HOLY DAYS: Pray for brave leaders
by Frida Ghitis
Mon, Oct. 02, 2006
JERUSALEM -- The usually ferocious traffic moves a little more slowly these days. According to the lunar calendars followed by Muslims and Jews, the holy Muslim month of Ramadan this year coincides with Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day, making this a time when both Muslims and Jews, separately but simultaneously, are engaging in reflection and prayer in this ancient city of faith and war.
The prayers of the faithful this year ought to include requests for new leaders, brave and creative, for all sides of the pressing dispute.
Palestinians and Israelis are giving pollsters mind-bogglingly inconsistent views of what they want. That means they are ready for new leaders who can craft new policies and help bring an end to a conflict that has everyone feeling utterly exhausted.
Most Israelis say they want their government to start peace talks with Palestinians even if that means talking to a government led by Hamas, whose stated goal is the destruction of Israel. And yet, Israelis also name the hawkish former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as their top choice to lead the country. Netanyahu is the last man anyone expects to hold talks with Hamas.
For their part, Palestinians say they support Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist and they support attacks on Israeli civilians. These are precisely the kinds of policies that Israelis leaders (along with the United States, the European Union and Russia) say will have to change before they can restart aid to Palestinians and start meaningful negotiations with the Palestinian government. And yet, a majority of Palestinians say they support a two-state solution, which means recognition of Israel's right to exist. The positions -- support for Hamas' stance and recognition of Israel -- are mutually exclusive.
On all sides, the people suggest they want compromise, but they support the politicians who vow to fight, betraying a lack of faith in the process.
By electing Hamas, Palestinians have saddled themselves with radical, nonpragmatic politicians whose principal supporters are extremists opposing any compromise with Israel. Willingness to compromise is the basic prerequisite of negotiation. Without new leadership, or an awakening to reality by the current leadership, it is hard to envision any progress.
In Israel, political leaders, whose names are tediously familiar to voters, look all but tapped out of ideas. None of the current headliners excite the public or propose truly innovative roads to peace.
Voters elected Ehud Olmert and his brand new Kadima party earlier this year, precisely because he offered a fresh way to solve the grinding conflict with Palestinians. Israelis had tried the hawkish tactics of the rightist Likud party under Netanyahu, and they felt they gave peace a chance with Labor's Ehud Barak. Likud emphasized strength, while Barak focused on negotiations. Both paths ended in more violence.
New idea didn't work
Then came Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the toughest of Likudniks, who devised a whole new plan. Instead of holding land-for-peace talks with radicalized Palestinians, Israel would unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. Sharon formed the Kadima Party to pursue his plan, but a stroke suddenly took him out of office. Olmert inherited the mantle, and won election on an explicit pledge to unilaterally evacuate most of the West Bank and continue building a barrier to separate Israelis from the Palestinians, whose suicide bombers Israelis feel justify the security barrier. Israelis nervously supported the plan. After decades of Labor and Likud, after decades of war and terrorism, maybe this new idea would work. Wrong.
Withdrawal from Gaza and an earlier departure from southern Lebanon produced more rocket attacks from Gaza and from Lebanon, as well as a more radical Palestinian leadership that insists all of Israel, not just the West Bank, is occupied territory. Now Olmert has no new ideas, no agenda and no popular support. But Israelis show little enthusiasm for the alternatives, which all sound like a return to the failed policies of the past.
Judging by the polls, Palestinians and Israelis are frustrated and confused. No political party on either side has earned strong support from the population. What is clear is that majorities on both sides are willing to accept each other's right to exist. And majorities also want peace talks to move forward.
As Israel's vice-premier Shimon Peres explained years ago, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there really is a light at the end of the tunnel; what's missing is the tunnel. That's what the faithful should be praying for during Ramadan and Yom Kippur: creative new leaders who can build the tunnel to lasting peace.
Frida Ghitis writes about world affairs. She is the author of The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television.