In Defence of Doves

VOLUAJRme JOURNAL10 NO.12 decembeR 2010 In defence of doves The following article does not reflect a new form of coexistence with the the views of the AJR. It attempts to give Arabs. In August 1967, in the immediate expression to a historical position on the wake of the Six-Day War, he wrote: ‘This Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to relate it to relationship – and the foundation of the present conditions – Anthony Grenville. future – cannot rely on military victories nor on the subjugation of a hostile he Association of Jewish Refugees population … To conquer the hatred has, it goes without saying, always and to remove the feeling of humiliation T been a strong supporter of the of the enemy is more important, and Jewish state. In 1948, the AJR Information possibly even more difficult, than military welcomed the founding of Israel as action.’ an event of unique and incomparable Rabbi Dr Leo Baeck, 1873-1956 Weltsch had been the editor of the significance for Jews the world over. In Jüdische Rundschau in Germany, and 1956, it shared in the elation brought In March 1946, the journal reported the he, too, stayed on after 1933. In April about by the Israeli army’s victories submission that Rabbi Dr Leo Baeck, the 1933, he penned the famous headline of in Sinai. In 1967, the journal greeted spiritual leader of the Jews from Germany, proud defiance to the first Nazi measures Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War with flanked by the Chairman and Vice- against the Jews: ‘Tragt ihn mit Stolz, jubilant relief: ‘There has never been a Chairman of the AJR, made in London den gelben Fleck’ (‘Wear it with pride, time when we followed the news from to the Anglo-American Commission of the yellow badge’). (The compulsory hour to hour with such intensity and Inquiry on Palestine. Baeck believed in wearing of the star was introduced only in feelings of personal involvement as we the possibility of peaceful coexistence 1941.) Yet Weltsch claimed the authority did during the past weeks. The speed between Jews and Palestinian Arabs: of the founder of Zionism, Theodor and thoroughness with which the Israelis ‘There may not be friendship between Herzl, for the strategy of treating the achieved a military victory on three Arab committees and Zionist committees Palestinians with humanity: ‘It was also fronts against an overwhelming majority but there is friendship between Arab fundamental to Herzl’s thought that the exceeded all expectations. Words cannot villages and Jewish villages, and in the implementation of Zionism would have adequately express the tribute due to end villages are more important than to be carried out in accordance with the the courage, morale and strategic ability committees.’ Leo Baeck had been principles of humanity. Nothing was displayed by the people of Israel in those President of the Reichsvertretung der more remote from his mind than the memorable days.’ And in 1973, during deutschen Juden, the organisation of the expulsion of native peasants from their the anxious days of the Yom Kippur War, German Jews under Nazi rule. He had ancestral soil.’ the AJR helped to channel donations to refused to emigrate and abandon the Jews Some will dismiss as naïve the idea Israel. in his charge, and survived two years in that Israel should treat the Palestinians But the AJR Information inclined Theresienstadt. humanely, as people with rights and towards the view that the best way of History, as we know, did not conform dignity, when it is under attack from safeguarding the future of the Jewish state to Leo Baeck’s expectations. The State of them; yet Jews are proud, and rightly so, lay in concluding a peace settlement with Israel came into being and passed its first that Israeli Arabs enjoy civil rights and the Arabs. If there were no enemies – a years under constant threat from its Arab freedoms while the Arab states long ago big ‘if’, admittedly – there would be no neighbours. But the victories of 1967 expelled their Jewish minorities. More threat. Inspired by leading Israeli figures and 1973 brought about a fundamental difficult to dismiss is the contention that of German-Jewish descent like Georg shift in that balance of power. One of the the Palestinians should be treated as a Landauer and Werner Senator, it tended to AJR Information’s most distinguished people. Yet it is plain that, like Jewish advocate engaging with the Palestinians, correspondents, Robert Weltsch, who national consciousness, Palestinian insofar as was consistent with Israel’s also wrote for the Israeli newspaper national feeling has also developed during security, in the hope of reaching a Ha’aretz, believed that the key problem the long period of conflict between the negotiated settlement. arising out of victory was that of finding continued overleaf 1 AJR JOURNAL decembeR 2010 in defence of doves cont. from page 1 HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY two, if more slowly. Beyond question, the spread of nationalism across the Middle NATIONAL COMMEMORATION East in general after the First World War ‘Untold Stories’ and the immigration of Jews into Palestine in particular accelerated the development 27 January 2011 of national feeling among the Palestinians. 