Gush Shalom has acceded to my wish to mark my 85th birthday not with apublic celebration, as on my 80th, but with a brain-storming session devoted tothe main issues concerning Israel.
The event took place on the morning of Sunday 21.12.08 in Tel-Aviv’sprestigious Cinematheque hall, under the headline "Until [White] Smoke ComesOut – Views and Confrontations". It consisted of two debates: "Two Statesfor Two Peoples – Realistic or Impossible?" and "The Media: Do They ServePolitical Power and Money or the Public?"
In the first confrontation, moderated by former Haaretz editor DavidLandau, Israela Oron (of the Geneva Initiative) and Gilad Sher (former advisorof Ehud Barak and senior Israeli representative at the 2000 Camp Davidconference) argued that the Two-State solution is viable, while the historianMeron Benvenisti argued that it is impossible, and Dr. Menachem Klein (Bar-IlanUniversity) took an intermediate position.
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In the second confrontation, senior journalists Ron Ben-Yishai (who appearsin the memorable film Waltz with Bashir) and Rina Matzliach argued thatthe Israeli media are free, while Prof. Yaron Ezrachi and senior journalist OferShelach argued that they are shackled.
At the close of the event, I was given the floor. This is what I said:
A Congress of Peace Seekers
DEAR FRIENDS, DEAR PARTNERS,
I have to admit that I am moved. Throughout my long life I have not beenpampered with expressions of affection. I am much more used to manifestations ofhate. Therefore, please excuse me if I am a bit embarrassed.
PEOPLE ASK ME: How does it feel to be 85?
Well, it is strange. After all, only yesterday I was 42, the youngest member ofthe Knesset. I don’t feel any older or wiser than I did then.
85 is (in the old Hebrew way of numbering by letters) PH. PH can mean "poh",here - and yes, I am here and fully intend to remain here for a while to come– first, because I enjoy it, and second, because I still have some things tofinish.
PH can also mean peh, mouth – the mouth that enables me to voice my thoughts.I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the thoughtsthat are occupying my mind today.
What is special about 85-year-olds in Israel? First of all, we are thegeneration that founded the state. As such – I feel – we bear an additionalresponsibility for what is happening here. If our state is not what we imaginedit should be – it’s our duty to act to change it.
AND HERE we face a strange paradox. We are partners in a historic success. Andwe are partners in a dismal failure.
Perhaps only members of my generation can fully grasp the extend of our successin the transformation of the national consciousness.
Many people ask me: where do I draw my optimism from when the situation becomesvery bad, when good people are seized by depression and despair? At such momentsI remind myself - and remind the people who listen to me – where we startedfrom. I bring this up again and again for those who did not live through it, andthose who have forgotten:
On the morrow of that war, the ‘48 war, when some of us said that there existsa Palestinian people and that we must make peace with them, we were a tinyhandful here and in the whole world. We were laughed at. There are noPalestinians, we were told. "There is no such thing as a Palestinianpeople!" Golda Meir was still asserting much later.
Is there anyone today who denies the existence of the Palestinian people?
We argued that in order to achieve peace, a Palestinian state must come intobeing. They laughed at us. What? Why? There is Jordan. There is Egypt. There are22 Arab states. That’s enough!
Today it is a world-wide consensus – two states for two peoples.
We said that we must talk with the enemy, and the enemy was then the PLO. Fourcabinet ministers demanded that I should be put on trial for high treason when Imet with Yasser Arafat in Beirut during the siege. All four of them later metwith Arafat, and the State of Israel signed official treaties with the PLO.
True, the treaties were not implemented and did not lead to peace. But themutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, between Israel and thePalestinian people, became a fact. That was a revolution, and it cannot bereversed.
Today we are saying: we must talk with Hamas. Hamas is an integral part of thePalestinian reality. And this idea, too, is gaining ground.
What an uproar we caused when we said that Jerusalem must become the capital ofthe two states! Today almost everybody knows that this must happen, that it willhappen.
I have devoted 60 years of my life to this struggle, and it is still in fullswing. But we have defeated the idea of a Greater Israel and put forward thealternative of the two states, which has carried conviction in Israel andthroughout the world. So much so, that even those in the successive Israeligovernments who strongly oppose the idea are now compelled to pretend to supportit in order to attract votes.
Think about this when you feel despair. Look at the whole picture, not only atthe nearest small part of it.
BUT AS BIG as our victory is our defeat.
It is enough to look at these coming elections: the three big parties talkalmost the same language, and not one of them puts forward a plan for peace.
There are small parties which say good and honest things, but at this juncturewe simply need more than that. What is lacking is a major political force thatis ready to come to power in order to make peace.
It is quite clear that the results of this coming election will be bad – andthe only question is whether they will be just bad, or very bad, or even worse.
