President Clinton's special Mideast envoy, Amb. Dennis Ross, visited Israel last weekend to discuss the status of and prospects for the Syrian-Israeli negotiations. An insightful column published last week in numerous American Jewish publications by Dr. Irving Moskowitz describes the difficulty inherent in branding certain political rhetoric unacceptable in a democracy. Today, the Israeli left would say that the accusation of 'jeopardizing and abandoning the security of Israel' would constitute incitement to violence. By the standards of today's Israeli left, Rabin's words might be characterized as 'sabotaging peace,' by promoting the development of areas beyond the 1967 borders.
Free debate is in order and long-overdue.
If anything, these sentiments seem more valid in the aftermath of the Rabin assassination. His successor must resist the evident temptation to stifle legitimate debate and to demean those whose opposing positions give rise to such debate. It must be treated seriously and with full respect for the desire for peace of the adversaries. But it may not be able to survive the delegitimization of honest debate. The decision to give up the strategic Golan Heights is Israel's to make.