3,084 words

2/17/04

SFRC Testimony - February 24, 2004

A solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is often described as a key step toward a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Arab parties need to seek a solution that is fair and equitable for all parties. Only fair and equitable solutions can lead to a stable and strong Israel. However, the solution must also be fair to the Arab parties. The Arab parties need to seek a solution that is fair to all parties. There are many obstacles to a solution. But the conflict has lasted so long because the obstacles to a solution are in some respects more psychological than diplomatic.

As for Israel, Israel has never been more powerful and, at the same time, never more vulnerable. Israel is militarily stronger than any conceivable Arab adversary; it is clearly able to inflict heavy losses on Palestinian terrorist groups. But it has evolved into a middle-class society, led by advanced society and, as such, the strain of guerrilla warfare is psychologically draining. The intifada has generated an ambivalent rigidity in Israeli society. Prior to the Oslo agreement, the Israeli peace movement viewed reconciliation with the Arab world primarily in

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Feb 21 04 03:46p

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terms of psychological reassurance; land would be traded for peace
even though the Arab quid pro quo would be revocable. But since the
intifada, the vast majority of Israelis no longer believe in
reconciliation; they want victory and the crushing of their Arab
adversaries.

At the same time, there is growing despair/over the seeming
open-endedness of the enterprise. With the proportion of Israeli
~~apparent~~ endlessness,
~~if the intifada + the stipulations in the peace process~~
casualties to that of the guerrillas going up, a sense of resignation is
growing. The desire to turn on the tormentors is beginning to be
~~albeit~~
offset by signs of a hunger for peace at ~~any~~ price.

Israel finds itself facing the classic dynamic of guerrilla warfare
as it has played out for two generations now. The terrorists not only
do not recoil from terrorism but practice an egregious form of it
because a violent, emotional, (and to bystanders) excessive retaliation
~~it may~~
serves their purpose: to trigger intervention by the international

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Feb 21 04 03:46P