman.  I refer, naturally, to the rapid rapprochement between the State of Israel and the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan.

Now don't get me wrong.  Peace with Jordan is a good thing.  The Knesset's 91-3 vote in favor is a clear indication of a broad Israeli consensus on the subject.  This contrasts mightily with the lack of Jewish parliamentary majority for the PLO deal.

So whose spirit has risen from the dead?  Why that of former Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, whose Allon Plan of 22 years ago is the born-again romance novel for Laborites everywhere.  

Simply put, Allon's plan was for Israel to retain the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem, gush Etzion and not much else, with the rest going back to Jordan's King Hussein in exchange for peace.  The wily king managed to pass opportunity by so often that he had to officially drop his claims to Judea and Samaria in favor of the PLO. This, however, will not keep Hussein out of the game.

Hussein made peace with Israel now for several reasons.  First, he has cancer and may not have long to live. He's concerned with his place in posterity and isn't afraid of being assassinated.  Second, he doesn't want to see a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria with its capital in Jerusalem. Hussein is more steadfast on this than many of his Israeli counterparts today.

Even the New York Times (July 26) finally admits that Jordan's population "is some 80 percent Palestinian."  Hussein knows there are precious few Hashemites in the Hashemite kingdom. He doesn't want to be the victim of an anschluss between "the Palestinian entity" and his country - especially a union led by either Arafat or Hamas. 

How to best get around this?  Make a deal with Allon's people.  They don’t like Arafat anyway, and this would go down the collective Israeli throat with a whole lot more honey than the bile being swallowed from Arafat's spoon.

According to the deal between Israel and the PLO, there will be elections in the next year or so throughout the territories.  Look for a very strong candidacy on behalf of the king. He'll be spreading around the baksheesh along with a message of stability and prosperity by having the Palestinian Arabs align themselves with the kingdom.  Look for Israel to lend plenty of helping hands in this direction. Boxing Arafat out of Jerusalem in favor or Hussein is the first step on that road.

The economic objective between Rabin and Hussein will be to make the Jordanian dinar and Israeli shekel so indispensable to the average Arab that there will be no room for an independent Palestine to breathe.  Hussein could also prove to be more malleable concerning the Jewish communities in the territories, thereby alleviating a contentious issue for Israel for the next few years. 

The big question, though, is with all the rapport between the Israeli government and the PLO and Jordan, why is it so difficult for Labor to make peace with the rest of Israel? 

Why is it that Rabin compares Likud to Hamas as enemies of peace?  Why is it that Rabin accuses the Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu of "dancing on blood" when Netanyahu criticizes the government's handling of the continuous wave of terrorism?  Why does the government demonize those Jews living in Judea, Samaria and the Golan as though they were somehow less Jewish than those living in Ramat Gan and less worthy of compassion from their own government?

How is it tolerated when Knesset member Dede Zucker of Meretz, as quoted in Yediot Aharanot, says, referring to Likudniks and their allies, that he "would rather live with Arabs than with those Jews" and that "I don't want shalom bayit [peaceful relations] with those people?"

You can't make a real peace with your friends and family.  Mature democracy and real statesmanship rest in the ability to accord respect to one's political opponents.  What this government is doing is analogous to our own government's handling of the antiwar protesters during the Vietnam era.  It's a form of Zionist political correctness in the extreme.

Lastly, by concluding themselves in this manner, the government's leaders set a poor example, and even worse tone, for the whole of Jewish society.  We all want peace, but peace must come first between Israel and Israel before grand gestures can be made to our enemies.