Settlements Corrode Democracy

NEW YORK —  The goal of bringing democracy to the Arab world is a worthy one. But if we have any hope of creating democratic societies in the region, we have to stand up against the erosion of basic human rights in Israel, the only democracy in the Mideast.

For more than 35 years Israel has been an occupier. This has frayed Israeli democracy, and it’s not likely to improve without a sharp change of course. The bald truth is that the Palestinian birthrate is much higher than that of Israeli Jews. This means that Jews will be a minority in the territory Israel controls within the next few decades unless Israel gives up most of the West Bank and Gaza. If Israel insists on holding onto that land, it will become either an apartheid state or a non-Jewish, binational state.

There is another issue. Since 1967, when Israel captured the occupied territories, a messianic religious fundamentalism has taken hold of the right-wing nationalist camp among Israeli Jews. The growth of the extreme right-wing hard core among the settlers -- especially among the young who continue to build and populate new illegal outposts -- is a great danger to Israel and to the Jewish people. This is amplified by anti-democratic sentiments among many serving in the current government in Israel and on the Israeli street.

The core of the settlers who hold Israel hostage are as fanatical in their religious zeal as the worst Islamic fundamentalist. They have no belief in the modern state or rule of law but expect that redemption will come from God. This minority keeps Israel in a state of siege.

According to a new report by Peace Now, there are at least 100 illegal settlement outposts where the settlers defend their hilltops by uprooting Palestinian olive groves, among other often-violent provocations. Rather than insist that the settlements be removed, or even that the settlers obey basic laws, some in the Israeli government are seeking ways to strengthen the settlement movement. The defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, who was head of the Israel Defense Forces until recently, speculated in a secret government report -- made public in the newspaper Maariv this month -- that 95% of the illegal outposts can be legalized with retroactive building permits.

And Israel continues to defend illegal settlers militarily. At least 40 of their settlements are guarded by the IDF.

Sometimes the military presence borders on the absurd. A few weeks ago, the Israeli papers reported that a handful of reservists were guarding one settler at an illegal outpost. The soldiers thought this was so ridiculous that they offered to pool their money to pay for the settler to stay in a hotel for the balance of their reserve duty. Of course the settler refused to move.

This is not the way to maintain a democratic, modern state. These settlers have contempt for the Palestinians among whom they live, but they also have contempt for the state and its laws and for the soldiers who guard them. Indeed, if Israeli soldiers try to remove or police the settlers (something that rarely happens because the Israeli government doesn’t want the political fallout from the right), the young people unhesitatingly fight with the soldiers, knowing they are unlikely to be punished. Over the years, underground organizations of armed Jewish thugs have cropped up in the settlements, but they have never been treated seriously by any Israeli government.

Another story reported in the Hebrew press recently concerns one of the largest West Bank settlements, Ariel, which is contemplating sending its teenagers to an American Christian evangelical summer camp. Though some of the settlement elders are concerned that their young people would have to endure proselytizing around the swimming pool, they also are hopeful that the program would cement support for Israel among a critical U.S. voting bloc.

Israel’s occupation -- and U.S. indulgence of it -- eats away at the basic fabric of democracy in the region. The Beltway intellectuals, White House officials and members of Congress who argue in support of current Israeli policies, while also arguing that the war in Iraq was waged for democracy, are being intellectually dishonest.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plays a moderate tune, his song’s lyrics are reactionary. In a widely talked-about Haaretz interview earlier this month, Sharon spoke of a freeze on settlements. But he also made clear that there would be no freeze until “true peace” had been achieved. Surely he realizes that peace is not possible as long as he allows the Wild West to reign in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Sharon presides over the most extreme government in Israel’s history. Two of his ministers -- Avigdor Lieberman and Benny Elon, both settlers -- proclaim support for forced transfer of the Palestinians out of the West Bank and Gaza to another Arab country. Another minister, Effi Eitam, is a Jewish fundamentalist whose own misconduct against Palestinians (he supported breaking the bones of rioters needlessly) in his army career kept him from moving further up the military ranks.

What is amazing about Israelis is that even through the obscene suicide bombings on civilian buses, discotheques and restaurants, more than 50% of Israelis have consistently supported a two-state solution and an end to most of the settlements. These are numbers U.S. politicians should look to for the courage to move forward in strengthening democracy in the Mideast.

Fundamentalism is a great global danger. And Jewish fundamentalism is as dangerous to an enlightened people and polity as is Islamic fundamentalism.