Is Israel a pariah nation?
Ariel Sharon is talking about a unilateral pullout of Lebanon and has suggested that Israel pull out of Lebanon without any security guarantees from Lebanon regarding attacks from south Lebanon on Israel's northern border.
The Israeli minister threatened to blow up the economic infrastructure of Lebanon in response to any attacks anyone may undertake against Israel. Anyone who is familiar with Sharon would know that the threat by Sharon is sincere. Sharon has a history in Lebanon that is etched in the minds of Lebanese and Palestinians as a result of the Sabra-Shatila massacres.
The Israeli minister also called for assasinations against Hamas leaders in Jordan, along the line of acts that were committed in the past by Iran and Iraq against political decedents.
But not to rehash the brutality with which Israel supported many gruesome acts, this latest statement is not extraordinary in any sense of the word, as it highlights Israeli policy towards Lebanon, Palestine and other Arab states in general. Arabs ought to be glad to have Sharon in such a high level position and speaking as frankly as he does. Sharon, by his statements, makes public, Israeli policy that is and has been a reality in practice.
Israel understands full well the primacy of the role economics plays, both as a true measure of a country's strength, and as the true power behind a country being able to sustain readiness and war in conflict.
Israel has and continues to employ an economic embargo on Palestine, this tiny embryonic state that Israel knows is inevitable. Yet Israel hopes to have it become a premature weakling that will remain as such for a long time. Israel, through the economic embargo on Palestinians, seeks to establish a form of relationship between itself and Palestine similar to that South Africa sought in the past with its neighbors, whereby Palestine would be a source of cheap labor for Israeli industry, and Palestine would be a consumption economy without any tangible manufacturing or service capacity.
But Israel's history in its war of economics never stopped at the subtle aspects of this war. Israel instituted against any Palestinian family in which one of its members was a "suspect" in illegal acts a form of punishment that is unique to Israel. Israel would bulldoze the family's home as a form of punishment. It may take a moment to appreciate the brutality of this act of collective punishment, but it is hard to underestimate the moral aspect of this.
Israel has been most creative about its punishment methods, always focusing on the economic aspect when it sought to inflict pain. In Lebanon the wealth of the country was eaten up during the war, and the evidence peppered Lebanon's streets, with holes that filled almost every building that managed to remain standing. Lebanon's war, some assert, was meant to destroy the economy of an Arab state that had a decent standard of living that was on a trajectory to make Lebanon a developed country within the span of a couple of decades, with vibrant business and vibrant tourism, and a claim that Israel wanted for itself, as the "only" democracy in the region, a statement it loved to use to explain how "different" Israelis are from Arabs.
Israel fought very hard to lift sanctions the Arab states imposed on it in the past. It fought tooth and nail to lift the sanctions because the sanctions were effective. Israel, through its most powerful ally, the US congress, through US laws, fought these sanctions in a public fashion that we will not get into now. What is important to realize is that economics is at play here, as they were during the Cold War between the West and East, with the West constricting trade with the East. The West knew that true power -- power that is sustainable -- is based on economic power. South Africa, did not believe so, at first, but came to feel the effect afterwards. Of course, South Africa was a capitalist economy and a "democracy", where when businesses hurt, politicians will act, as opposed to a socialist country such as Cuba, or the Soviet Union with their sanctions.
Israel and South Africa were best of friends when the whole world condemned both in the past, South Africa for its practice of apartheid against "Blacks", and Israel for its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The UN passed a resolution in 1973 labeling Israel as a "Zionist" state (this was retracted years later in exchange for an agreement with Israel to recognize the PLO and deal with Yasser Arafat, while Arafat acknowledged the right of Israel to exist). The whole world saw Israel as a pariah state that was sustained by US aid and power. But Israel in typical fashion, as it always has, never saw morality as an issue in the life of states and human affairs. Israel has been conditioned with the instinct of just trying to survive, for so long, that morality had little place in its construct of policy be it internal with the Palestinians, or external with the Arabs. After all, the Arabs were the enemy and were trying to destroy Israel, and what mattered was survival.
But Israel never matured. As it grew-up and became the regional military superpower with a very strong economy, with per capita income half that of western countries and hundreds of times that of its border-front-line Arab states, Israel continued to act like a poor man who is vulnerable to any state and any man waving a knife or shouting empty slogans. But more importantly, even when the Arab states indicated in a clear, concrete and unambiguous manner that they want peace and not war and that Israel could be a part of the region, Israel still acted as if any of these countries were "truly" a threat, and rebuffed all such peace efforts. Logically, when you are militarily and economically superior, and are in no danger of any sort, beyond the cosmetic, why should you compromise? Compromise usually means in the affairs of states that you are in a compromised position, and Israel does not see itself in such a position.
