Fences and Neighbors

July 18, 2004

The notion that Israelis and Palestinians could come to a mutual agreement has been at the heart of the decades-long Middle East peace process. It's also a belief that is losing its hold. The agreements made and broken, accompanied by violence reinvented in ever more horrible ways, have made even the strongest believers in negotiation entertain doubts. As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's continuing construction of a 437-mile-long security barrier and a corresponding drop in the rhetoric and violence on both sides demonstrate, unilateral separation may offer a chance, at least in the short term, to regain stability on both sides.

Whatever form or route it takes, the costly fence ends an original Zionist dream of harmony for Israel with its neighbors. It is an even more bitter pill for the Palestinians. The pill is just as strong, however, for the zealots who make up the settlers' movement on the West Bank and in Gaza. The fence will, upon completion, end the expansionist dreams that have plagued Israel since it took over the West Bank in the 1967 war. Sharon, the spiritual father of the settlers, is now disowning the settlement movement.

Which is why the International Court of Justice's July 9 ruling ordering Israel to demolish the barrier and compensate Palestinians would move the clock backward, not promote peace or even justice.

The opinion is not legally binding, but it has encouraged the Palestinian leadership to further pursue Israel in the court of world opinion rather than engaging in overdue internal reforms and security crackdowns.

Israel's own Supreme Court has productively, if only partly, addressed the most contentious issue, the barrier's route. Chief Justice Aharon Barak correctly ruled that although erecting a fence to stop Palestinian incursions was legal, the fence must be rerouted to avoid excessive Palestinian hardship. This effectively means building the fence closer to 1967 boundaries along part of the route.

Sharon's right-wing coalition government controls only 59 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Therefore, Sharon is doing another thing he said he would not, moving to form a national unity government with the Labor Party. That would give him a solid majority and help ensure a pullout from the Gaza Strip. There, 7,500 hard-core settlers live in small enclaves surrounded by 1.3 million Palestinians while a cash-strapped Israel pours economic and military resources into defending them.

If Sharon can successfully withdraw from Gaza, he will have taken not only a logical military step but also a step toward breaking the back of a settlers' movement that has poisoned Israeli politics. This would not be a negligible accomplishment. Diplomats like to talk about breaking the cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, but internal change on both sides must precede more wide-ranging agreements.

The fence was an act of desperation, disowning the last shreds of a peace process. But it is turning out not to be the end of either Palestinian dreams or Israeli hopes.