Land that was haven fears for the future

[legin]

(bit of a suprising piece for the british Daily Telegraph)

Israel's image has been damaged by years of violence, writes Alan Philps in his final despatch from Jerusalem.

<<snip>>

In years gone by, Israel could count on being seen as an outpost of civilisation, a haven for the Jews made necessary by the Holocaust.

Now it has to fend off accusations that it is a colonial power oppressing the Palestinians and taking their land. International support for Israel has become a minority cause, except in America.

This change of opinion is keenly felt by Israelis. "Why are you preparing a new Holocaust for us?" is a common reproach to foreign journalists.

I used to be alarmed when Israeli motorists flagged me down on the highway with furious gesticulations, as if there was fire streaming from my exhaust.

But there was never any emergency - just an urgent desire to stop a passing journalist and deliver a few home truths.

For the BBC - on the front line of the controversy - it is not just tough talking. Their cars have been vandalised, the government has discriminated against it, and correspondents are harassed in the middle of the night by threatening phone calls.

<<snip>>

Since the US declared a war on terror, some of the controversial security methods used by the Israelis - racial profiling of passengers at airports, detention without trial - have become routine in America.

By contrast the Arabs are, as ever, in a pitiful state. As one Jordanian journalist put it: "The Arabs are engaged in the world's longest daydream. They still think the glories of the past can be revived."

There is debate whether the daydream dates from the fall of Muslim Spain in 1492, or just to 1918, when Britain and France carved up the Arab world into modern states.

Either way, they have not found a way to translate their aspirations into realisable goals. Nowhere is this more clear than with the Palestinians.

They are eternally locked in a dilemma: If they do nothing, the world forgets about their aspiration for an independent state.

If they resist, the extremists take over and adopt morally repugnant tactics like suicide bombings which only set the world against them.

Israel has made vast gains on the ground. It used the years of so-called peace from 1994 to 2000 to triple the number of settlers in the occupied West Bank and build a network of roads to secure its long-term goal of pushing its eastern border into the West Bank and annexing the Jordan Valley as a buffer zone.

It has used the 30 months of war against Palestinian armed groups to begin a series of fences which, if completed, will divide up the West Bank into a series of little cantons.

The avowed aim is security against suicide bombers, but the fence plan looks more like the fulfilment of a decades-old policy of confining the Palestinians to the minimum amount of territory.

These achievements are clear proof of Israel's military and diplomatic strength. And yet, perhaps the Israelis are right to fear for the future.

The fences may go up, the Palestinians may be hidden away, but they will not disappear.

In seven to 10 years, there will be more Arabs than Jews in the Holy Land - from the Mediterranean to the river Jordan - and it will be increasingly hard to claim that Israel needs this land for itself.

As the Palestinian population grows apace, the Israelis - deprived of any great source of new immigration - will become ever more insecure.

To keep the majority cooped up with limited water and no jobs, dependent on foreign handouts, is not a recipe for peace. If the fence is built, it will create a series of Gaza Strips, the hotbed of the most extremist feelings - not to mention the highest birth rate.

Ever more draconian measures will be needed to keep the Palestinians under control, undermining Israel's claim to democracy and moral superiority.

As I leave, secular Israelis look longingly at the piled-up suitcases, thinking - half seriously - "if only we could leave too ..."

They do not really mean it, but they are crushed by the collapse of their dreams of peace over the past three years.

One said: "Sometimes I think we have overreached ourselves in the Middle East and we will all have to go and live in America."

Among the religious Israelis, there is still hope that God will scatter Israel's enemies, as He did in the past. But no one has a real plan to solve the problem.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F08%2F16%2Fwmid116.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=6627