SHAMIR DIES LEAVING ISRAEL NO NEARER TO PEACE

1st July 2012

Yitzhak Shamir, who was the Israeli Prime minister from 1983 to 1984 and from 1986 to 1992, has died today, aged 96. Shamir was Polish by birth and had moved to Palestine in 1935. His tenure was marked by a Palestinian uprising and the 1991 Gulf War. He had a deep distrust of his Arab neighbours who he maintained “will always dream to destroy” Israel and he resisted any concessions to the Palestinians. 1n 1998 he resigned from the Likud Party to pursue his right wing inclinations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to Shamir and praised his deep loyalty to the nation.

Pearly gates

Shamir’s brand of intransigence may be more dependent on the Israeli-Palestinian issue than his character. Apart from the historical problem concerning the dispossession of the Palestinians, a Jewish State would automatically exclude the possibility of democracy, because the likelihood is that Arabs will, in the not too distant future, outnumber the Jews. That is why successive Israeli governments have insisted on the Palestinians accepting the existence of Israel as a Jewish State and why the Arabs continue to refuse to do so. Even if the 1948 Palestinian refugees were never allowed to return, the higher birth rates of Palestinians would soon put a Jewish State, that depended on a demographic advantage, in jeopardy. Yasir Arafat understood this when he declared that the “Palestinian womb” was their best weapon and when, prior to the Oslo accords in 1993, he recognised the State of Israel’s right “to exist in peace and security”, without mentioning "a Jewish State for a Jewish people".

Not so pearly gates

It is too late to undo the history, so are we left with two nations (even though one of them is not generally recognised as such) fighting for their political and material survival and both thinking that time is on their side. With such stakes and perceptions it would be difficult to imagine a solution soon. Not until ethnicity is put to the service of humanity and religion to spirituality.

Shamir was a man of his time. Let us move on now to more creative ones.