Regrettably, I’m compelled to reply to the smorgasbord of misrepresentations and irrelevancies in Max Ozinsky’s response (January 11) to my “Of rhetoric and resistance” (December 14 2001).
Ozinsky claims that their “declaration” was intended to call for negotiations, “not to write a history”. The first heading of their article reads: “The fundamental causes of the conflict.” If this is not history, what is it? Furthermore, a history calculated to place the onus on Israel. I will return to the issue of negotiation in due course.
Ozinsky appears to believe I’m a South African “Zionist”. If taking some pride in Jewish contributions to civilisation and a desire to see Israel remain as a secure homeland for Jews after two millennia of dispersal and persecution makes me a “Zionist” in Ozinsky’s eyes, well so be it.
Elsewhere, Ozinsky castigates me for suggesting that Israel is superior to the Palestinians in respect of human rights and democracy on the grounds that they “have been denied their right to self-determination”. This is an excercise in self-delusion. The PLO has become a byword for corruption, venality, incompetence and torture. Paradoxically, perhaps, the Islamic terrorist groups, like Hamas, bring some delivery to the Palestinian people. A pity they’re wedded to violence.
I could go on with the Augean task of correcting the facile propaganda in Ozinsky’s letter. But in desperation I will return to the only issue of any substance, that of negotiations.
The concluding paragraph of my article was excised. It read as follows: ‘The responsibility thus rests on both the Palestinians and Israelis, and on the international community, to move towards as just a solution as is possible in such a contested arena. There is good evidence that Israel was prepared to make significant concessions for peace before Arafat launched the current intifada. Whether this is achievable right now is problematic but the tendentious nature of the ‘declaration’ precludes it from playing a constructive role. Every Jew of conscience will be justified in rejecting it and to work towards a more reality-based approach to resolution.”
Nothing that either Ozinsky or Kasrils has said subsequent to the “declaration” alters the conclusion reached in the paragraph above.
Palestinians, encouraged by misguided ideologues in the West and elsewhere, have trapped themselves in a miasma of irrationality, misery and violence. For practical purposes Arafat elected Sharon, and now they have to deal with that reality. Please don’t blame others for their selfcreated predicament. Mike Berger