Dialogue on the border

By Faiza Rady

Mikado himself was jailed twice for refusing to serve in Lebanon and the Occupied Territories. In 1989, he was again imprisoned for "giving printing services to a forbidden association" -- more specifically, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Born in France in 1949 into an orthodox Jewish family, the young Warshawski went to Jerusalem in 1966 to study theology. Soon after arriving in Israel, he was faced with the reality of belonging to a colonialist nation.

"It was June 1967," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "I was 18-years-old. One day that summer, in occupied Hebron, I found myself talking down to an old Palestinian man, with all the stereotypical arrogance of the colonialist. Suddenly, in a flash, I was able to look back at myself and contextualise the situation. I told my father: 'This time we did it. We have become the oppressors.'"

Two years later, while a student at the Hebrew University, he joined the only Israeli anti-Zionist movement -- Matzpen, which gained notoriety in the '60s and early '70s for being the only political tendency in Israel to support the creation of a democratic bi-national state in Palestine. His work today remains the logical extension of a commitment made thirty years ago.

From Mikado's perspective, the key to understanding the failure of the peace process lies in identifying Israel's interests. "The need for Israel to normalise relations with the Arab world is the most important premise of the Madrid Declaration of Principles and the Oslo Accords -- not the Palestinian peace negotiations," he explains. As a result, Israel has to create the impression that the Palestinian issue is in the process of being resolved, not because it wants to find a resolution, but because that is the precondition for normalisation with the Arabs. "The whole art of both Labour and Likud consists in creating this [impression], without moving too much."

It is this analysis which underpins Warshawsky's vision of Oslo as an incredible gift to the Israelis. "The Oslo formula provides the Israeli state with what they have been dreaming about for many years and never believed they could get," he explains: "control of the people without having to control the population. This is why today everybody is interested in the peace process as a process, including the Likud."

If that is so, what are the Palestinians to do? For Mikado, their first recourse must be to their potential allies in the Arab world. "They are the ones who can redress the balance of power. The Doha conference is a clear demonstration of this. Economic and political normalisation is a top target for Israeli business and a priority in the new world order. Until this kind of pressure is exerted systematically, Mikado argues, there won't be any reason for Israel to change its policy towards the Palestinians.

"In the new world order," says Warshawsky, "after the Gulf War, when the Arab states joined the American umbrella, Israel lost its importance as the US military watch-dog against the Arab national movement." But in the post-Gulf War era, Israel's role is set to be essentially an economic one. It is for this reason that Warshawsky remains optimistic about the possibility of bringing pressure to bear on Israeli policy. "For Israel to maintain its hegemony in the Middle East, it has to expand its position as an exporter of technology and become a kind of regional economic power -- in addition to its military role. And that will be in contradiction, sooner or later, with its rejectionist policy against the Palestinians."

What then can Mikado's group do in terms of concrete strategy? "We have to show the Israeli public practically, visually and physically why it is important for them to mobilise." This means dealing with the concrete impact of the situation on their lives, and not its moral aspect. As Warshawsky explains, "The question is never posed in terms of justice or injustice for the Palestinians, but in terms of what is good or bad for Israel."

Defining his role on the fringes of the anti-Zionist left, Mikado believes that Matzpen has had a powerful impact in building Israeli-Palestinian solidarity. "I have never stood for an Israeli-Palestinian peace that would only be a kind of cease-fire, a kind of 'leave me alone and I will leave you in peace'. An Israeli-Palestinian peace can only be a peace of cooperation and togetherness, or it won't be at all."

This "togetherness" with the Palestinians has been the constant imperative of the anti-Zionist Left since the early days of the struggle. It has been built "in dialogues, in cooperation, in solidarity". In this sense, it has been their strength to have to operate from the margins.

"All these things are impossible to do from a safe place in the middle of the national consensus, or from the centre of the Israeli Left," says Warshawsky. "You build the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue on the border, and only on the border."