3.45 pm to 6.30 pm The Arab Revolt of 1936-39 bore testimony to its beginnings, and the first intifada of In Central London the late 1980s to its maturing. Spaces are limited but if you would like to attend The crucial point, though, is that the this event, please write to us at Palestinians came to see themselves as [email protected] a national entity; what matters is their or call Head Office by perception of themselves as a nationality, Friday 10 December 2010 which, once established, cannot be erased from their consciousness. This matters, because Israel’s choice of strategy Arab front dedicated to the destruction of the West Bank. Abdullah’s acquisition depends on its correct understanding of of Israel. This flies in the face of the of Arab Palestine in 1948 occurred in the Palestinians with whom it is in conflict. evident willingness of Egypt, Jordan and flat contradiction of Palestinian national Only if you know your enemy can you deal almost all other Arab states bar Syria to aspirations. Since 1973, Arab governments with him successfully. If the Palestinians strike a deal with Israel once their own have arguably supported the Palestinians perceive themselves as a nation, no interests, principally territorial, have been only to the extent necessary to placate amount of decades of military occupation accommodated; it is no coincidence that Arab popular opinion. will cause them to desist from their Syria is both the most hardline rejectionist Why, it is often asked, did the Arab demands for a state of their own – and a state and the only one that still has an states not absorb the hundreds of state implies a coherent block of territory. unresolved territorial dispute with Israel, thousands of Palestinians languishing The strategy of relying primarily on over the Golan Heights. in refugee camps, as post-war Germany Israel’s overwhelming military superiority It is also no secret that ever since absorbed the millions of Germans over the Palestinians, on the other hand, the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 expelled from Eastern Europe after looks misguided: military measures like the Arab states have accorded scant 1944/45? The usual answer is that those taken against the Gaza Strip appear regard to the interests of the Palestinians keeping the refugees in the camps was to have done little to improve the prospects and that since 1973 the notion of a politically convenient for the Arab states for Israel’s long-term security. monolithic Arab front against Israel has in their confrontation with Israel, and that On this analysis, the conclusion been confined to the realms of rhetoric. is doubtless true. But there is a deeper proposed by United Nations Resolution When the Palestinians attempted to set reason: whereas the German refugees 242 after the Six-Day War, which up a government of their own in 1948, could integrate into a German state, East essentially rests on the principle of ‘land it was systematically undermined by its or West, within the borders of 1945, the for peace’, is the correct strategy for Arab allies. Egypt’s decisions to launch Palestinians, retaining a sense of their Israel to embrace. The alternative is to and then withdraw its forces against Israel own nationhood, did not wish to become condemn Israel’s young men and women in 1948 were dictated entirely by Egyptian Jordanians, Egyptians or Lebanese. And indefinitely to military service in face of a interests, principally that of preserving whereas no German refugee with any potentially insurrectionary Arab populace, its leading role in the Arab world against sense of reality dreamed of a new German to condemn Israelis to live indefinitely in King Abdullah of Jordan, who in turn was state in East Prussia or the Sudetenland, fear of bombs and rockets, and to condemn quite willing to do a deal with the Jewish Palestinians continued to believe in their the State of Israel itself to a vicious cycle Agency in return for Jordanian control right to a state on part of the land they of violence, reprisals and war. Far from AJR Directors formerly inhabited. representing a betrayal of Israel, as its Gordon Greenfield Michael Newman Anthony Grenville enemies like to portray it, the principle of Carol Rossen land for peace would be Israel’s best hope AJR Heads of Department of achieving a settlement that combines Susie Kaufman Organiser, AJR centre Sue Kurlander Social Services The Chairman, both peace and security in acceptable AJR Journal Management Committee measure.

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