THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 238, October 31, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE OSLO SYNDROME: DELUSIONS OF A PEOPLE UNDER SIEGE
By Dr. Kenneth Levine
THE ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICT & ISRAEL'S SEARCH FOR PEACE: THE ISRAELIS' CREATION OF A FREE, VIBRANT, &
CREATIVE SOCIETY IN THE AUTHORITARIAN & BACKWARD MIDDLE EAST, DESPITE THE JEWISH NATION, FOR ALMOST SIXTY
YEARS, BEING UNDER SIEGE BY THE ARABS -- CAN ISRAEL CONTINUE NURTURING WHAT ITS PEOPLE HAVE BUILT AS A MEANS
TO TRUE CHANGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, OR WILL THE JEWISH STATE, IN ITS SEARCH FOR A GENUINE PEACE, CONTINUE TO
NEGOTIATE WITH ITS ARAB ENEMIES, GRASPING AT DELUSIONS OF PEACE THAT WILL THREATEN EVERYTHING THE ISRAELIS
HAVE CREATED?
FULL STORY:
On the very evening of the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat on the U.S. White House lawn in September of 1993,
the latter went on Jordanian television and told his constituency that it should understand the Oslo accord as the first phase in the
Phased Plan elaborated by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1974, with the ultimate goal being the destruction of Israel.
Arafat repeated this assertion at least a dozen times during the first month of Oslo. Why did Israel persist in the Oslo process when,
upon Arafat's arrival in the territories in July of 1994, Israel experienced the worst terror attacks in its history?
The Oslo process was supposed to finally achieve genuine peace between Arabs and Israelis; instead, it resulted in the worst terror
that Israel has ever experienced. We must ask why this was the case. Why did Israel enter into multiple agreements with Arafat when
he was openly stating his goal to be the annihilation of Israel?
During the Oslo accords, according to Ari Shavit, a writer for Ha'aretz, enlightened Israelis were affected with a Messianic
craze – they believed that the end of the old Middle East, the end of history, the end of wars, and the end of conflict was near. They
fooled themselves with delusions, bedazzled into committing an act of Messianic drunkenness.
To understand the why of this situation, we must look at the psychology of chronically besieged populations. Almost invariably
there are parts of the population that accept the indictments of the besiegers in the hope that they can win relief and peace. This is a
psychological response to being besieged, and Jews have been besieged for 2000 years. As Max Nordau wrote over a hundred years
ago, the greatest success of the anti-Semites was that they had gotten the Jews to see themselves through anti-Semitic eyes. Nordau
saw the idea of a Jewish state as a refuge for all Jews, regardless of their politics, language, or nationality.
In the 1920s and 1930s, within the Zionist movement, the "new Jew" was cast as a secular Socialist, without the accoutrements that
enraged the wider gentile world. German Jewish intellectuals like Martin Buber cast their disapproval of a Jewish state in moral terms,
and argued that Jews had moved beyond the need for a state, but were also concerned that they might lose their newly acquired
nationalities if a Jewish state were formed.
From the creation of the Jewish state until 1977, Israel was run by Socialist-Zionists. However, things changed in 1977, when, for the
first time, a non-Socialist-Zionist government was elected. Between 1977 and 1992, the Labor constituency began to accept the idea
that, if Israel retreated to the 1967 lines, the Arabs would allow them to peacefully coexist. The New History movement also
supported the idea that, in order to achieve peace, Israel must acknowledge its guilt and concede to a retreat. Moreover, it proffered
the notion that Israel bore primary responsibility for the hatred with which it was viewed by its neighbors. The pro-Zionist movement
argued that Israel was too Jewish and that it must abolish the law of return, and change the flag and national anthem, as they were
unfair to Arabs.
Within a year of the 1992 election, the Labor Party had accepted some of these ideas. Still, the "peace movement" marched in the
street against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, arguing that he was not making concessions quickly enough. This movement continued
to press for more concessions, despite Arafat's statements that this was the first phase in the plan to annihilate Israel and despite the
terror attacks that were perpetrated against Israel.
The Labor coalition was defeated in 1996, when Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister. During his three years as head of
the government, Netanyahu's tone was less conciliatory, but he continued to conduct a series of negotiations based on the principle
of Israeli concessions in exchange for Palestinian assurances. Terror attacks did not diminish.
In 1999, Netanyahu was succeeded by Ehud Barak and a Labor-led collation. Barak's approach was rhetorically and practically similar
to Rabin's, whose successor he seemed to be. As series of intensive negotiations were undertaken, such as at Sharm el-Sheikh, but,
with each step, terror attacks became more frequent and horrific.
The Barak approach of adding incremental concessions failed badly. In September, 2000, when Arafat launched his terror war against
Israel, an increasing percentage of Israel's population came to the realization that neither retreat nor concessions would afford them
the peace they so earnestly desired. The process culminated in the election of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister in early 2001. The
subsequent war of terror, and the battle in Jenin, convinced many in the Israeli public that concessions had run their course.
Despite almost sixty years of being under siege, Israel has created a free, vibrant, and creative society. The question is whether Israel
can continue nurturing what it has built as means to true change in the Arab world, or will Israelis, in their search for a genuine peace,
continue to grasp at delusions of peace that will threaten everything they have created?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Kenneth Levin is the author of The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege. He earned an undergraduate
degree in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.A./M.A. in English Language and Literature from Oxford University,
an M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University. He is a clinical instructor in
Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and maintains a private practice in Psychiatry. Dr. Levin has written extensively on Israel and
the Arab-Israeli conflict. His articles have appeared in The New Republic, The Boston Globe, The Washington
Times, and The Jerusalem Post.
The foregoing briefing by Dr Levin was originally published as a "MEF Wire" (September 26, 2005) on the Internet website
maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
October 31, 2005
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