Shooting at MP’s won’t Do Any Good
By Crispin Blunt
June 23, 2004

On Friday I enjoyed, if that is the right word, being a first-hand witness to an example of policy failure in action. The Israeli Defence Force deployed on the border between Egypt and Gaza saw fit to open fire on a group of unarmed people inspecting the area, who had arrived in clearly marked UN vehicles. The fact that three of us were British politicians, from the three main parties, and included a Labour Friend of Israel made the event newsworthy.

The same treatment had been meted out to representatives of Save the Children 48 hours earlier and, of course, fatally to Tom Hurndall and James Miller last year. The 104 Palestinians who died in Gaza in May alone attracted rather less attention. We were fortunate in that the aim of the fire was to drive us away. While it succeeded, we had already borne witness to the destruction being wrought by the Israelis to people's homes along the border. What is so depressing is that the Israeli people seem prepared to accept policies not only of such moral and legal bankruptcy, but also so self-destructive in the long term. It is the moral high ground that has been abandoned since 1967, and this cannot but be a cancer in the soul and identity of any society. Aside from the moral issue, it surely cannot be sensible to manufacture hatred that will take generations to dissipate.

The friends of Israel, and I see no reason why I can't count myself a friend of Israel and a friend of the Palestinians, must be prepared to point this out. All need to join an effort to persuade Israeli leaders to look beyond short-term security policies, which are producing an enraged Palestinian population and enabling Islamic fanatics to exploit this growing rage. In the absence of political dialogue with the secular Palestinian leadership, Israel's illegal and immoral counter-terrorism strategy helps no one in the region engaged in a battle against fanaticism, including moderate Palestinians and most Arab governments.

The tragedy of Israel's current security policy is only matched by the moral degeneracy of the suicide bombers. They are both the product of desperation.

While friends of Israel should call on it to regain the legal and moral high ground, the same advice applies equally to the Palestinians and their leadership.

For Yasser Arafat, stuck in his compound, where I spoke to him last Thursday, proactive action is plainly a challenge, but he can undoubtedly prevent the actions of others if he chooses. This is the charge of the Americans and Israelis - that he is an obstacle that needs to be manoeuvred round.

In practice, the picture is not entirely negative, with a quiet revolution in the finances of the Palestinian Authority and stuttering progress towards security reform. New elections and a renewed mandate for the presidency and the Palestinian legislative council are an obvious vehicle not only to regain moral and legal authority, but to help unite the Palestinian people with an effective national strategy. Many younger and more thoughtful Palestinians are anxious to have a sense of direction and the empowerment that comes from being proactive and not simply victims reacting to events.

Arafat still represents the symbol of secular Palestinian nationalism and he could serve as a bulwark against the rising tide of Islamist extremism in the territories and the wider Middle East. Both he and the international community now need this to happen.

We are now witnessing an intensifying battle in the Middle East between religious fanaticism and moderates. Now that the battle has spilled over into America, Europe and Asia, more attention is being paid to two of the root causes of the battle: the paucity of political participation among average Arab citizens, and the festering dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel, the west and, indeed, Arafat share a common cause with moderate Arab governments who are trying to develop more open societies consistent with Arab tradition. As the retreat from the Bush doctrine on Middle East democratisation shows, it is not easy for the west to support Arab governments in their war against religious fanaticism and to facilitate political reform without appearing to dictate from outside and thus make reform more difficult.

An opportunity for Israel exists as well, if only its government had the courage to follow it. It should play its part in the common cause with moderate Arab governments in their fight against Islamist extremists. Both Israel and the Palestinians have an immediate common interest in seeking the moral and legal high ground. The settlement to be found on the top of that particular hill will not have to be surrounded by barbed wire and a wall.

Crispin Blunt is a British Member of Parliament and chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council.

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