By Yoram Getzler. I was pleasantly surprised by two ideas that Tzachi Hanegbi shared in his interview with Arie Shaviet in the Sept 06 Magazine of Haaretz.
One; The realization that in order to avoid our future being that of a bi-national state we need to “give the Palestinians most of the territories in Judea and Samaria and evacuate dozens of settlements.”. I would add to that “while maintaining the IDF in place to provide for our security.’
Two: The realization that if we are truly intent on absolutely preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon that endangers us, it is imperative that we plan and act in the long term.
A single attack, even if “successful”, will not accomplish the necessary goal of purging Iran’s nuclear military ambitions. Only a long term; month, years or even decades of efforts will be necessary to neutralize that threat. In order to operate in the long term, (however long it takes) we will need to totally transform the perception and attitude Israel currently occupies in world opinion. As the recant Non-Aligned Nations gathering demonstrated, Iran is far from isolated. If there is any nation seen as a danger to world peace it is us! The fact that we cannot comprehend this “hafouch who” (complete reversal) and distortion in perception does not render it fictitious.. Some degree of support from the many and various nations of the world is most important in our attempts to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat. Most critical is that of the United States of America, both its people and its government.
We begin these endeavors from a position of considerable disadvantage. If PM Netanyahu, Dr. Moshe Sneah, MK Hanegbi or any of the others interviewed by Ari Shavit are correct and if the consequences of a nuclear armed Iran are un acceptable with a clear existential danger to our state, then we need to ensure that our best minds, regardless of political affiliations and interests, create a successful campaign that affectively creates the changes we require.
Perhaps a deceleration similar to the one Hanegbi proposed in his interview; a commitment to “give the Palestinians most of the territories of Judea & Samaria”, would go a long way to secure a change of perception.
This effort I suggested above should first be directed toward the citizens of the United Sates and its government officials.
We could do far worse than proclaim, in honor of their President, Barak Obama a unilateral temporary Israeli building freeze in Judea, Shomron and East Jerusalem. It will cost us nothing but will be a solid investment in our long term support by US governments and people.
