Comments (0)One Small Step
August 21, 2009Andrew A. Buerger
Publisher
Last month we revisited the historic and world-changing 40th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon. We recalled the immortal words of astronaut Neil Armstrong telling us in a crackling transmission that for “one small step” we received a “giant leap for mankind.”
That’s why it seems to make sense that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is asking Israel to make a small step of showing good faith before he works on the Israeli/Palestinian peace process that’s been stalled for years.
As we saw with the Apollo XI mission, a small step can lead to major breakthroughs. Specifically, Mubarak is calling on Israel to freeze West Bank settlement building. After all, the settlements are illegal and inflame the Palestinians and the Arab world. It’s simple, so why not just do it?
First, a little catch-up. President Barack Obama recently called on Mubarak, a moderate Muslim leader, to help broker the peace process, which hasn’t moved in almost a decade. Mubarak made his first visit in five years to the White House last Saturday, where he met with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. (One has to wonder why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasn’t there, but that’s for another day.)
Obama asked the Egyptian leader to make a token gesture to Israel in the hopes of gaining traction: Improve cultural relations and allow Israeli flights over Muslim countries (not exactly “moon shot”-type requests). The Egyptian counterpart, who’s been unchallenged politically for 28 years, basically said to Israel, “You first. You make the first small step which will lead to a giant leap forward.”
Again, on the surface it’s not so unreasonable.
The problem is that Israel keeps making giant leaps which aren’t met with even small steps from its Arab neighbors. Forget ancient history like giving up the Sinai Desert in the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. In the last few years, Israel has unilaterally left Southern Lebanon. What was its reward? Missiles landed in Northern Israel and two soldiers on border patrol were murdered.
Then Israel unilaterally packed up and left Gaza. Peace finally? No. Thousands of rockets fell on Sderot and a soldier was captured.
Boy, I can’t wait to see what giant leap forward the Arabs will make if Israel takes another step forward by freezing settlements. I’m not saying that Israel shouldn’t do that, but I detest that another Muslim dictator is asking for even more concessions.
I have this great political cartoon drawn in my head. It’s a person in an Arab headdress telling a blindfolded man wearing a kippah, “One more small step forward,” which leads the Israeli right off a cliff.
I want peace for Israel and I want settlement building stopped. Usually someone such as super sports agentturned-negotiating expert Ron Shapiro would advise me to put my ego aside and make the gesture. But knowing the long history, I think Ron would council me to draw a line in the sand and understand my walk-away point: Don’t move until the other side shows good faith.
It would be very easy for Mubarak to throw Israel a bone. Hasn’t the Arab boycott of Israel gone on about 60 years too long? It’s painless to allow Israeli flights over neighboring countries. But again Arab rulers are hiding behind lame excuses, not actions.
Obama could turn up a little heat on Egypt by waving a $3-billion note, the amount of Egypt’s annual U.S. aid, in front of Mubark. Maybe that would make the 81-year-old a little more Sadat-like in his approach to the only Jewish state.
Many years ago, I advocated for Israel to walk out of Gaza, no strings attached. And I wanted Israel to mop up the place if the Palestinians ever harmed Israel. Hamas did just that, and Israel responded appropriately by closing borders and employing harsh military action.
Now I’m willing to take a similar stance: Freeze settlements when the Israelis get a serious peace proposal handed to them. Sadly, that’s not likely to happen any time soon. That’s because, in place of Anwar Sadat, we get Hosni Mubarak. If we can’t get a cultural exchange, how can we get peace?