Parliamentary Civil Debate

There is debate which accomplishes worthwhile initiatives, which leads to understanding of dire and inimical situations at hand. Debate which may not reach total agreement of solution, but debate nonetheless which has a purpose and a meaning, that of bringing people together in a common cause. When that cause leads to peace after long and gruelling debate meant to bring people together, to smooth the creases of suspicion and misunderstanding, there is meaning, and the purpose is clear: to foster a climate of trust.

For debate to succeed some grudging element of trust must be held by opposing sides of any argument, else why bother? If one group impresses upon itself the need to listen carefully, to solidify opinion post-discussion in the hopes that a spark of goodwill may lead to cautious co-operation, it helps immeasurably. If the opposing group comes to the discussions with inalienable grievances which brook no expiating explanations, intent simply on assigning blame, then it appears obvious that the two will remain islands of bitterness and ongoing conflict.

The following transcript published in yesterday's on-line edition of Arutz-Sheva - Israel National News is instructive and at the same time depressing to any who might hope there might be avenues opened between Jew and Arab in the ongoing battles for survival:

Deputy Defense Minister Sneh (Labor) evoked a storm of protest from Arab MKs by saying, "If we kill civilians, we accept blame, but when you kill civilians, you take credit; it's a cultural thing."

Yesterday's stormy Knesset session began when Arab MK Honeh Soueid (Hadash) delivered a speech, harshly condemning Israel for what he constantly called the "massacre and slaughter" of 20 Arabs in Beit Hanoun last week. The incident occurred when IDF artillery fire designed to thwart ongoing Kassam rocket fire in Gaza accidentally hit a residential building.

Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh then took the stand, beginning by thanking MK Soueid "for bringing up the issue so that I can straighten out the story accurately." Excerpts from the session:

Soueid: People were killed and you want to be accurate...?

Sneh: You think that if you interrupt me, I won't say what I want to say? ... I can promise you one thing: You won't like 90% of what I have to say... Why did we start the military offensive in Beit Hanoun? To protect the citizens of Israel, to attack those who fire Kassams and who store up war material to use it against us. This was the objective; there is nothing more legitimate than that.

Arab MK Muhammed Barakeh: Little children [who were killed] are terrorists?! [screaming wildly] It's a shame and a disgrace! [continues to scream out at Sneh]

MK Moshe Sharoni [Pensioners Party]: You just want to get your picture in Al Jazeera.

Barakeh: Shut your mouth, stupid!

[more screaming, Barakeh is finally ordered to leave by Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik]

Barakeh to Sharoni: Shut your mouth!

Sharoni [in Arabic, apparently a bit taken aback by Barakeh's furious hostility]: Out! Out!

[This exchange is repeated several times, until finally Barakeh is taken out, while continuing to yell]

Speaker Itzik [with a sigh]: Then they talk about the 'image of the Knesset' and that we 'have to come towards...' You heard [that exchange], MK Gal'on [of the radical left-wing Meretz party]?

MK Gal'on: I didn't see you 'come towards' when Barakeh was talking...

Itzik: Oh, really? OK, OK... Deputy Minister Sneh, please continue.

[Arab MK Ahmed Tibi starts screaming...]

Deputy Minister Sneh resumes speaking: "On Nov. 7, from an orchard on the outskirts of Beit Hanoun, rockets were fired towards Ashkelon. On the next morning, we received warning that it would happen again, and therefore two artillery volleys were fired [by the IDF] to that spot. As a result of a technical fault in the second volley, tens of innocent people were hit. We see this as a grave issue, a catastrophe, and a failure. I assume that those who fired the rocket on Ashkelon, if they would have hit dozens of innocent people, they would have seen it as a success.

MK Tibi screams: You're just clearing yourself! [unintelligible]

Sneh: No, no, Tibi - that's the difference of our cultures; that's the whole thing; that's the difference in our values.

