Israel in its 62: Failed state in the making?

IT WAS an early celebration in Washington. Israeli diplomats and academics along with American officials, and Israel lobbies held the event on Thursday last week. The event was replete with kebabs and hummus in a secret location near the Capitol. Yes, they were celebrating Israel's 62nd Independence Day. The Israeli newspaper, Haarezt, reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser, Uzi Arad and envoy Michael Oren, Obama adviser, David Axelrod along with House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, National Security Council member, Dan Shapiro and Aipac President Lee Rosenberg were among the guest of honours.

In Jerusalem, the real celebration began on Tuesday, April 20. Israelis fired up barbecues in packed campgrounds and beaches across the country as they celebrated the creation of the Jewish state. President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and military Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi staged a sing along of Israeli songs at the presidential residence, the AFP reported. Celebrations kicked off at sundown on Monday with fireworks in honour of Israel's founding on May 14, 1948, corresponding this year to April 20, according to the Jewish lunar calendar.

Netanyahu hailed the day as a "double miracle in the life of the Jewish people."

"The first miracle is the restoration of Jewish sovereignty," he said in an Independence Day message issued on Monday. "The second miracle is what we've done since the establishment of the Jewish state. Israel is fast becoming a regional economic power and one of the world's leading technological powers."

It sounds like a political propaganda by Netanyahu. Actually it was. A day after the event, Haarezt published an interview with Prof Dan Ben-David of Tel Aviv University, executive director of Jerusalem's Taub Centre for Social Policy Research, who has been urging Israel's leaders to look at the real road taken by the country's economy. According to Ben-David, Israel's economy is headed for disaster. In his report, "Annual State of the Nation Report 2009: Society and Economy in Israel", he mentioned that Israel's standard of living is not catching up to that of the developed nations of the West, just the opposite.

"Despite its high-tech, medicine and higher education, which are at the forefront of human knowledge, since the 1970s the standard of living in Israel has been retreating relative to the leading Western nations, which will only serve to exacerbate emigration.

"A superficial glance at the data on economic growth, debt and unemployment indicates that we have cause for pride. In some areas we're in a better state than the West, and in others our situation is worse, but near the average. But focusing on unemployment is misleading. It shows how many people are seeking work and not finding it. The main problem is those who are neither working nor seeking work, and here the figures are frightening," he said.

The problem started from the national education system. In the last decade, the number of students in the mainstream state education system dropped by 3 per cent, while enrolment increased by 8 per cent in the national-religious system, by 33 per cent in the Arab education system and by 51 per cent in Haredi schools. "These are astounding figures — and that's just in a single decade," he said. According to Ben, in about 30 years ahead, if Israel continues down its present path, in 2040 they will find that 78 per cent of Israel's children will be studying in the Haredi or Arab education systems.

Haredi refers to the follower of Ultra-Orthodox judaism. It is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. In many Haredi communities, studying in secular institutions is discouraged, although some have educational facilities for vocational training or run professional programmes for men and women.

Ben-David found that the trend of non-employment among Haredim (plural from of Haredi) and Arabs is indeed very high, but it turns out that among non-Haredi Jews as well it is around 25 per cent above the average for developed nations. In the long term, the above problems will turn into national disaster.

And the fact that more Israelis are attending Arab education system contributes to the second problem. There is no proof that with the rising attendances in Arab education system, Israelis are merging with Arab communities.

According to opinion piece written by Keith Kahn-Harris and Joel Schalit in Guardian yesterday, Jewish support for a two-state solution has never been higher. About 63 per cent of Jewish Israelis expressed their desire for a final division of territories, according to a survey last month.

However, both writers confirmed that the difference to the political value of such support for the two-state solution is a decade. And this decade has been catastrophic for peace advocacy. The Israeli occupation cost countless lives and destroyed trust on both sides. The construction of Jewish-only roads, the security barrier, and the mushrooming of checkpoints annexed large parts of the putative Palestinian state. Palestine, consumed by internecine conflict, was further cut in half, divided between Fatah and Hamas. Despite the evacuation of Gaza, the coastal strip remains impoverished and under siege. In Israel, the parliamentary left almost completely collapsed, with far right and religious parties ultimately filling the void. Israel's long-term future as a democracy appears in doubt.

Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday that any move to impose a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians would lead to greater conflict.

"Any attempt to force a solution on the parties without establishing the foundation of mutual trust will only deepen the conflict," Avigdor Lieberman told the assembled diplomatic core celebrating Israel's Independence Day.

Though he made no reference to the United States, the remark appeared to be a response to recent speculation in Washington that Obama may consider proposing a peace settlement in the absence of a negotiated deal between the Palestinians and Israel.

The point is — as the Guardian piece said — Israel's government might sign off on a fractured Palestinian state, without Jerusalem as its capital. But it will have no Palestinian partners willing to agree. Any workable solution would require the evacuation of settlements, sharing Jerusalem, joint control of borders, and some restitution to refugees.

Meanwhile, many foreign powers — including the US — support a negotiated settlement of the dispute over Jerusalem that would satisfy Palestinian aspirations to have the capital of their future state in East Jerusalem, which Israel seized in a war in 1967.

The above developments mean that everyone involved in Israel-Palestine conflicts knows both one-state and two-state solutions to the occupation as being equally problematic. And if it cannot be solved, whether in the near or long future, the risk of Israel becoming a failed state is higher with its education and unemployment problems and also for its stance for not confirming any state solution which is undeniable for Palestinians.

The views of the writer are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times.

The Brunei Times