Ariel Center for Policy Research (ACPR)

 

 

NATIV

A Journal of Politics and the Arts Volume 13 Number 4-5 (75-76) ■  September 2000

Table of Contents

Current Affairs Digest

From Camp David to Camp David

Articles

Syrian - FSU Military Cooperation

Ze'ev Wolfson

The Refugee Issue and the Demographic Aspect

Atalia Ben-Meir

Germany, “Historikerstreit” and The “Goldhagen Debate”

Susanne Urban-Fahr

"Where - O Israel?"

Hillel Weiss

The Rule of Law in the Palestinian Authority

Ilan Berman

Between a Nation's Charity and the Vision of Independence

Aharon Ben-Ami

Conventional Warfare and the Israeli Military Doctrine towards the 21st Century

Ehud Eilam

Document

Report on the Acquiescence of the Israeli Government in Palestinian Authority First Strike Preparations in YESHA

Mordechai Sones

Book Reviews

In Those Days at This Time – Danny Rosolio on Up to a Bare Mountain by Dvora Schreibaum Mutation of the Millennium – Raphael Israeli on L’antijudaisme Chretien, La Mutation by Paul Giniewsky Toward the Intellectual Roots of Post-Zionism – Paul Eidelberg on The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel’s Soul by Yoram Hazony

The Arts ■ Editor: Moshe Shamir

Poetry

Rami Ditzani Shulamit Hava Halevi Hanna Bedolach Eitan Erel

Fiction

Oded Mizrachi – An Event with a Mouse Ari Allenby – Aliya Reuven Tabul – Response

Essays and Reviews

Yoseph Oren – Between Heresy and Faith Dror Eidar – On the Poetry of Hava Pinhas Cohen

 

Selected Summaries

 

Syrian - FSU Military Cooperation

Ze'ev Wolfson

The following analysis of Syria-FSU military cooperation is based mainly on Russian, Ukrainian and other CIS sources which are not generally used by western researchers. The analysis clarifies that the Syrians have managed to make good use of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and of the “gray” market for arms, which was “blooming” in Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia etc. in the early 1990s.

By “shopping” in that way, Syria was able to solve some of its army's most urgent problems, such as supplying it with ammunition and spare parts, and it could also refresh its arsenal of light and anti-tank weaponry. There is no indication that Damascus will abandon in the future the ramifying and good relations that it established in these countries Syria plays a very important role in Russia’s plans and aspirations to return to the Middle East and Damascus does not even pay its debts and bargains on making very modest scaled arms orders. It knows Moscow needs it both for strategic and commercial objectives.

 

back to top


 

The Refugee Issue and the Demographic Aspect

Atalia Ben-Meir

The problem of the Palestinian refugees will overshadow the next stage in the talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Substantial pressure will be exerted on Israel to comply with the Palestinian demand for the “right of return” of the Palestinian refugees, the consensus being that peace in the Middle East will not endure without resolving the refugee question.

For 50 years the Arabs have set the ground rules for the discourse on the Palestinian refugees. They have taken control of nearly all the international “playing fields”, arrogating the right to fabricate the facts. Their contentions have become axiomatic in every debate on the resolution of the problem, thus constituting the framework within which diplomats, politicians and academics operate. They have made the plight of the refugees a potent weapon in their arsenal to delegitimize the State of Israel. In contrast, the world has been impervious to the trauma undergone by the Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

This was evident in the proceedings of the Regional Work Group, set up within the parameters of the Madrid conference. In the course of the deliberations of the Second Plenary (in Ottawa, November 1992), the Israelis proposed treating the problem of final status of the Palestinian refugee problem in the context of population exchange: the Palestinian refugees had been replaced by the influx of Jewish refugees from the Arab countries. The Palestinian delegation countered this notion of “exchange” by contending that the Jewish immigrants to Israel had come voluntarily, while the Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes.

However, in dealing with the “right of return” it should never be forgotten that the bulk of the Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine were “new immigrants” (Between 1922 and 1939 Arab immigration swelled, attracted by the prosperity of the “Zionist” economy. The Arab population during these 17 years increased by 216% in Haifa, by 134% in Jaffa and 97% in Jerusalem) whereas the Jews had resided in the Arab countries for millennia. Whereas the Palestinian Arabs were relegated to the margins of society, Jewish refugees underwent a long and difficult process of adaptation and integration into Israeli society.

