Schlaglicht Israel Nr. 16/09 Aktuelles aus israelischen Tageszeitungen 10. – 27. September 2009 1. Goldstone-Bericht Die UNO-Untersuchung des Krieges im Gazastreifen im letzten Winter ist abgeschlossen. In dem Bericht, der unter der Leitung des südafrikanischen Richters Richard Goldstone verfasst wurde, werden Israel – und der Hamas – Kriegsverbrechen vorgeworfen. Insbesondere das Vorgehen gegen Zivilisten, die nicht genügend geschützt worden seien, sowie der Einsatz von Phosphorgranaten werden scharf kritisiert. Israel, das eine Zusammenarbeit mit der Kommission verweigert hatte, wies den Bericht umgehend als unausgewogen zurück und warf der Behörde Parteilichkeit vor. How Goldstone erred “I believed last December and still do that Israel was justified in going into Gaza. But I remain uncertain and uncomfortable about exactly what Israel did and why it did it.[…] The IDF says emphatically that it behaved correctly, but it is not enough for it to investigate itself. An independent investigation is needed[…]. Israelis need it for their own moral peace of mind, or if wrong was done, to recognize and to address it. Israel needs to be certain that it can tell Goldstone and other critics that their accusations are skewed and unjustified.” Bejamin Pogrund, HAA 25.09.09 Venom and destruction „ Enlightened countries and liberal organizations are seeking to deprive Israel of the right to defend its population by striking back at terror. The ideology shared by all of them, which holds that terror directed at Israel is legitimate, has now received the UN's explicit stamp of approval.[…] When it comes to Israel, the goal of nongovernmental organizations and of UN organizations is one and the same: tying Israel's hands and preventing the IDF from fighting terror.[…] For four years, Israel hesitated and didn't deal with the nightmare of the Qassam rockets fired at the western Negev- among other reasons out of concern that its statesmen and military officers would be tried as war criminals. And then the Goldstone Commission report comes along to confirm those fears.[…] The enemy pretends to be looking out for our morality. It has no inhibitions. It is set on the goal of undermining our status, as a prelude to undermining the existence of our country. Nothing less.” Israel Harel, HAA 17.09.09 Wer verletzt die Menschenrechte? “Die Anklageschrift gegen Israel ist nicht nur verzerrt, sondern bösartig,[…] wie es seit Beginn der Ermittlungen die Absicht der UNO-Kommission war.[…] Israel muss alle erforderlichen Schritte einleiten, um das wahre Gesicht derer, die den Bericht initiiert haben, zu enthüllen.[…] Israel[…] verhält sich richtig, wenn es eine Zusammenarbeit mit dem Sicherheitsrat und dem Internationalen Gerichtshof resolut zurückweist. Verhandlungen in diesen Institutionen, die Israel von vornherein verurteilen, sind fehl am Platz. Israel sollte das von Anfang an klarstellen.“ Moshe Ishon, HZO 17.09.09 Die Obsession „Der Goldstone-Bericht[…] beinhaltet nichts Neues. Israel wird zum millionsten Mal angeklagt, diesmal nicht nur der Kriegsverbrechen, sondern sogar der Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit.[…] Aber was kann man machen? Die‘aufgeklärte’ Welt liebt es, Israel anzuklagen. Sie glaubt – wie schon einmal – das alles wieder gut wird, wenn Israel nur endlich vom Erdboden verschwindet.[…] Es ist an der Zeit aufzuwachen. Die Delegitimation Israels wird allmählich zu einem existenziellen Problem.“ Ben Dror Yemini, MAA 17.09.09 1

Listen to Goldstone “Despite the official Israeli charges in respect to the report, it is not one-side, it is not biased against Israel, and it does not ignore Hamas’ crimes. Israel’s official responses, provided immediately upon the report’s publication, sounded as though they were prepared in advance and issued without at all addressing the report’s content. Indeed, in addition to the criticism of Hamas, the report includes harsh criticism against Israel, which is also charged with indiscriminate attacks on civilians and failure to comply with international law. […] It is not free of flaws or immune to criticism. Yet the all-out Israeli assault on it attests to an attempt to close our eyes and our heart. We don’t want to see, hear, or know.” Eyal Gross, JED 24.09.09 There is no need for a big fuss “Given the blatantly one-sided and slanted political mandate of the United Nations fact-finding mission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, and being aware of the accusation against Israel of war crimes published by at least one of the members of the mission even before it began, one is tempted to wonder why on earth the leadership of Israel and the public is so surprised and shocked by this UN report.