Interview with Prof.Yaron Ezrahi: "Bibi wants to block the peace process"

Earlier today, The Pulse interviewed Prof. Yaron Ezrahi, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Israel Democracy Institute.

Pulse: Special Envoy George Mitchell just concluded his visit to the region where he made it clear that the Obama Administration strongly supports the pursuit of a two state solution. How will the Netanyahu government respond? 

Ezrahi: First we have to recognize that Bibi is back to his blocking and delaying tactics.  He is a perfect follower of Yitzhak Shamir who famously said that he was not against the peace process; in fact, he likes the process so much that he doesn't mind if it never ends.

Bibi's main interest is to conduct an inconsequential peace process that goes no where but to keep him in office.  Bibi wants to block the peace process; he wants to put sticks in the wheels of real substantive progress, and so he sets down conditions that cannot be met: 1) In the past he said that Israel will be ready for peace with the Arab world when they become democracies, which can take quite a while. 2) In the campaign he called for economic integration before political peace - - even in Europe it was found that economic integration can never seriously replace a political process of compromise based on dignity, respect and recognition of independence.  Therefore, an economic peace in which the Arab side is conceding its dignity, honor and rights for economic conditions is absurd and smacks of a colonial mentality that tries to buy off the natives. 3) Now he wants the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, but half of the Israeli public is more interested in Israel becoming a strong democracy before it becomes a Jewish state.  This is a controversial issue within Israel and there are questions as to what defines a Jewish state.  Does Netanyahu want the Arab world to recognize us as a Jewish state when most Israelis don't know what that means?

Pulse: Will Bibi work with Mitchell and Obama to pursue the peace process?

Ezrahi: I hope that the Obama administration will realize that Netanyahu will use a right-wing technique of evasiveness. His strength lies in his great ability to appear flexible, civilized, clever, and a man of good will. But in fact he winks to the right-wing, reminding them what he did to the Oslo process, reminding them of how he likes to operate, how he works in this kind of environment. For instance, why did he so badly want Labor in his coalition?  The question is still open as to whether he wanted Labor in order to perfect his method of evasiveness by means of a large coalition where it is easier for him politically to appear to be doing the right thing, rather than having to use the technique of evasiveness within a narrow right-wing government. If Bibi is transformed in any way, I have not seen any signs of it yet. If he does, I invite you to interview me again.

Pulse: Can Mitchell understand this?

Ezrahi: Mitchell is very skilled and very prestigious. He has experience which is especially valuable and precious to us and that is his ability to work with religious nationalism, with conflicting parties with strong religious influences.  Hamas and the hard-core ideological settlers both want to frame the conflict in religious terms, which means bringing in absolute values from both sides that foreclose all possibility of compromise.  It is not by chance that Bibi went first to the extreme religious parties, who he considered his natural constituents, to join his coalition. 

Pulse: But Mitchell was absolutely clear that the President wants a two-state solution and does not want a pre-condition to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. How will Bibi respond?

Ezrahi: Bibi will ask for time and find the appropriate ambiguous language to gain more time.  Bibi will plead with the Americans to understand that his government is still new; he needs to bring along his coalition partners, that to fail and fall would mean new elections and paralysis; he needs time. But the danger in giving Bibi time is to lose the great momentum opened up by the new US presidency. The Americans must see through this ploy and not allow the momentum to stop. I believe that Mitchell, who knows how to untangle the religious elements from the pragmatic, will know how to detect, beneath the gloss of civility, Bibi's substantial evasiveness.

Pulse:  So what should the US strategy be?

Ezrahi: The best strategy for the west, not just the US, to help Israel and the Palestinians come to terms is to emancipate the conflict from dependence on the contingent, fragile coalitions of the two polities. This is the time to tell them that the removal of settlements and the stopping of terror are no longer just domestic matters that can be solved between yourselves, but they are top priorities that represent the vital interests of the US, Europe, NATO and other members of the free world coalition, including Eastern Europe who want a peaceful Middle East where each country is free to pursue its own way of life, religion, and culture.  They do not want a Middle East that is constantly under the threat of a nuclear confrontation, which is being held by a system of questionable deterrence. A nuclear Middle East, which is inflamed by the religious conflict, is a danger to Europe and the US, and the rest of the world.  Obama cannot allow Netanyahu, Abu Mazen and Haniyeh to continue with their futile efforts to sustain the status quo.  The prospect of a nuclear Iran has re-globalized the Arab-Israel conflict, as it was in the Cold War, placing it squarely on the table of every major power of the world.

Pulse: So does that mean a clash with the US is looming?

Ezrahi: The US does not have much time; it is tied up in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.  The Arab Peace Initiative with the full support of the Saudis, the Egyptians, Jordanians and others, is too seductive to the world to be dropped as a bitter lemon by the rejectionists in Israel and Palestine.  The attempts to induce a fundamentalist revolution in Egypt, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries by Iran is a clear sign of what is at stake. 

Pulse: Do you think the Israeli public is aware that Bibi is on a collision course with Obama?

Ezrahi: The Israeli public knows that the backing of the US is an indispensable condition for Israeli security and for Israel's future.  The majority of the Israeli public, from the center to the left, is so strongly aware of this that any Israeli leader faced with a choice that could lead to alienating the US and losing its  strategic support will probably lose the elections. Remember what happened to Shamir when he failed to get the US loan guarantees.

Pulse: So what does Obama do?

Ezrahi: American policy in the Middle East should be made crystal clear to the Israeli public and policy makers specifying exactly what needs to be done by both sides and what will not be tolerated; and, that they cannot take too much time in doing this.  The momentum is now, with the Arab Peace Initiative, and we cannot afford to lose any more time, especially after the last eight years of Bush's solidarity and empty gestures which led us nowhere but to valuable time lost.

Professor Yaron Ezrahi, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Israel Democracy Institute, served as head of the advanced program for the History and Sociology of the Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and as Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History, Philosophy and Sociology of the Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Ezrahi was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and served as a Visiting Professor at the universities of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Duke.