Perhaps in recognition of this, the preamble to the Madrid Declaration mentions UN Resolutions 242 and 338, both of which refrain from making a direct reference to Palestinian refugees but rather refer to refugees as a generic term.

The parameters of the debate on resolving the problem of the Palestinian refugees should not revolve around the refugees; this transforms the means to an end. The axis around which the debate should revolve is the imperative of an enduring peace. Peace will endure only if the security of Israel is guaranteed throughout the peace process and afterwards. This begs the question of whether, in the pursuit of peace, concessions will be made that could compromise the Jewish state.

 

back to top


 

Germany, “Historikerstreit” and The “Goldhagen Debate”

Susanne Urban-Fahr

Since 1945 (West) Germany had to deal with the question of how to create the remembrance for the victims of the Shoah who were murdered by Germans and the other executioners who helped them in the occupied countries. While East Germany tried to do it in a dogmatic way – to manifest that the GDR is “anti-Nazism” and therefore the question about guilt and responsibility does not exist! – West Germany was clothed in silence. After the 1970s there were some media like films and books which broke this silence. A widespread culture of remembrance was built up by official institutions and by some individual initiatives and beside the “normal” anti-Semitism the outstanding face of Germany showed the will to remember. Then there was in 1987 the “Historikerstreit” and after this the “Goldhagen debate” in 1996 and in 1998 the “Walser-Bubis-Debate” – the last one between the German author Martin Walser and the head of the German Jews who are unified in the “Zentralrat”, Ignatz Bubis (who died in autumn 1999). All the debates were dealing with the need to remember and the question if the Shoah was really a unique genocide in the history of mankind. So it could be summarized that for nearly 15 years there has been a tendency not only to compare the Shoah to other crimes against humanity or even to the life of the Germans between 1933 and 1945, but to put this period, like any one period, into the whole of German history, so that these twelve years have their significance minimized in the long run. This tendency is growing and even in the official institutions in which remembrance is “created”, it exists more and more. Because of this, an end cannot really be seen to the rapid and intensive – and, for Jews, often hurtful – debates: they will continue – in a way which will show more and more indifference towards the victims.

 

back to top


 

"Where - O Israel?"

Hillel Weiss

The phenomenon of the absence of the Jewish people or of the Jew from the “peace process”, or from reality altogether, is largely an absence of representations. Does the Jewish people exist in the representations of its literature, culture, and art in any way that is not a mockery? Does the Jewish people exist in law, in representation through judicial rulings, in society and in economic life, in a non-sectorial media?

In actuality, there is no real Jewish people and it has no spokesman. Thus the Jewish people has no right to self-determination and no claim to sovereignty. And in fact, virtually no one is seeking it or claiming it.

The Jewish people exists only in remembering the Holocaust. It has become an “imaginary people”.

This problem forms the subject of the article, which seeks to characterize the global mood that today is called postmodernism, its manifestations, and its contribution to the deconstruction of the concept of nationalism in general and of the Jewish people in particular.

Why does the Jew fear himself and flee from existence to nonexistence? What are the contributions of technological metaphors based on real inventions, which contribute their metaphors to the destruction of identity? What harm is caused by the only partially accurate expression “The medium is the message?” The article considers the destruction of values, such as the concept of democracy, human dignity, and so on; as well as the domination of the world by the “global administration”. It points to phenomena of attrition and self-deception that, instead of bolstering the national existence, weaken it, such as the war against Holocaust denial and the harm that this causes. This war is a psychological refuge from a new Holocaust, as if the non-denial of the Holocaust that has already occurred could produce a defense against anti-Semitism when the internal anti-Semitism is stronger than the external kind.

The article deals with the damage to academic discourse; the concepts of “imaginary”, “virtual imaginary communities”, “discourse”, and “multiculturalism”, and counterpoises to them the need for a renewal of the national essentiality, arguing in favor of the building of the Temple and the establishment of the Sanhedrin.

 

back to top


 

The Rule of Law in the Palestinian Authority

Ilan Berman

In the years since its creation as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Palestinian Authority has exhibited serious deficiencies in governance and lawmaking. Instances of graft and corruption are widespread, with losses of governmental funding and international aid estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Similarly, monopolization and unfair practices dominate the Palestinian economy, stifling foreign investment and creating rampant unemployment and stagnation. Violations of human rights and individual freedoms, ranging from unjust imprisonment to torture have also become commonplace.

