Today, we had a small (but not confidential) meeting with an Israeli diplomat in GWU which aimed to discuss Israeli policy in the Middle East. After hearing the meeting, I got excited as it's a good opportunity to learn Israeli point of view from the first hand source. As it can be predicted, the meeting automatically turned a platform on which Israel's policy towards Palestine is discussed.
According to my inferences; shortly; security, land for peace, Hamas, removing some of the Jewish settlements were the key words of his speech. It can be said that these keywords are relevant for all discussions on Arab-Israeli conflict. However, the "deployment" of these words have deterministic effect in providing clues for us to understand the perspectives of discussants, authorities and all the other actors who more or less take part in this conflict.
If Hamas attacks on Israeli towns are responded by heavy air raids which kill innocent Palestinians as well as the Hamas members, we should question the implementation of collective punishment policy of Israel with the same tone that we use when we condemn Hamas attacks.
If Israel desires a real peace in the region, it should realise that respect for territorial integrity of independent countries is one of the "sine quo non"s of peace. Moving from this fact, Israeli decision makers may ask themselves " WHY DID ISRAELI AIR FORCES FLY OVER SYRIA WITHOUT ANY PERMISSION IN 2007?"
Take the policy of the "removing the Jewish settlements" from Gaza and West Bank. If Israel wants to sit at the peace table with Palestinians, it should withdraw from the idea that removal of the Jewish settlements is Sharon's gift to Palestinians. NO! It's a small portion of Israel's requirements before sitting at the peace table ! So, please stop setting inferiority-superiority relation over this requirement! And stop presenting the responsibilities as gifts!
I don't know whether Israel does it consciously but bombing Gaza and killing innocent people after Qassam rocket attacks enlarge the way of radicalization in the region. Radicalization, high level of threat perception, heavy air raids, suicide bombings, societal fear.... How can I define the death circle in Arab-Israeli conflict more accurately?!!
Kivanc
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