The Geneva Agreement could revive Rabin's legacy, showing Israeli society a way out from between a teetering right and docile left, writes Ibrahim Nafie The eighth anniversary of the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on Tuesday this week, took place against a stormy background. Israeli forces have reoccupied territories from which they had withdrawn under the Oslo Accords. The rollback on the agreements signed by Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat eight years ago and the belligerent policies of the current right-wing government have failed to deliver on Sharon's electoral promise of security. Meanwhile, the Israeli left has succumbed to an unprecedented state of apathy and disintegration. The once powerful Labour Party, in particular, has sunk to an all time low of only 19 seats in the Knesset. A warmongering right with virtually no opposition at home and wholeheartedly supported by an ultraconservative administration in Washington is a recipe that promises to propel the region to the brink of catastrophe. Rabin had paid with his life for his courage, resolve and commitment to the principles embodied in the agreements he signed with the Arabs. Now, eight years after his death, Israeli politics are dominated by an extremist right led by a notorious war criminal whose bloodthirstiness remains unchecked by a debilitated left and a virtually paralysed pro-peace movement. In addition, apart from its extra special relationship with the US, Israel is more isolated internationally than ever, regarded the world over as akin to a "renegade" and, perhaps, even a pariah state. Even in Europe, the tide of popular opinion has turned against Israel. In a recent EU poll, 59 per cent of the respondents deemed Israel a major threat to world peace and security. But, against this dismal climate, too, the so-called "Swiss" or "Geneva" Agreement, hammered out by two teams of Israeli and Palestinian prominent intellectuals and politicians, has finally succeeded in stirring the stagnant waters of Israeli society. To the Likud and its coalition partners, the fact that such an agreement could be reached has undermined their long held claim that there is no Palestinian partner to negotiate with, and that the conflict, therefore, cannot be resolved around the negotiating table. To Labour, currently under Shimon Peres, the agreement presents a threat to its leadership of the left and to the current role it has assigned itself. Since the assassination of Rabin, Labour has virtually become another tributary of the Israeli right. As such, it can no longer tolerate among its ranks such moderate figures as Yossi Beilin and General Amram Mitzna, two of the architects of the Geneva Agreement who have remained true to the ideals and principles of Rabin. The Geneva Agreement has exposed the current Labour leadership for the deception it has played on Israeli public opinion in lending itself as another Likud mouthpiece and spouting the same rhetoric about the lack of a Palestinian peace partner. No one has made this point clearer than Ofer Shelah who wrote in Yediot Aharanot of 2 November, "The Labour Party, now under Peres, has lent a helping hand to quelling the debate that led to the assassination of Rabin, and has joined ranks with those who claim that there is no one we can negotiate with on the other side. Since Rabin, Labour has had no one to succeed him with the same integrity, sense of responsibility and determination to face the truth." Nor, for that matter, has Labour had a leader since Rabin with the same courage, foresight and statesmanship. Rabin's successors, from Peres to Barak and Ben Eliezar, were little more than new pundits and executives for the right. Peres was defeated by Netanyahu, bringing Likud into power until 1999 when Israeli voters gave their confidence once again to Labour. Barak, however, proved just as adept as Netanyahu in lying and deceit, testimony to which is the sham settlement deal he had attempted to twist Arafat's arm into signing in Camp David II and the fact that he allowed the opposition Likud leader to visit Al-Haram Al-Sherif, thereby sparking the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the spiraling cycle of violence ever since. In betraying the principles of Rabin, Barak was responsible for shattering the Israeli left in general and decimating the ranks of the Labour Party. Labour now set on a rightward compass was kept firmly on course by Barak's successor, Benyamin Ben Eliezar, who agreed to let his party sign on as the junior partner in the government Sharon formed following the elections of February 2001. With Ben Eliezar as minister of defense and Peres as foreign minister, Labour now came to perform a dual function: to execute Sharon's aggressive policies against the Palestinians and to keep his image as clean as possible abroad. The Geneva Agreement has thrown out a life raft to the foundering Israeli left. It has paved the way for the resurgence of a body of public opinion that can say with solid conviction: "There is a peaceful solution. It is possible to reach a political settlement with the Palestinians." Indeed, the agreement has already inspired many from the left to pluck up their courage, rally their forces and resume action after that long slumber to which the left had succumbed since the assassination of Rabin. In a glimmer