The international community’s emulation of Moshe Dayan’s strategy

The recently released transcripts of Israeli cabinet meetings following the 1967 war contain important information regarding the colonial state’s approach to negotiations. Israel does favour negotiations, or the concept of negotiations, which plays into the diplomatic tangles preferred by the international community. However, for Israel, negotiations are a means of delay to manipulate circumstances in favour of colonial expansion. The international community cannot claim to be unaware of the dynamic and has acquiesced to it, rather than repudiate Israel’s duplicitous methods.

As published partially on Ynet News, references to negotiations and a hypothetical Palestinian state were characterised by the intent to preserve an illusion of discussion, as opposed to implementation. Israeli minister Haim Moshe Shapira, also leader of the National Religious Party (NPR), is quoted as having stated:

Informing the world that Israel doesn’t want peace is a weapon in the Arabs’ hands.

More blatant is former defence minister Moshe Dayan’s statement opposing a Palestinian state, as well as revealing Israel’s intent to sabotage negotiations. “I’m not suggesting a Palestinian state and I’m against a Palestinian state. But very much regret it when someone says it out loud, because it’s a statement which deprives us of an ability to manoeuvre and discourages us.”

Dayan added: “Our power in negotiations is to say that there is such an option. It’s very possible that we could reach an agreement, but if we say in advance that we don’t want it, we’re immediately preventing our possibility to manoeuvre.”

There is no question that the international community has emulated Dayan’s thinking and accepted the extension of conditions which, if not reversed, will deprive Palestinians of their entire territory. Disparity in terms of narratives, agreements, financial aid and negotiations all point towards the concept of making Palestine a priority only as an appendage to a greater interest – that of protecting the colonial enterprise.

In following Dayan’s approach, the international community’s exploitation of Palestine is on a par with that of Israel. Both entities, including the various representative institutions, are founded upon an absence of principles disguised as democratic undertakings. The collective abuse inflicted upon Palestinians manifests itself primarily in the farcical negotiations which are already undermined by Dayan’s concept. Apart from pretence as one of the means through which colonial expansion is achieved, the negotiations also serve to instil differentiation to the detriment of Palestine. With the international community’s focus upon negotiations as a democratic process, there is less scrutiny as to why the futile talks have consolidated the fractured political spectrum in Palestine.

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While the PA remains ensconced in a space in which collaboration with the colonial power and the international community are given priority, it is also extending the possibilities for the higher echelons in this process to maintain the dire conditions for Palestinians. At the same time, it extends possibilities for Israel in terms of displacement and expansion, thus guaranteeing a permanent role for international organisations to also commit to the debacle through humanitarian aid and promises of Palestinian autonomy, only for that aid to be either insignificant compared to the actual demands, or else destroyed by Israel in order to prolong any chances of alleviation.

Israel and the international community have combined awareness and power when it comes to expansion and violence. The latter’s refusal to opt for a different strategy is one of the main reasons why, contrary to assertions of support, Palestine has been rendered almost invisible in the political arena. At a global level, strategies such as described by Dayan are supporting the refusal to eliminate colonialism in Palestine. The added depravity in the cycle is the international community’s retention of such power, which it continues to gain at the expense of an entire population barricaded from access to its legitimate rights, let alone the possibility of regaining historic Palestine.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.