[…] The report will likely give substantive and misguidedly moral impetus to those bodies and individuals functioning in the Western democratic countries, and working to manipulate the liberal legal systems practicing universal jurisdiction to delegitimize Israel and its leaders, through initiating war-crimes prosecutions.[…] While it is highly unlikely- for substantive legal and evidential reasons- that such prosecutions would succeed, the attendant publicity and international posturing could be problematic.[…] Once the dust settles on this report, and we all calm down from the indignation and insult wrought by‘another UN document,’ we must rationally size up the practical and legal implications and determine how to deal with them. In the meantime, there is no doubt that the UN will continue to be the UN. Without Israel to bash, how would it maintain itself?” Alan Baker, JPO 20.09.09 Does UN want peace or war? “Blasting Israel for human rights violations has done absolutely nothing to advance the quality of life for Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis living in the south. Considering the countless UN resolutions and international condemnations against Israel as well as thousands of pages in reports accusing Israel of war crimes, residents of both sides of the Gaza border continue to live under the same difficult conditions. One must then ask what is the actual purpose of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council and these UN commissions- do they truly work on behalf of the Palestinian people or to simply delegitimize the Jewish state of Israel? If the Goldstone Commission believed that holding Israel exclusively accountable for the Palestinian situation would solve the region’s problems, the commission is completely incorrect. […][It] ignores one critical factor that has fueled the continued hostilities of the Middle East. That factor is that a generation of Palestinian children under the Hamas regime is being prepared for war-not peace with Israel.” Anav Silverman, JED 25.09.09 Who is being unfair? “The responses from the government of Israel to the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza have been deeply disappointing. The mission's mandate enabled Israel to bring its concerns and facts relating to Operation Cast Lead publicly before a UN inquiry. It could have been used by Israel to encourage the UN and especially the Human Rights Council to move in a new direction beneficial to the interests of Israel. I repeatedly requested the government of Israel to do that.[…]. In short, the benefits of an even-handed mandate from the Human Rights Council were squandered by Israel.[…] I still nurture the hope that in the coming days, people of goodwill in Israel and the occupied territories do some soul-searching and come to realize that unaccountability for serious violations of international law creates a barrier to peace. The recognition of the humanity of all people[…] is a pre-requisite for peace. And I still nurture the hope that the facts contained in the Report[…] will assist, even in a small way, to finding a peaceful way forward in the Middle East.” Richard Goldstone, JPO 21.09.09 2

2. Dreiergipfel in New York Zum ersten Mal seit seinem Amtsantritt ist Präsident Obama zu einem Dreiergipfel mit dem israelischen Premierminister Benjamin Netanjahu und dem palästinensischen Präsidenten Mahmoud Abbas zusammengekommen. Erwartungen für das Treffen, das am Rande der UN-Generalversammlung stattfand, blieben klein, Obama redete den Konfliktparteien jedoch ins Gewissen und sagte, es sei längst Zeit, die Friedensgespräche wieder aufzunehmen. Es scheint jedoch nicht, als hätten sich die beiden Seiten angenähert. Im Gegensatz zu Abbas Forderungen hat Israel sich keinem kompletten Siedlungsbaustopp verpflichtet. Don’t descend from the summit “The White House was careful to lower expectations before Tuesday's meeting[…]. And indeed, as was to be expected, the meeting did not narrow the gaps between the parties on core issues[…] It is regrettable that so much time was wasted on the effort to create an equation under which settlement activity would be frozen in exchange for a thaw in Arab states' relations with Israel. Footdragging in the political process plays into the hands of the region's extremists.