Israeli journalist Gideon Levy talking:
You just have to look at the record. I mean, sure, Israel wants peace. Israel just doesn’t want a just peace. And it’s all about justice. You look backwards, and you ask yourself: In which stage, in which moment, was Israel willing to give up the occupation? Give me one example in which there was a genuine readiness to put an end to the occupation. It was never there. It was all about gaining time and maintaining the status quo. And it’s also now about gaining time and maintaining the status quo—namely, the West Bank occupied, Gaza under siege, peaceful life in Israel. This formula cannot last forever. And I wish I’ll be wrong, but I cannot recall one example in which there was a genuine willingness to put an end to the occupation. This was never. There were all kind of—we had Oslo. We had other peace talks. But it was never there.
And if you want the most ultimate proof for it, it’s the settlements. Nobody is saying we’ll continue to build settlements if he has an intention to return those lands. But Israel never stopped building settlements. And as Israel never stopped building settlements, Israel said to the Palestinians and to the world, “I have no intention to give up this piece of land.”
All the recent wars or operations in the recent 30 years were finally aimed at civilian populations, with horrifying scenes, with unproportional means, like in those days in Gaza. Finally, a war between Israel and Palestinians, in the recent—and Israel and Lebanon—in the recent 30 years looks always the same: Israelis killing many, many civilians, unproportionally, and the resistance, the Palestinian resistance, is trying to fight back. But, as I wrote in this article, it’s a meeting between an elephant and a fly, in terms of capabilities and equipment. And it always ends up the same, with hundreds and hundreds civilian casualties on the Palestinian or Lebanese side, with, thanks God, many, many fewer or much fewer casualties—and many times not at all—in Israelis’ side. And here we go to the next circle, to the next cycle, to the next confrontation.
watching at all those horrible scenes in Gaza—and, believe me, there are horrible scenes there, because watching the Israeli TV, you see none, or almost none, but watching international networks, you can see the real tragedy there—someone has to be taken accountable for this. Someone is responsible for this. And I thought that the pilots, who are the best of our sons, the most intelligent ones and the most highly appreciated ones—really, the elite of Israeli society—they take part in this, and they cannot remain out of any kind of responsibility, or at least some kind of moral doubts about what they are doing. Yes, they don’t see their victims: They sit in the cockpit. But I thought they should see and confront their victims, the civilian victims, the whole families which were exterminated in the recent days. And I aimed it to them, and I succeeded, at least, in creating a huge public debate in Israel.
I just say that in 2003, 27 very courageous pilots did not participate, wrote a letter of refusal and said they don’t want to take part in this. I say that this time there is even not one. I didn’t go further than this. We don’t know yet all the details, but I would expect at least some kind of awareness and public discussion about this issue, because they cannot be above, above discussion or above doubts. Also, pilots can be doubtful.
I’m quite experienced with threats, but now it’s becoming really unpleasant and maybe dangerous. I don’t know. But too many people warned me that my life is in danger. I don’t know if it’s true. But Ha’aretz, my newspaper, decided not to take risks, and I had to take a bodyguard.
I am one of those who believe that the only way to get out of this vicious circle is by international intervention, because Israel will not change by itself. And the only way is also by making Israel pay a price for the crimes of the occupation. And for this, there must be a wake-up call for the international community, which is rather passive—and especially so, the American administration, the administration of the United States, who could do—who could have done so much more and is doing so little, so little. So any kind of step toward this direction, hopefully, will be a wake-up call for Israel, first of all, and for the international community.
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/22/israeli_writer_gideon_levy_if_netanyahu
Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz columnist and a member of the newspaper’s editorial board. His latest article is “What Does Hamas Really Want?” and he is author of The Punishment of Gaza.