Pessimism, says veteran Middle East commentator Thomas Friedman, is the dominant national trait of the Israeli people. This attitude, he claims, is rooted in both the Jewish historical experience of persecution, and the country’s war-weariness in the face of a seemingly intractable conflict with the Arab world.
The Israeli Labour party candidate for the Knesset Guy Spigelman, however, clearly bucks the national trend. Young, ambitious, and hopeful for the future of his country, he believes Israel’s disengagement from Gaza – completed in the week of our interview – is an opportunity for peace not to be wasted. ‘The disengagement and the process we’re seeing now provide an enormous opportunity,’ he says. ‘Now I think that what we can do is show very sincerely that we want to go to the next stage. I think we can also call on our comrades around the world to say “help the Palestinians now, help them make Gaza successful and encourage them to control terror, and to control the terror groups so that we can go onto the next stage quickly”.’
Following the recent Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza and the Israeli army’s swift retaliation, moving the peace process on may prove more difficult than some might have hoped. Despite his optimism, Spigelman, who also edits the Labour party’s international magazine Revival, is mindful of the significant obstacles in the way of a final settlement with the Palestinians. He is particularly fearful of the consequences of the Palestinian Authority failing to reign in its militant factions, and of a resumption of terrorist attacks on Israel. This, he believes, would precipitate a rightward shift in Israeli public opinion prior to country’s anticipated elections next year, and an abandonment of the disengagement policy by the incoming administration.
‘We’re between three and 12 months away from elections, and it’s a very sensitive time,’ he warns. ‘We saw what happened in three or four months with public opinion after [prime minister Yitzak] Rabin was killed. Labour looked like it was heading for a landslide victory but three terrorist attacks shifted the population to vote for [the Likud candidate Benjamin] Netanyahu. That’s all it will take.’
Spigelman’s party, of course, has a longstanding commitment to the principle of withdrawal from the Palestinian occupied territories. But it is the traditionally pro-settler Likud-led government – in which Labour is now a junior partner – that has succeeded in bringing about the first stages of disengagement in Gaza, albeit on a unilateral basis. While Spigelman does not doubt Likud leader Ariel Sharon’s motives for disengagement, he has no illusions as to the views of the majority of the Likud party on the prospect of further withdrawal from the occupied territories.
‘Likud essentially say they would like to strengthen the West Bank settlements,’ he warns. ‘They talk about expanding between Jerusalem and M’aaleh Adumim all these other areas, and that goes against what Labour stands for. Labour wants to bring a final status solution as soon as is feasible, not because we think that it’s best for the Palestinians but because we think it’s best for Israel and the Jewish people.’Spigelman continues: ‘Of course, in terms of our values, we think that occupying another people is wrong and is morally corrupting us as a society. But if we want to win an election we have to pitch it as being in the best interests of Israel.’
If Labour is to win the argument for further disengagement, then it is essential the party is able to address the security concerns of the average Israeli citizen, believes Spigelman. ‘Terrorism is one of these issues we cannot ever let the conservatives take a lead on,’ he says. However, he is concerned by the way the right has succeeded in hijacking the security issue for its own ends. This, he contends, has had a damaging effect on the very nature of Israeli democracy. ‘To say that there is only one ruling party that can save the personal safety of citizens leads to a situation where there is only one party that has any moral legitimacy to rule,’ he warns. ‘And that’s exactly what the terrorists want, to impede our democracy.’
‘So I’m very tough on this issue, actually,’ he continues. ‘I always find myself in a position of telling conservatives, who say we’re weak on terrorism: “that’s exactly what the Bin Ladens of this world want to hear, and it’s not true”.’
The Israeli right’s dominance of the security agenda is particularly frustrating for Spigelman because the left’s attitude to combating terror, he feels, is ultimately more effective. ‘I think that democratising the debate on how to deal with terror will actually result in a better battle against terror,’ he claims. ‘There’s not one way to deal with terror.’ He is also critical of the somewhat narrow perspective on the terror threat offered by the Israeli army and security services. ‘You can’t just let a few generals and a few secret service people sit in a room and decide that’s how we’re going to deal with it because it’s a much wider issue,’ he insists. ‘You have to look at the motivations of people, and their education. It’s a very broad issue and by leaving it just to a roomful of generals you’re going to have a very one-sided battle against terror and it might not necessarily be the most effective method of dealing with it.’
Security, of course, is not the only issue over which the two main parties disagree. Spigelman is clearly frustrated by the way the conflict dominates the Israeli political agenda, at the expense of the county’s pressing social and domestic concerns. ‘I think it’s led to a lot of the social divisions that we have now,’ he says. ‘The concentration on peace, security and nationalism, go to the real basic gut feelings of the electorate, that blocks out other considerations. People say, “well I might be poor and I might be really suffering, but hey, they like the Arabs, so I’m not going to vote for them”.’
Despite Labour’s difficulty in getting its message across to the electorate, Spigelman is proud of his party’s achievements since it joined Sharon’s coalition government: ‘We’ve been in government for just under a year, and already in critical areas like the housing ministry there’s been a clear shift in budget priorities, away from the settlements and into public housing, for example, and rent relief. We’re also seeing the Minister of Interior give a large push to the Arab sector in Israel, who are a large percentage of those living below the poverty line.’
The Labour candidate also believes the disengagement process could benefit his party politically in the long run. ‘In the past,’ he states, ‘when Likud has turned left and adopted one of Labour’s positions, it has led to a Labour victory at the next election.’ Nonetheless, with only 19 seats in the Knesset compared to Likud’s 40, he is realistic about the electoral challenge facing his party: ‘I think Labour still has to prove that it is an alternative to Likud, in order to win back support to enable it to take the lead in government again, and not to be a second sort of co-pilot for a first officer – for the Likud.’
As to the future of the peace process, Spigelman sees cautious pragmatism as the best way forward. ‘I think we want to have real results on the ground, rather than grand visions’, he believes. ‘There’s an expression in Hebrew, which is “slowly, slowly, we’ll get there very fast,” and I think that’s our approach today. Slowly, slowly we’ll get there, like the hare and the tortoise.’