TORONTO — U.S. president-elect Barack Obama may be too anxious to resolve the Palestinian problem and not sufficiently eager to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear arsenal, an Israeli analyst warned last week.
Yossi Klein Halevi, left, a senior fellow affiliated with the right-wing Shalem Center in Jerusalem and the Israel correspondent for the New Republic, made these observations at Holy Blossom Temple in delivering the second Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman lecture of the season.
Saying he was playing the role of an “Israeli curmudgeon,” Klein Halevi voiced three concerns about Obama’s possible reaction to three issues of crucial importance to Israel:
•How will he relate to the growing de-legitimization of Israel?
• How will he deal with the Palestinian question?
•How will he respond to Iran’s quest for nuclear arms?
To allay fears that Israel’s existence is expendable, Klein Halevi said, Obama should, as soon as possible, express support for Israel and strengthen the United States’ relationship with it.
As well, Obama should say that Israelis are “an indigenous people” who have come home” and are not colonial interlopers who have pushed Palestinians off their land.
On the Palestinian issue, he urged Obama, whom he described as “the most untested” American leader in years, to understand why there is still no peace between Israel and the Palestinians after 15 years of on-again, off-again negotiations.
Blaming the Palestinian side for the impasse, Klein Halevi said Palestinians have yet to accept the intrinsic right of the Jewish people to define themselves as a sovereign nation in Israel.
He charged that Palestinian lea-ders are using the contentious issue of the “right of return” to undermine Israel’s Jewish character and destroy the Jewish state.
He added that the Palestinians have yet to waive their demand that Palestinian refugee should be permitted to return to their former homes in what is now Israel.
Unless the Palestinians give up this demand, there will be no peace, Klein Halevi said.
By the same token, he said in a reference to Israel’s settlements beyond the old Green Line, Israeli Jews must realize that they can’t fully exercise their right of return to the West Bank.
Klein Halevi voiced concern that the Obama administration may exert pressure on Israel to show flexibility by accepting the principle of the right of return in exchange for a Palestinian agreement to drop their demand for a right of return to Israel.
If Israel accepts this principle, he predicted, the international community will press Israel to admit Palestinian refugees under family reunification programs.
Klein Halevi, an American who made aliyah in 1982, said he would only come to terms with this principle if the Palestinians permit Jews to settle in the West Bank.
At present, he noted, the Palestinians reject the right of Jews to live in Hebron, a biblically historic town in the West Bank inhabited by Arabs and a small Jewish community.
Klein Halevi expressed the hope that Obama will inform the Palestinians that no responsible Israeli government will ever embrace the Palestinian right of return. “It’s a non-starter.”
The real issue today is Israel’s legitimacy rather than settlements or final borders, he said.
Israel is ready to make peace with the Palestinians, he added, citing its “credible offer” of territorial concessions at the Camp David summit in the summer of 2000.
Turning to Iran, Klein Halevi said he is “profoundly anxious” about the possibility that Obama will launch lengthy talks with the Iranian government as it continues to develop its nuclear capability.
Suggesting that diplomacy has already run its course, he called on the United States and the international community to immediately impose “serious sanctions” on Iran before it develops an atomic bomb.
Citing Israeli intelligence reports, Klein Halevi said Iran will possess such weapons within 18 months.
A nuclear-armed Iran will have a chilling effect on Israel, prompting many Israelis to emigrate, he added.
If Israel allows Iran to become a nuclear power, Zionism will have failed. “It will mean we didn’t have what it takes to protect Israel,” Klein Halevi said.
Israel, however, has the military means to strike Iranian nuclear sites. He strongly suggested that Israel’s armed forces will act alone, if necessary, to disable Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
It may be Israel’s fate to stand up to Iran and thereby save the Middle East and the world from a nuclear-armed Iran, he observed.
Yet the prospect of a nuclear Iran alarms not only Israel, but also Sunni Arab states, Klein Halevi said.
In his view, Israel will take action against Iran within the framework of fighting the forces of jihadism.
The Palestinian problem can’t be re-solved unless Iran, a prime backer of Hamas, is contained. He urged Obama to follow a policy of containment with respect to Iran.
Striking an upbeat note, Klein Halevi said that jihadism can be crushed, much like Nazi Germany and Soviet Communism were defeated.