These trends have been perpetuated and promoted by the governmental structure of the PA itself. The lack of independence in the judiciary and legislature has created a political vacuum. Laws providing basic individual freedoms and a separation of powers between the different branches of government are strikingly absent, making the Authority unable to impose the rule of law substantively. At the same time, Chairman Yasser Arafat and his Cabinet have failed to respond to growing calls for reform from the population and members of the government. As a result, popular support for Arafat and his Cabinet has waned, while radical Islamic contingents within the Palestinian body politic have begun to gather force. The absence of the rule of law thus represents a major threat to normalized relations between Israel and the Palestinians, movements toward democracy on the part of the Palestinians, and perhaps even the peace process itself.

The paper looks at the current state of democracy and the rule of law within the Palestinian Authority, including:

  • A study of the structure of Palestinian government, including the scope and powers of the Palestinian Legislative Council and judiciary;
     

  • An examination of current human rights practices and instances of corruption and graft within the Palestinian government and ministries;
     

  • An analysis of monopolies and unfair practices within the Palestinian economy; and
     

  • An assessment of current deficiencies in transparency and judicial independence within the PA.

Given these trends, this paper will also seek to identify the major challenges to the Palestinian rule of law and long-term stability. Among these trends is the lack of a clear line of succession within the PA cabinet and the challenge to the Palestinian Authority posed by radical Islamic organizations. Finally, the paper will examine prospects for strengthening democracy and the rule of law within the Palestinian Authority.

 

back to top


 

Between a Nation's Charity and the Vision of Independence

Aharon Ben-Ami

A historical paradox by which the US has been considered a friend and ally of the State of Israel, while, in fact, it has consistently undermined Israel’s chances of securing defensible boundaries vis-à-vis the Arab world, is discussed in this article stage by stage.

Since the War of Independence in 1948, through the wars of 1956, 1967, 1973 and 1982 (including constant terrorism and attrition between wars) the same pattern of appeasement of the Arab aggressors and forcing precarious territorial conditions upon Israel has repeated itself. The present situation seems like a form of servitude under the guise of alliance, which, in fact, becomes more and more detrimental to a stable peace in the Middle East.

The climax of Israel’s predicament is now reflected in the so-called “peace process” by which Israel is being pushed back to its vulnerable borderlines of June 1967. Yet instead of Jordan as its eastern neighbor, we now have the PLO (with the US as a sponsor and arbiter) that by its very raison d’être is disposed once again to ignite the entire Middle East by cries to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem, etc. Thus, although Israel and the PLO have reached an agreement of mutual recognition and partition by themselves in Oslo, the two sides have noted and agreed since then, as obedient vassals depending on their over-lord in Washington, to draw the final lines of a new partition of this tiny land.

 

back to top


 

Conventional Warfare and the Israeli Military Doctrine towards the 21st Century

Ehud Eilam

Israel has always relied on conventional warfare to survive in the Middle East. The IDF’s victories in the wars enabled Israel to remain an independent state. This article examines the various aspects of conventional warfare in the Middle East during the past 50 years, focusing on the Yom Kippur War. It will attempt to demonstrate the particular importance of this war for Israel’s military doctrine, and its bearing on possible future wars.

The battlefield has gradually become more crowded with forces and weapons. This limited the ability of an army that relied on maneuver, such as the IDF, to destroy the enemy. One of the chief problems was the increase in the range and penetration of different missiles and cannons. This caused the battlefield to expand, but at the same time restricted it by complicating its advance, as the Yom Kippur War shows.

Other key factors to conventional warfare were the importance of logistics, and the improvement of the main weapon systems, in most of the armies in the area.

The direction of conventional warfare in the coming times is not clear.

Possibly firepower will neutralize attacks of an army, certainly adding to its cost. The situation of World War I may repeat itself, i.e., no side will be able to strike decisively. Wars may turn into wars of attrition, bringing the states in the Middle East to consider using non-conventional weapons, so conventional war may, paradoxically perhaps, not deteriorate. In order to prevent mass destruction in the Middle East, Israel may choose to fight “the old way”.

In this case, the lessons of the 1973 (Yom Kippur) War, along with others learned from military history and the art of war, will continue to be vital to Israel’s military doctrine.

 

back to top

 

Ariel Center for Policy Research / NATIV

POB 99, Shaarei Tikva 44810, Israel

URLs: www.acpr.org.il, http://nativ.cc

Email: ariel.center@gmail.com

Tel: +972-3-906-3920  Fax: +972-3-906-3905