Jerusalem -- As the annual Jerusalem Film Festival opened on Thursday, several thousand people sat under the stars in the Sultan's Pool, a valley just outside of Jerusalem's Old City walls, to watch the opening film on a gigantic screen. Fireworks, kosher hot dogs, beer and rock music adorned the scene. It was the first time in its 23-year history that the festival opened with an Israeli film, Someone to Run With, adapted from David Grossman's novel about Jerusalem street kids with drug habits. The presentation captured the desire of Israel today to deal with domestic social issues and look to the experiences of its younger generations.
But the reality of the current low-grade war in Gaza intervened as the program opened. American actors Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger welcomed the crowd on behalf of the festival's organizers. Goldblum offered a short statement of support for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shilat and for “peace now and forever,” while Winger talked about the power of film in terms that spoke to outside events: “We are here in the spirit of togetherness -- of learning from other people's stories personally and deeply, which we all need.”
When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last summer, the idea was partly to end the occupation, but the impulse was largely to draw inward -- to disengage from the Palestinians in Gaza and eventually the West Bank and focus on solving Israel's problems at home. Those problems include poverty, the education system, and crime, underlying Israelis' desire to rid themselves, one way or another, of the ill-fated settlement project that brought with it a burdensome and unwanted occupation of the Palestinian people. Indeed, that's a key reason for the election of the current Israeli government, dominated by a center-left coalition that has pledged to conduct more withdrawals from the occupied territories, this time from much of the West Bank.
Yet, circumstances haven't allowed Israel to turn inward.
Last year's Gaza pullout strategy was strongly influenced by the current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, then Ariel Sharon's deputy. Even last summer, while Fatah was still in power, Olmert was reluctant to negotiate with the Palestinians. Since the Gaza withdrawal, of course, Hamas toppled Fatah and Olmert has refused to recognize the Hamas government -- and has yet to meet to negotiate with Abu Mazen, the Palestinian president and leader of the Fatah Party.
Since Israel's withdrawal, Gaza has descended into chaos as Israel and Western powers boycott the Hamas government and a terrorist infrastructure inside Gaza remains active. Hamas-supported operatives kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shilat on June 25 after traveling through a tunnel from Gaza to Israel proper. That act, combined with the firing of low-grade qassam rockets into the southern Israeli town of Sderot (home to Israel's defense minister) has provoked the Olmert government to respond with fairly massive military might -- airstrikes and incursions into the Gaza Strip. Over the weekend, there were reports of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) searching in Gaza for tunnels that transmit weapons and people from the Egyptian border through Gaza into Israel.
As the political standoff hardens and the military conflict escalates, the Olmert government has been very conscious about courting international favor for its actions. Olmert is slated to host a bevy of international guests like Istvan Szabo, Roman Polanski, and Atom Egoyan -- along with various Israeli political and cultural elites -- at a dinner in honor of the film festival. It's likely that he will use the opportunity to plug Israel's present actions.
There is no doubt inside Israel that the government had to act on behalf of the abducted soldier -- in a country where almost all young men and women serve in the army after high school, practically every Israeli parent lives with the fear of this happening to their teenage children. And there was growing pressure for Israel to respond to the qassam rockets. But Israelis are confused and torn about the extent of the mission and its ultimate end game -- no one wants to re-occupy Gaza, and military might alone hasn't solved the problem before. Over the weekend, legislators from the Israeli peace camp, along with Peace Now, began calling for Israel to accept the ceasefire being offered by the Hamas Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. Both sides may want to climb down; the question is how. That's where the international community could come in.
Support from cultural elites is always nice, but it's hardly the only, or most significant, kind of international engagement Israel needs right now. President Bush has not visited Israel since he was governor of Texas, and his administration has long famously kept the Israel-Palestine conflict on the back burner. Yet the political vacuum is precisely what has helped trigger this crisis. The flare-up of conflict has shown, moreover, that even the relatively non-porous border between Israel and Gaza can't provide Israel with the security it needs while Gaza continues to provide a haven for terrorists.
There are three possible options moving forward, none easy and none foolproof. The first is for Israel to negotiate directly with the Palestinians, primarily with President Abu Mazen though perhaps also with what's left of the Hamas government (those officials that Israel hasn't jailed during this crisis). The second is a new commitment from the United States and Europe to deep and intensive engagement. Right now, the most intensive international involvement seems to be coming from Egypt, which has played a mediating and negotiating role through the crisis. The third is more unilateral moves by Israel along the lines of its Gaza withdrawal.
The alternative -- continuation of the status quo -- would only confirm the inability of the Olmert government to keep its dual promise of both dismantling some of the illegal settlement outposts set up in the West Bank and sustaining Israel's unilateral disengagement (called “convergence” by Olmert) from occupied territories. (A few weeks ago, Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced that the dismantlement of illegal West Bank settlements was to begin about now, but that seems unlikely while Israeli Defense Forces are in Gaza.)
Doing nothing will not assuage the desire that so many Israelis continue to share: to be able to look out for their kids' well-being on the streets of Jerusalem rather than the battle zones of Gaza and the West Bank.
Jo-Ann Mort writes frequently about Israel for The American Prospect, The Forward, tpmcafe.com and elsewhere. She is co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today's Israel? She is an officer of Americans for Peace Now, affiliated with Israel's Peace Now movement.
