Middle East News Service: Perpetuating Conflict

[ Middle East News Service Comments: Maher Mughrabi’s opinion piece from today’s Melbourne Age is timely. The issue of the nature of Israel and the direction it is heading has become more important by the day. It was brought into sharp focus by a series of documents produced by community leaders of Israel’s Palestinian minority population over the past six months. The allegations of treason against then Knesset member Azmi Bishara have put it squarely in front of the Israeli public’s eye. Ignoring this issue is not in the interest of anyone who cares about Israel.

The granting of the Jerusalem Prize takes place as Israel’s celebrates the 40th anniversary of the “re-unification” of its capital. A more accurate description would be “going through the motions” – few Israelis pretend that the city is indeed undivided. That view that it is still very much divided is not confined to the Left or the peace movement. Nor is it very Jewish for the Jewish National Fund to celebrate it: Even the ultra-orthodox mayor, Uri Lupolianski, stated this week that if the current demographic trends continue, in 12 years time Hamas will be able to win the Mayoralty and take over the city without firing a shot. This in turn has resulted in a series of convoluted solutions being proposed to ensure Jewish control, which adds weight to Mughrabi’s central thesis below – Sol Salbe.]

[Disclosure: Maher Mughrabi is a friend.]

Perpetuating conflict

'Such inquiries have shown a military that operates without proper political oversight.'
May 16, 2007
John Howard's acceptance of a Zionist award will not help bring about Middle East peace, writes Maher Mughrabi.

On May 20, Prime Minister John Howard will receive the Jerusalem Prize from the State Zionist Council of Victoria, the Zionist Federation of Australia and Israel's World Zionist Organisation "for his support of the Jewish community and Israel".

It's no secret that Israel enjoys support from both sides of the political establishment; Labor and Liberal leaders compete to secure the favour of Australia's Jewish community, but the matter goes deeper than that. From Kevin Rudd's stories of an ALP government casting the first vote at the UN for partition of Palestine to Tony Abbott's proclamation after Bali that "we are all Israelis now", Australian leaders promote the notion that this country is bound to Israel by shared democratic values against the backdrop of an undemocratic Middle East.

The truth of the matter is that democracy is an elusive and easily damaged aspiration, a system of snakes and ladders that many Middle Eastern countries tumble down and climb up. No sensible analysis of the region can possibly rest on the illusion that Iran - which elected first the reformer Mohammad Khatami and then the radical populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - is no more a democracy than Syria.

…snip…

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/perpetuating-conflict/2007/05/15/1178995154038.html

Maher Mughrabi is a staff writer.

[The independent Middle East News Service concentrates on providing alternative information chiefly from Israeli sources. It is sponsored by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the AJDS. These are expressed in its own statements]

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