Israeli Elections: Hegemony Over Homogeny

I have been trying to find something positive to write about the recent Israeli elections. I just cannot. There is simply nothing good about it. It simply is just the continuation of the status quo and that is not good for Palestinians and really not good for Israelis as well.  For the Palestinians, the status quo means the continuation of the occupation and the deprivation of the human spirit to be free. For the Israelis, it means that the lack of a clear expressive desire for peace in the election outcome ignores the ever increasing demographic boiling point which is turning Israel into the old Apartheid regime of South Africa.

The basic result of the Israeli election is that the right wing and center-right parties are likely to end up with 61 of the legislative seats in the Israeli Knesset, thus continuing the status quo of the Benjamin Netanyahu Government.

The status quo of domination over the Palestinians is what Israel wants for the region but this only exasperates and heightens the inevitable inner Palestinian human spirit to evolve towards the will to be free. Israel prefers hegemony over--instead of homogeny with--the Palestinians; it would rather dominate the Palestinians rather than treat them with equality. This is the crust of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The result of the Israeli elections elevated this inherent perplexity to the forefront; yet, Israelis seem oblivious to the fact that this clash between Israeli dominance and the Palestinian spirit to be free will come crashing down when the current trends in the demographics will result in an anticipated Palestinian majority in 2016. 

I have written about the human spirit to be free and my article can be read at http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6942645014941809001#editor/target=post;postID=7408208507238483659. In essence, I argue that inevitably Israel cannot suppress the will of 4.29 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who desire to be free of occupation and a relentless siege.  By 2016, it is projected that the Palestinian population in Israel, West Bank and Gaza will outnumber the Israeli non-Arab population.

Suppressing the Palestinian desire to be free perpetuates the status quo. Keeping the status quo is rooted in the aspiration of maintaining a Jewish homeland as Jews around the world feel secure in having Israel be a safe haven given world history of atrocities toward Jews. Thus, The Israeli election also tells me that Israelis are horrified of losing the concept of a Jewish homeland and therefore are clinging onto the status quo. Given the history of the Jewish people, that fear is warranted; but this aspiration driven by historical fear comes at the expense of the Palestinian people.  Finding a solution that would alleviate that fear while acknowledging the inevitability of the Palestinian human spirit to be free is what is needed to resolve the conflict.

The Israeli election did not shift Israeli politics to the left or right but rather left it smack where it has been—standing still.  Peace talks are standing still because Palestinians feel that there is no use in endless talks that lead to nowhere.  The Occupation of Palestinian land is standing still—continuing in its fifth decade.  Yet the fermenting Israeli suppression of Palestinian aspirations is about to boil over.  The Israeli elections did not alleviate this tension.

Israelis have consistently expressed security concerns in the 20 plus years of attempts at trying to negotiate a final solution with the Palestinians.  I interpret this security concern to mean a safe haven for Jews all over the world.  This security may ultimately be elusive however, if it comes at the expense of the Palestinians, for the natural course of human development is to be free from the oppressor’s chains that bind the collective individual conscience. 

This has been demonstrated time and time again with the thirteen American colonies breaking away from the British King; with the French masses overthrowing the absolute monarchy; with Black South Africans breaking the White Minority Rule apartheid chains; with Gandhi leading his people to overthrow the mighty British Empire; with the eventual American realization that slavery cannot long endure; and with many countless other examples where peoples all over the globe repelled imperialist colonial hegemony.

The Palestinian human spirit is no different than the American colonists, the French masses, India’s masses and the Black South Africans.  The Israeli election did not negate the Palestinian spirit; in fact that spirit has regenerated and grows with each Palestinian generation. 

The social revolution which opens the world to all also opens the spirits of the Palestinian people. Palestinians are not oblivious to the freedoms enjoyed around the world and they desire that same freedom in their daily lives.  As Palestinians interact with the globe community on social network sites, their human spirit to be free grows. Social networks exponentially inspire the Palestinian youth to lift off the chain that suppresses their collective bondage that the Israeli occupation imposes upon them.

The Israeli election takes little note of this growing social internet revolution and shows that Israelis would rather continue to believe that the colonial aspirations of the past several centuries is still prevalent in today’s age. That belief is antiquated and it leaves Israel further isolated around the family of nations.

Recently, the Palestinian human spirit has gained from international recognition and international intervention.  The upgrade in Palestine’s status at the United Nations has inspired Palestinians in that it gave them faith in the world community, while the truce between Israel and Hamas,  brokered by the US and Egypt and international pressure against a ground assault, excited the Palestinian will to fight off Israeli aggression.

