"There was a sense that the Left, from the shock of the murder of [late Prime Minister Yitzak] Rabin, became sort of frozen. And now, with one movement from [Ehud] Barak and Nitzan Horowitz and Stav Shafir, all of a sudden there's movement, suddenly there's a sense that we can move differently, that the values in which we believe have a place." Writer David Grossman spoke these words at a launch event for his new children's book, which has been translated into Arabic. Grossman added: "I didn't write a political message. I wrote a story about two little girls in kindergarten who were fighting over a doll … of course, this situation, contains a hint at what is happening between us and the Arabs."
That's the heart of the problem. The Israeli Left is certain that the conflict between us and the Arabs is about something specific, like a doll, or even the right to the land, and that the Jews and Arabs can compromise and make up. That's simple western reasoning – every side looks at how worthwhile it is for them vs. how worthwhile it is for the other, everyone wants to live, and if possible, in peace and quiet. So you find a compromise, even a painful one, because that's better than an ongoing bloody conflict.
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Arab reasoning is completely different: the conflict is about living or ceasing to live – a life of endless war or certain death. Jihad takes precedence over everything. We have never heard what they would do with this country after annihilating us – the worst-case scenario – or expelling us, in the best case. That is of no concern to them. In their eyes, we are foreigners whom they refuse to accept under any border arrangement.
The answer that the Israeli Left refuses to accept, we got from the same news broadcast that reported Grossman's remarks. Correspondent Gal Berger produced a stunning piece about the summer camps Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad operate in the Gaza Strip. These camps don't have swimming pools or jungle gyms. There's no music or dancing. Instead, tens of thousands of youths in uniform train as an army for Judgment Day. The piece shows us activities that are basic training: an obstacle course, running and crawling, and of course, target practice using different weapons. There are no lectures about reconciliation or peace with the Jews. These youths are practicing for one purpose only – to oust the Jews by any means necessary.
Our attitude is condescending. We neither listen nor believe, and insist on clinging to our own reasoning, which is alien to these parts. But these youths will grow up and grow stronger. Already, more than 300,000 kids have passed through these camps. The zealots on the other side don't care about elderly women shoved into hospital corridors because of a lack of beds, the high cost of living, road accidents, or violence in welfare institutions. Or the disabled or the elderly or the minimum wage or affordable housing or unemployment or good education… or anything else.
Concerns like these are of no interest to them. Their leaders take care to line their own pockets and their bank accounts in Europe and the US. It's a shame that the Defense Ministry doesn't put out a well-produced film about the lives of the leaders of Gaza. A film like that should be broadcast and available to everyone, including every last kid in their summer day camps. Maybe that will convince the young people, and they will bring salvation. From the Israeli Left, we'll just keep getting the same rigid thinking.
