The Only Way to Prevent Civil War in Israel Is a Return to the Oslo Path - Opinion - Haaretz.com
The war stopped the civil war. In the months before Hamas' attack, energy for war was released in both Israeli political camps. Both sides were determined "to go all the way," but both kept quiet about the main bone of contention – the occupation.
The right didn't "let on" that the judicial reform's purpose is to enable the government to annex the occupied territories without giving the Palestinians citizenship, and to fix Jewish supremacy in law. The protest, in turn, didn't come out in defense of the reform's main victims – the Arabs. The protest didn't allow raising the anti-occupation flag, not to mention the Palestinian one.
Netanyahu proposed changing the war's name to the "War of Revival." The revival idea, meaning the nation's rebirth, achieved by war, was also prominent in his speech in the government October 7 memorial ceremony: "And when we win ... we'll make the sinews of revival many times stronger. The connection with our roots will make the tree of life grow again," he rhapsodized.
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But there's no reason to believe that at the end of the war, Israel will be born again and succeed in fashioning a historic bypass around civil war. If the unacknowledged reason for the rift in the nation is the conflict with the Palestinians, how can it be mended without adopting a unified stand on it?
The only way to prevent the civil war that was halted on October 7 is by recognizing, amid the war that broke out that day, that we must end our rule over the Palestinians. But Netanyahu, as is his wont, wants to pick the fruit without planting a single tree. "A new birth of freedom," as Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address during the American Civil War, only without abolishing slavery.
Netanyahu speaking at state memorial ceremony, Monday night.
In his last speech in the UN, Netanyahu spoke lyrically about the blessing of peace in the Middle East, with peace with Saudi Arabia as its anchor. "It will lead to a historical reconciliation between the Arab world and Israel, between Islam and Judaism, between Mecca and Jerusalem."
He said, "Israel is committed to achieve such a peace," and the way to defeat Iran is to "achieve peace." Such a peace, he said, "will constitute the basis for an even broader Abraham Accords, and that alliance will include the United States, Israel's current Arab peace partners, Saudi Arabia and others who choose the blessing of peace." I'm sold.
But, um, the Saudis have made it clear that peace is conditional on returning to the diplomatic track on the basis of the two-state solution. If Iran is indeed the greatest threat to humanity, how could Netanyahu afford to ignore the conflict with the Palestinians, whose solution is the anchor that guarantees the allies' axis against Iran?
Last week Netanyahu addressed the Lebanese and Iranians directly, saying, "Our war isn't against you." Who did he not address? The Palestinians. In his speech in the UN, he even continued to besmirch Mahmoud Abbas, Israel's security partner for decades.
The barrier wall in the West Bank.Credit: Emil Salman
The way to the blessing of peace begins with solving the Palestinian problem. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Jordan have recently repeated this. Over the years, Benjamin Netanyahu has deceived the Israelis that peace is possible in the Middle East while ignoring the Palestinians.
From his jabbering in the UN, it seems he's continuing to throw sand in the eyes of Israelis and the world. He and his colleagues enjoy blasting the Oslo Accords at every opportunity and wave the Abraham Accords, as though they'd have been possible without the Oslo Accords.
The truth is that without returning to the Oslo track – that is, to the aspiration to two states – there will be no blessing on Israel. It won't have peace along its borders, and it won't have peace within them. It certainly won't see any revival.