So Israel continues to act in the belligerent ways that it grew up learning and in many cases inventing, and is not being forced by circumstance/reality to change. The international community merely offers condemnations and resolutions to which Israel has learned to turn a deaf ear, and realized that these are empty words that are not backed up by concrete actions as were the case in South Africa. The US will make sure that no harm can come Israel's way, politically, economically, or militarily.
Coming back to Israeli Minister Sharon and his threats against Lebanon. Our readers should know that this is not the first time Sharon had made such statements. Only the context is new. Sharon had wanted to destroy the economy of Lebanon many times before, and several times over what Israel has already done.
What is new here is that Israel is showing readiness to withdraw from Lebanon, and that is because Israel is being forced to do so because of the success of the Lebanese resistance forces in their efforts against the Israeli army in the occupied south of Lebanon. Israel is not considering withdrawing from Lebanon because it is "morally wrong" to occupy another country, or because it is "morally wrong" to kill people, or to destroy their houses and livelihoods, or prevent their children from being educated. Israel will withdraw because it is being forced to. That is the only language Israel has learned over the years, that only force matters, and is effective. That force, applied against Israel, can be strategic (as in the case of Egypt's post-1973 war success), it could be military (as in the case of Lebanon now), or it could be economic (when the US chooses to play this card).
The economic card has not been played yet in full, again by the Arabs, as we approach an era in world affairs were economics will rule supreme and the well being of countries will be measured first and foremost by economics. It may be time that Israel is given a taste of its medicine that it insists on feeding to Lebanese families, Palestinians families, and Golan families.
It may be time to remind Israel of the effects of its practices. Let the Israelis get to understand a little what it means when someone blows up the electric station and you are left for years without electricity. Let them know what it feels like when someone blows up the phone company, so that they can lose phone service for five or ten years. Let them suffer without water service and have to look for fresh drinking water to carry back in bottles to their homes for their kids and adults who are without jobs, and schools. Let Israel "feel," for a change.
We are not recommending attacks against those public facilities as Israel does, but what is sanctioned internationally. We are recommending to study and move to consider (and the signal that would send to Israel) a full Arab states embargo against Israel, through all the companies that want to do business with the Arab states. Arab states can buy products from any company in the world now. Israel and the U.S. would understand this act. This would not be implemented as a "cut off your nose to spite your face" proposition, but as a practical measure and part of a grander strategy to force economic investments in Arab states themselves, and part of a strategy to enliven Arab states' economies that desperately need internal economic investment in plants that produce consumer goods and services, and as part of an Arab state economic block that can compete internationaly, and is not motivated the least bid by Israel, but Israeli policy being an additional incentive for the creation of such an economic block.
Israel was being made, by the Arab states, a member of the region. Israel was invited to participate, almost as an Arab state, in the Middle East and North Africa economic conference in Doha last year, as well as in its predecessors. Israel was being made a "normal" state with trade ties, and official exchanges, and business exchange. Even Syria said, "We want peace and we mean it." But Israel is not satisfied. It wants the whole cake for itself, and so long as it feels invincible, not subject to pressure, this current Israeli government and its majority Israeli supporters will never feel a need to compromise as its past behavior clearly illustrates.
If Israel thinks it can live in isolation as it has in the past, and if Israel thinks that the political and economic forces in the world in the decades to come will be the same as those in the past and as favorable, then Israel is deluding itself. They are not and they will not be. If Israel is playing for time to consolidate certain aspects of its policy on the backs of the Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians, then it will surely be giving generations to come much to remember and think about in the future when these citizens live in Arab states that are stronger, much stronger.
Israel has to stop saying it is a "democracy," South Africa was, with its brutal and inhumane practices. Israel through its citizens must understand that just because they speak English without accent, and because they have become affluent economically, or because some have blond hair that they are not a part of the Middle East! This attitude allows Israelis to view themselves as superior, and "different", and it becomes possible to oppress the helpless Palestinians who want nothing but to live in peace and dignity like every other human being on earth.
But the moment Israel sees others as human beings, it will not be able to bulldoze Palestinian houses, it won't be able to subjugate people, and it won't be able to blow up a Lebanese farmer's olive trees that are thousands of years old and that provide his family's livelihood. How cruel can a nation be when it bombs olive trees to force people to evacuate their land, and to destroy the ability for livelihood?
In the past, Israel has been able to hide through effective media campaigns in the West that shielded the effects of its policy and brutality of its practices. But thanks to Minister Sharon, a beautiful image of what some Israelis think, we see the face of Israel, publicly.
The Arab states have offered Israel an olive branch now, it is hard to predict the future, but for now, Israel seems to enjoy bombing those olive branches, and the trees they grow on.