ISRAEL AND THE “MANDELA POINT”

 ISRAEL AND THE “MANDELA POINT”—ISRAEL COMING TO TERMS WITH REALITY

In South Africa of 1990, a nation which had suffered through decades of racial discord, oppression, humiliation and death to South African blacks under the ruling Afrikaans government policy of “apartheid” which confined blacks to enclosed ghettos known as Bantustans (“homelands”), SA president Fredrick DeKlerk finally came to the realization that there was no future for SA in the long-held suppression of the African population. On that date, DeKlerk released his former nemesis, freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, from prison after 27 years of incarceration, ended apartheid, and submitted the nation to free elections.

Perhaps, in Israel, after this two month long descent into unprecedented inhumanity of death, violence and hate manifested by the Israel-Hamas Gaza War, some new leader in Israel will come to their “Mandela Point” and realize that there is no security for Israel, no secure peace, no options for acceptance of Israel by the world at large, and no future with the present polices of suppressing the legitimate statehood goals of the Palestinians. This unknown “Israeli DeKlerk” will end the racist-colonialist policies within Israel, close the outdoor apartheid prisons of the West Bank and Gaza, formulate a policy that will unite Gaza and the West Bank into a coherent free state. This new leader will envision the dark future of recurrent descent into violence, hate, death, and political turmoil, as well as the continued decline of Israeli respect and world acceptance. After this present demonstration of Israeli “war goals” with little regard for international norms of war or respect for innocent life the world at large can no longer afford or permit to such circumstances to continue.  There is no hope for either Israel or Palestinians under the policies of this present Israeli government. 

Israel’s present stated policy is to destroy Hamas and root it out of Gaza. This is not a reasonable goal given the reality of the situation, the nature of the terrane and the manifest massive collateral death and damage required to even attempt to achieve this goal. It is manifestly impossible.