You might have heard of the old tale: Two Jews, Shlomo and Joseph are sitting on a park Bench in 1930s Germany. One is reading the Berlin Jewish Chronicle, the other Der Sturmer, the Nazi paper. Shlomo says to Joseph “How can you read that Nazi propaganda?”. Joseph replies: “when I look at the the Berlin Jewish News, I read about misery: concentration camps, ghettos, poverty and starvation. When I peruse Der Sturmer, I learn that Jews are supermensch, run the world, own loads of gold and control all the banks. I feel quite good afterwards!”
I thought of this story, on a recent three day visit to Israel, earlier in the year for Tory Parliamentarians, hosted by Conservative Friends of Israel. Can one be a pessimist or an optimist, about Israel and the Middle East? Travelling around Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Sderot, the Gaza Border, and having discussions with academics, politicians and military officials, it can be quite easy to fall into melancholy.
Whilst Prime Minister Netanyahu warns of the existential threat to Israel from Iran, some academics suggest that it is virtually impossible for peace to be made with the Palestinians. The argument goes that the Palestinians don’t really want a return to the 1967 border but the replacement of the whole of Israel with a ‘Palestinian’ state. In other words, not 1967, but 1948.
Moreover, the increase in birth rate amongst Arabs compared to Jews, means that in the near future, Israel won't be a Jewish state anymore. Therefore, the only way for Israel to deal with this is to withdraw unilaterally from the West Bank (a la Gaza), and militarily pound the Palestinians in the event of missile attacks - just as happened against Hamas in 2009. The same argument runs onto the so-called ‘Arab Spring’, noting that far from bringing peace and stability to the Middle East, regimes that had a ‘cold peace’ towards Israel, will be replaced by Islamists, in some cases backed by Iran, in others backed by Al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations.
All the above may be true, but.... I am reminded of the famous remark from Golda Meir, that: “pessimism is a luxury that no Jew can allow himself.” I like this quote as, just like the Jew reading Der Sturmer, it is sometimes better to look at the brighter side of life.
First; the Arab spring. Of course the Middle East is going through a post-French Revolutionary phase of future bloodshed and terror, but history shows us that enlightenment triumphs in the long run. There are examples - the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in Iraq. KRG has emerged from the Saddam Hussein bloodbath, as a beacon of democracy, rule of law and religious tolerance. A progressive Muslim nation at its best. The collapse of the Arab Dictators, whilst not without significant difficulties, could lead to a more enlightened Middle East in the long run. If President Assad of Syria goes then this will severely weaken Iranian influence. Finance and weaponry assistance to Hamas and Hezbollah, will not be easy to come by. It is no accident that Hamas has removed itself from her Damascus HQ.
Second; the Palestinians. Whilst the world’s media talk about checkpoints and blockades (sometimes even mentioning the missile attacks on Israel), another Palestine is beginning to emerge. It was William Cobbett, who observed “I defy you to agitate a man with a full stomach”. In the West Bank, poverty has fallen by 23% since 2004, and economic growth rates are 9%. Visiting Ramallah we saw a boom - brand new buildings everywhere and bustling shops and businesses. We visited the state of the art Palestinian City of Rahabi, providing 8,000-10,000 Palestinians with jobs. Built literally out of the rock, this new City will be a source of aspiration and opportunity to Palestinians. One young female Palestinian engineer I spoke to, suggested that her generation were fed up with war, and were more interested in making money for themselves and their families. If the capitalist society really reaches the Palestinian Authority, it is unlikely that they will want to turn backwards - either to Arab nationalism or fundamentalist Islam. What this means, is that peace might be possible with a new generation of Palestinians, who prefer fighting for better standard of living than the bullet or the bomb.
Back in Israel, in the Northern Negev, where every citizen is just 15 seconds away from a shelter to protect themselves from missile attacks, there is the amazing Sepir Higher Education College - for Jews and Arabs - providing a source of skills, expertise and regeneration for Sderot and the surrounding area. On the outskirts of Tel Aviv, going to A Better Place, the company that is likely - without exaggeration - to transform the world in terms of replacing cars dependent on oil, with automobiles run entirely by electricity, with batteries that last. Even the surveillance technology behind the controversial fence, which has stopped suicide bombings by 95% is being used around the world, apparently including Buckingham Palace.
Why say all these things? I accept that if there is one thing worse than pessimism, it is naive or foolish optimism. Having worked for CFI before I was an MP, and visited Israel often, I have no illusions about the difficulties that she faces, or the internal and external realities. But I firmly believe that not everything is as bad as it seems, and that there are some incredible things happening on the ground. In Israel, democracy and innovation flourishes, in parts of the West Bank (and even in Gaza, where economic growth is 40%), capitalism is beginning its birth and in much of the Middle East, the populace has had enough of Dictatorships - even if they don’t get its replacement right in the short term. This is all something to shout about, rather than be despondent and despairing.