Again, the Israeli election results seemed oblivious to growing worldly sentiment that the Palestinian human spirit is on the road towards freedom. The question is will Israelis ride along with the Palestinians or will Israelis fate be that of the White Minority rulers of South Africa.

            Israeli’s fate is really in their hands—or more accurately in their right to vote.  Palestinian’s fate is in the natural evolution of their human spirit.

Searching “hearts and souls” for Peace

By: Fadi Zanayed                         

Hatred and a feeling of superiority are two core elements that prevent a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  After 62 years of mutually inflicted atrocities against each other, the parties are seething with hatred. During these decades of authoritative rule over the Palestinians, Israelis have acquired a feeling of superiority. Getting beyond these attributes will take time and much healing before there will be a feeling of trust and cooperation even after the ever eluding peace finally arrives.

Hatred is a very troubling attribute that is not easily dismissed.  While the Jewish experience is full of unfortunate history of hatred inflicted upon them, it seems that all the centuries of stored up vengeance has come out against the Palestinians. The Palestinians are paying the price for history’s anti-Semitism. All the hatred inflicted upon the Jewish people is being avenged in the form of hatred toward the Palestinians.

In 1948 the United Nations, a new world body formed after two devastating world wars that saw the ugly nature of hatred and self-righteous superiority of one race over all others, tried in an altruistic attempt to reverse the historical anti-Semitism crimes of present and past generations by creating the State of Israel upon a land that was predominately that of the Palestinians. While that attempt was noble and within the reasoning for the creation of the UN, to solve and prevent conflicts around the world, it fermented the present hatred between Israelis and Palestinians. 

While the UN tried to teach the world that Hitler’s German aspirations of racial superiority were absolutely abhorrent, that lesson did not sink into the Israeli mindset.  Israelis believe that they are superior to others, especially the Palestinians.  Whether it is the Torah that gives the Jewish people this feeling or they see themselves as more cultured and Westernized than the Palestinians, the Israelis have not learned from history and thus are repeating the negative history perpetrated against Jews upon the Palestinians.

Before and after the creation of Israel, one atrocity committed by one party was and is avenged by another atrocity.  Regardless of who committed the first assault, the perpetual cycle of an eye for an eye mentality has spiraled out of control. Entrenched in this vicious cycle is the Western colonization mindset that needs to exploit an “inferior” people for economic and political gain.  The centuries of the Jewish diaspora within Western societies in which the exploitation of the East by Western nations was the norm, i.e. Europeans domination of South Africa and India, developed into the Israeli psychic that encourages the unfounded belief in the morality of its domination of the Palestinians.   

Colonial dominance and mentality are antiquated ideologies of the twentieth century and earlier times. Yet, Israel is clinging onto to an apartheid system of control over the Palestinians that cannot be long endured. While the pre-technological revolution and Jewish domination of the press allowed Israel to hide its ever expanding colonization of Palestinian land, i.e. settlement expansions, the new age of the internet where anything anywhere can be broadcast to the world instantaneously has exposed Israel for what it truly is—an apartheid regime which is not unlike the “Grand Apartheid” scheme of the 1960’s executed by the Afrikaner minority in South Africa to emphasize territorial separation and military repression.

In the context of resolving the conflict, Palestinians must not allow the Israelis to feel superior.   When Israel negotiates for the release of one of its captured soldiers for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners the value of an Israeli is quantified greater than a Palestinian. This is wrong.   Similarly, when the Palestinians allow Israel to dissect their land into zones and allow Israel to give them limited powers and authority the equality between the two peoples is disturbed.  Palestinians are like children demanding “their own space” like a child demanding “his/her space” from a parent.   There is no parent/child relationship between Israelis and Palestinians and the Palestinians must stop acting like children.

This Israeli psychology of superiority is at the very heart of the conflict. Mohandas Gandhi’s statement that “A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people” describes the current feeling of superiority within the Israeli mindset.  When one culture feels superior to another, hatred develops.  Discrimination follows. Laws are implemented and interpreted differently between two classes of people in the same society.

Israelis need to understand that they need to come to terms with their feelings; with the  illegal occupation and domination of the Palestinians—just like the Southern American Whites came to terms with centuries of discrimination against African-Americans and just like the Afrikaners came to terms with the South African apartheid system.

Israelis must come to terms within their “hearts and their souls” to end the occupation of Palestine. 


(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)