A Rogue State

That's what Avi Shlaim calls Israel and Avi is not an Arab; he served in the Israeli Army. He now teaches at Oxford, but this does not disqualify him from speaking out against his native country. In this piece he almost cries out in despair at what his country has become. I suspect he represents the liberal Israelis who seldom make the U.S. media.

Shlaim opposed Israel's encroachment beyond the pre-1967 borders and attributes much of Israel's war with the Arabs as a territory grab. Gaza has always been a tough place to live; it's small, has no natural resources and has never been developed economically. Shlaim thinks Israel wanted Gaza so that it would have a source of cheap labor and, since Israel controlled all entrances and exits, a market for Israeli goods. They did nothing to help the Gazans. In fact, they exploited them. There were 8,000 Jewish settlers in Gaza in 2005. They controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and most of the drinking water. What percent of the population was Jewish? .6%, 8,000 Jews in a land of 1,400,000 people.

A couple of interesting quotes:

Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism. Despite all the handicaps, the Palestinian people succeeded in building the only genuine democracy in the Arab world with the possible exception of Lebanon. In January 2006, free and fair elections for the Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority brought to power a Hamas-led government. Israel, however, refused to recognise the democratically elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist organisation.
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But the simple truth is that the Palestinian people are a normal people with normal aspirations. They are no better but they are no worse than any other national group. What they aspire to, above all, is a piece of land to call their own on which to live in freedom and dignity.
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In a broader sense, however, it is a war between Israel and the Palestinian people, because the people had elected the party to power. The declared aim of the war is to weaken Hamas and to intensify the pressure until its leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel's terms. The undeclared aim is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood.
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The problem with Israel's concept of security is that it denies even the most elementary security to the other community. The only way for Israel to achieve security is not through shooting but through talks with Hamas, which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the Jewish state within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or even 50 years. Israel has rejected this offer for the same reason it spurned the Arab League peace plan of 2002, which is still on the table: it involves concessions and compromises.
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This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.

Thanks to RJ of SparrowChat for introducing me to Prof. Shlaim.