Israel was my daily experience since its inception. As a Palestinian high school student I was outraged by the fact that most of my classmates were driven out of their homes and villages to seek refuge across the Lebanese borders by Israeli soldiers.

But when I “infiltrated” back from school in Lebanon to my family and village I discovered that my mother was treated (free!) by a Bulgarian-Jewish doctor who came from our new neighboring settlement. The Communist Party was active and willing to embrace Arab citizens. Mapam was shouting from the top of its official organ, al Hamishmar, “Akhvat Amim” (brotherhood of nations), alongside with a dozen diversified political parties. Israel’s scene was totally different from that of Arab society, which was—and still is—based on the law of jungle, far away from human rights and a basic welfare state.

These two contradicting scenes have accompanied me for all the last sixty years.

But still the 1967 war was a turning point in Israel’s history. A few weeks of tense anticipation and a week of war and the secular society became more religious. Not more God-fearing but more keen to know the details of God’s promises in real estate terms. The official Israeli policy was made public near Damascus Gate, in air-conditioned buses that “invited” Palestinians seeking refuge for a free ride, “before it was too late to move out” to Jordan.

This turning point was turned crucial by the coming years. Israel’s society and many new comers discovered their Zionist leanings and religious tendencies. They came to believe that in a stroke of luck (or miracle) it is quite possible to expand Israel’s borders, to annex ancient sites and holy ruins in the theater of historic places. To secure such new borders, the Israeli establishment stretched out a generous hand to establish new settlements inside the occupied lands. They meant to repeat the scenario of 1948 in the rest of Palestine.

The ignorant Arab leaders who failed in 1948 to organize a united force to fight the war—managed to build a hermetic wall, inside which they built a state of total segregation and isolation for most of the last sixty years. This state of silence encouraged Israel to believe that stagnation is an eternal state for the Arabs, and that allows them to draw future maps as they see fitting. The fact that Anwar Sadat of Egypt was willing to withdraw from being party to other Arab states, assured the Israelis that there would be “no more war. No more blood shedding.”

But the new generation of Palestinian refugees was not able to accept the status quo forever, and decided to create a state of chaos forcing Arab states and peoples to discover that they had to back up the PLO efforts. The Oslo Accords were the outcome of the Palestinian Intifada.

Unfortunately we were lacking a leadership to lead both peoples to real reconciliation. Yasser Arafat led the Palestinians back to Palestine but, alas, he tumbled at the gates of Jerusalem. Ehud Barak was willing to negotiate but insisted that Jews should share with Muslims the rights on, or under, the Temple Mount. The Muslim Arabs, under the influence of Saudi oil-money, and fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam, could not strike a bargain. The second intifada was imminent and since 2000 created a new atmosphere of escalating hatred and blood rivers.

The American attempts to create an atmosphere of reconciliation failed because U.S. administrations failed to win the confidence of Arab leaders. Arabs never feel that the United States is an honest broker aiming to bring peace to both sides.

This sustained state of war and hostility created a warm atmosphere for a deep slide to the right.
The Labor movement lost the elections since the mid-1970s; the Arab minority in Israel felt more and more alienated. The Palestinians in the occupied territories despaired of the “Peace Process” which failed to bring them near to a peaceful life. Many became more and more radical and fanatic. Radicals are willing and ready to pay for the poor and desperate.

Any possibility that things may change course? That depends on a real change in mind.

The U.S. ruling elite is the only group that was, in potential, able to put effective pressure on both sides. But G.W. Bush missed the point and we missed peace.