[Tibi and other Arab MKs start yelling wildly]

Sneh: I promised you that you wouldn't like what I had to say. ... You cannot evade the point that when we hit civilians, we see it as a failure, but those who shoot at us see it as a success; that's the difference, you cannot evade that! [more screaming] I came to speak here in order to respond [to the charges of slaughter] and there is a limit to what we are willing to hear. [Tibi and others keep screaming]

Sneh: ...After the extent of the catastrophe became known, we enacted a series of urgent humanitarian measures. The worst of the injured were taken to hospitals in Israel, and even though it was a battle zone, we allowed in trucks of medical supplies, we opened the Rafah crossing, and we did whatever possible to alleviate the unjustified suffering of these people.

Tibi: And then these Palestinians didn't even say thank you, what nerve of them!

Sneh: We didn't expect a thank you, we did what we thought we had to do.

[more interruptions]

Sneh: We didn't expect a thank you, I don't think we even deserved it. I think that we were responsible militarily, and we did what we had to do.

[Tibi continues screaming, Speaker Itzik threatens to remove him]

Sneh: Now that I have said what I wanted to say regarding military responsibility, I will discuss the moral responsibility. [raising his voice] Those who turned Gaza into a launching ground of Kassam rockets against a civilian populace, are responsible for those who were killed. Last September, we left Gaza, and we didn't leave a single thing - not a house or even a guard booth. What justification is there for what you are doing?! [Quiet] Why are the Rafah and Karni crossings half-closed?! Because the people sent by the terror organizations always want to blow up these places, the arteries that provide life to Gaza! They build a 600-meter tunnel - what are they thinking when they dig them?! Who will benefit if they blow up the Karni Crossing and Israelis and Palestinians are killed? And then later they'll complain that there's no milk or flour... What are they thinking? [quiet] Who destroyed Erez [Industrial Zone], where 5,000 Palestinians worked and made a living? Who destroyed it? The terrorists!

Tibi: And that's why you fire at Beit Hanoun?

Sneh: We fire at Beit Hanoun, Tibi, because they turned it into a base of rockets and missiles against Ashkelon and Sderot. There is no country in the world that would tolerate such a thing! Take this account to Islamic Jihad and to Hamas, and tell them this - give your ethical speeches to them, not to us.

When the debate finally ended, though the Arab MKs favored a formal Knesset debate on the Beit Hanoun incident at a future date, the Knesset voted to accept Sneh's proposal to remove it from the agenda.

There you have it, an intelligent discourse between rational parliamentarians, Jews and Arabs. So then, why not address why it is that when Israel is responsible for the deaths of Palestinian civilians they feel remorse and shame and beg for understanding of the circumstances. And why is it that when Palestinians succeed in deliberately murdering Israeli civilians there is jubilation and a feeling of accomplishment.

Hysteria from Palestinians and Arabs at large when civilians die as a result of misadventure, due to situations which Arabs have themselves engineered - and genuine regret from Israelis who deplore the inadvertent deaths. The reverse simply does not happen; Israelis are deliberately targeted for death for no reason other than that they are Jews, dispensable for the larger cause of Palestinian liberation, and the more the better to push the cause along.

Ah, communication. Setting aside deadly antagonisms for the prospect of mutual co-operation leading to peace between the two communities does not appear to be a viable option in the Arab mind. And why might this be? The Arab MKs felt it more expedient to flare into violent expressions of accusation, not to listen to rational, reasonable explanations.

Kassam rockets continue to slam into Israeli soil, toward towns and kibbutzim whose residents live in daily expectation of death. Yesterday one such rocket slammed down in a Kibbutz beside a children's nursery. Today another Kassam hit the town of Sderot, its deadly shrapnel wildly seeking soft targets, succeeding in hitting two people. A 57-year-old mother of two died; a 24-year-old man, both legs amputated. The rocket hit close to the home of Israel's Defense Minister.

What other country in the Middle East enables the election to public office of those within its borders who seek its destruction?