Why is this happening? There are many reasons, many pretexts. We criticize –and rightly so - many things, the media, the education system, all oursuccessive governments, the President of the United States, all the world.
But I miss one criticism – the criticism of ourselves.
My father used to tell me: if the situation is bad, the first thing to do is toask yourself if you are alright. So I am asking: Am I alright? Are we alright?
Yes, we have voiced the right ideas. Our ideas have won. But what have we doneto realize these ideas in practice, on the political battlefield?
Politics is a matter of power. What have we done to create a progressivepolitical force in Israel? How did it happen that the Left, the camp of peaceand progress, has almost been eradicated from the political map? Why don’t wehave political power, why don’t we have, for example, even one newspaper,radio or TV station? How did the Israeli Left lose, in the last generation, allits levers of power?
We in the peace camp include many wonderful men and women, who confront the armyevery week in the fight against the Wall, who monitor the checkpoints, whorefuse to serve in the occupation army, who fight against the occupation indozens of ways. Many of us, of all ages, take part in these actions.
But while we stand and protest, the settlers rush ahead. Another goat andanother dunam (1000 square meters), another hill and another outpost. SometimesI, too, have the feeling that the dogs bark and the caravan moves on – and Iam not content with being the dog. We chase the mosquitoes, but the swamp thatproduces the mosquitoes gets bigger and bigger.
The swamp is political. Only a political force can drain it. In other words:only a force that can confront the ruling powers, influence the decisions of thegovernment and the Knesset.
That is a historic failure, and we bear the responsibility for it.
IF I may be permitted to voice a birthday wish: the day after the elections Iwould like us to start thinking about the next elections.
We have to think anew. From the ground up. Examine everything we have done up tonow and find out where we went wrong.
Why did we not succeed in convincing enough of the young, of the Oriental Jewishcommunity, of the immigrants from Russia, of the Arab community in Israel, ofthe moderate religious sector – that there is somebody to talk with, that itis possible to bring about change, that indeed – we can! Why did we notsucceed in touching the heart of the young generation that is disgusted bypolitics – by the politics they know?
What is needed is something completely new, a new act of creation. I would say:we must prepare the ground for an Israeli Obama.
Obama means: to kindle hope where there was no hope before. To demand a changefrom the foundations up and believe that it is possible to bring about thischange. To ignite the enthusiasm of masses of young people for a message thatstirs the heart, a message of ending the occupation, of social justice, ofcaring for the planet. The longing for a different system – secular, just,decent, seeking peace.
The new message must address the mind and the heart, speak to the emotions andnot only to the intellect. It must arouse again the idealism that is hiding inmany a heart and dare not show its face.
The great obstacle to such an explosion is despair. It is so much easier todespair. So much more comfortable. It doesn’t demand anything. It is easier tosay that everything is lost. That they have stolen our state. But pessimism, asis well known, does not give birth to anything, it just leads to internal orexternal emigration.
I refuse to be pessimistic. In my 85 years I have seen too many unexpected,surprising, amazing, things – both good and bad – for me not to believe inthe unexpected. Obama was unexpected, and here it happened before our very eyes.The fall of the Berlin wall was unexpected, and nobody could even have imaginedit a moment before it happened. Even the victory of the Greens in the recentmunicipal election in Tel-Aviv was like that.
I WANT to propose the start of a new endeavor a day after the elections. I wouldlike the best of the intellectuals and the peace activists, the social activistsand the fighters for the environment to gather and start thinking together, inorder to bring about the Israeli miracle.
Perhaps there should be a grand congress of those who want change, a Sanhedrinof peace and human rights activists, a kind of alternative Knesset.
From the heights of my 85 years I want to call all those to whom our future hereis close to the heart, Jews and Arabs, and especially the young, to mobilize fora joint effort to prepare the ground for the big change, for the Other Israel,for a state where it will be fun to live, an Israel we can be proud of.
This is not a game that can be played between existing organizations, but acompletely new political creation, that will speak a new language, that willbring a new message.
I believe that this will happen, if not tomorrow then the day after. I wish formyself, and for all of you present in this hall, that we shall see it with ourown eyes, that we shall be partners, that we shall be able to say: we havesucceeded, we are entrusting the state to good hands.
AND NOW I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you, my friends, whohave come to mark my birthday with me by exchanging views and debating theissues that are so important to all of us.
Heartfelt thanks to the moderators and the speakers, who have bared the issuesfor us, to the organizers of this beautiful event, to the members of Gush Shalomwho made it possible. Thanks to all of you, who have come from near and afar,and thanks for the good wishes you have showered on me.
I couldn’t imagine a more enjoyable and exciting birthday. Thank you.