reminiscent of that peak to which the left had risen on the eve of that tragic event, left-wing activists and members of the Israeli Peace Now Movement organised a mass demonstration in front of Sharon's home. The protestors, several thousand strong, carried signs in support of the Geneva Agreement and others demanding that Sharon step down. But there have been other significant displays of the growing dissatisfaction with Sharon's policies and the hypocrisy of the Labour Party. Of particular note have been the many articles in the Hebrew press in support of the Israeli pilots who have refused to lend themselves to acts that harm innocent civilians in the occupied territories. Moreover, one of the harshest critics of the current government comes from the highest echelons of the Israeli army. Armed Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Yalon has described Sharon's policies as nothing less than catastrophic. Undoubtedly, the current mood serves to explain the enormous turnout for the rally organised by Israeli pro-peace forces to mark the eighth anniversary of Rabin's assassination by an Israeli extremist. The rally, described as the largest ever since the rally in which Rabin was shot, took place in the square that now bears the late prime minister's name. Again, the pickets succinctly expressed the prevailing sentiments: "The Geneva initiative: a new hope for peace," "Leave the occupied areas and save the country," not to mention, "Go back to your farm Sharon and take your children with you!" Peace activists in Israel are on the move again because they sense more palpably than ever the peril inherent in Sharon's continuation in power, especially with Labour as docile and malleable as it has become. Pro-peace forces in Israel can take strength from the fact that Israeli society, as Sharon's declining popularity ratings indicate, is beginning to open its eyes to the fact that Sharon's policies are bankrupt and that a true left, led by such figures as Beilin and Mitzna who hold true to the spirit of Rabin, offers the only alternative. However, as encouraging as some signs have been, this does not mean that their path will be strewn with roses. They have benefited from the disastrous mistakes of the right, but they have yet to consolidate a clear agenda that will enable them to regain the strength and influence they had eight years ago. The true left has before it a long and uphill battle against a still powerful and cohesive Israeli right, which continues to enjoy the support of the majority of the Israeli public. This right is still in control and has the capacity to mobilise its extremist elements into perpetrating acts of murder and destruction in order to "save the Zionist state from the catastrophe of peace". That plenty of those elements are out there and ready to be recruited to this cause has been made amply evident in the desecration of Rabin's grave with a swastika. The Israeli left will need a strong and resolute leadership, one not easily intimidated as it works to capitalise on recent developments in order to persuade Israeli public opinion that it is possible to work out a peace with the Palestinians around the negotiating table. This leadership must also be capable of locking horns with a current Labour leadership that has abandoned this hope. The Labour Party, in its current position in some corner of the right, is, perhaps, the greatest obstacle to efforts to restore unity of purpose to the Israeli left. This party, once led by Rabin who entered into mutual recognition with the PLO and signed the Oslo Accords, is now abetting the cover-up of the crimes the Israeli right is perpetrating against the Palestinian people, and against the Israeli people as well. The contrast between Rabin and the current Labour leadership was, again, forcefully drawn by Ofer Shelah. In the same 2 November article he writes, "Rabin bore full responsibility for all his decisions and actions, and he vied with his adversaries without hiding behind domestic conflicts." None of Rabin's successors followed his model, Shelah adds, with the result that the party's principles of justice faded in favour of support for the policy of brute force and brute force alone. The Yediot Aharanot commentator confirms the assessment President Mubarak has often made when asked about the causes behind the deterioration of Egyptian- Israeli relations and the collapse of the peace process. Since the assassination of Rabin, he has said on numerous occasions, Israel has not had a head of government who honours his word, abides by his commitments and demonstrates a sincere dedication to the cause of peace. Herein resides the crux of Israel's problem since that fateful day eight years ago, when a true statesman died because of his desire for peace. Israeli public opinion is beginning to awaken to the fact that right- wing extremism is driving their country to disaster and rendering its security ever more vulnerable. It remains for it to realise that, the Israeli Labour Party, as it stands, lacks a leadership capable of steering it back to its natural position as a party representative of the centre-left, a party dedicated to its original principles and committed to working out compromise solutions to regional problems within the framework of land for peace and other internationally espoused resolutions and principles.