[…] Israel should be thankful that Obama took time off from his many burdensome domestic concerns to demonstrate to the world that he is personally committed to advancing moves aimed at ending the Middle East dispute. The New York summit was an important step, but by no means sufficient. Now is the time to move forward from mere handshakes to real action.” HAA 24.09.09 Charm doesn’t work in Mideast “US President Barack Obama stood at the podium and reprimanded the Palestinian and Israeli leaders next to him for not doing enough to resume negotiations.[…] Yet he forgot to mention that he is the one responsible for the dead-end no less so than the leaders he reprimanded. Even the president’s aides admit now that he made two mistakes on the settlements front: By focusing all attention on the construction freeze while ignoring much greater obstacles en route to negotiations[…]. Abbas ,who only months ago engaged in intensive negotiations with Olmert without presenting any preconditions, realized he cannot demand less than what the US president wants.[…] The trilateral summit, or more accurately its photos, was meant to demonstrate leadership ability and personal commitment by the president to prompting revolutionary changes in Israel’s ties with the Arabs. […] Yet the forced summit, in New York and not at the White House, during the UN’s General Assembly and not as an event in and of itself, served to demonstrate the president’s weakness rather than his power.” Eitan Gilboa, JED 23.09.09 Played for a sucker “At Tuesday's‘summit’ in New York, President Barack Obama gave his clearest signal yet that he was caving in to the Netanyahu government on the peace process, dropping the idea of a‘freeze’ on settlements for the softer, kinder call for‘restraint.’ This has been a great week for Israeli war-lovers and settlers and an atrocious one for Palestinians, peaceniks and human rights advocates. And the person to blame, above all, is Obama. I'm worried about this guy. He has wonderful goals, but he doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to achieve them.[…] The spin around here is that he's learned his lesson. He's learned that it was a mistake to insist on a total settlement freeze, a mistake to think he could dictate terms to us[…]. I also believe Obama has learned something from this bruising experience, but not what Israelis think. Instead, he's learned that there is no meeting point between him and the Israeli government on the peace process, that one of them is going to have to give in, and God help him if he's the one.” Larry Derfner, 23.09.09 Ein Korridor ins Nichts “Sie saßen dort wie schlimme Schüler, die auf frischer Tat ertappt und gerügt wurden. Abu Mazen und Netanjahu mussten eine präsidentielle Kopfwäsche einstecken und sie taten sich schwer damit, ein Lächeln aufzusetzen.[…] [Die beiden] stehen nun vor der Öffnung eines Korridors in Nichts. Sie kennen diesen Weg schon genau, denn sie sind ihn schon gegangen. Jetzt ist Obama an der Reihe, ihn zu gehen.[…] Hat er die Energie, die Macht und Fähigkeit, den festgefahrenen Wagen wieder ins Rollen zu bringen? Die Antwort auf diese Frage werden wir in den nächsten Monaten erhalten.“ Ben Caspit, MAA 23.09.09 3

Anzeichen von Drückebergerei bei Obama „Das morgige Treffen in New York wird mit einem amerikanischen Präsidenten stattfinden, der Israel kühl, um nicht zu sagen feindlich, gegenübersteht. […] Man kann nicht darüber hinwegsehen, dass Obama seit seinem Einzug ins Weiße Haus alles auf den Kopf gestellt hat. Die Palästinenser waren diejenigen, die den Bedingungen folgen mussten, damit es Fortschritte in den Verhandlungen gab[…]. Plötzlich ist es Israel, auf dessen Schultern die Anschuldigung lastet, wegen der Fortsetzung des Siedlungsbaus.“ Amnon Lord, HZO 21.09.09 Abbas has most to lose „The summit serves, first and foremost, to provide the Obama administration with a much sought photo-op.[…] This would come against the backdrop of the White House's resounding failure to force Israel's agreement to a complete settlement freeze or to persuade Arab states to make even tentative steps toward normalization with Israel[…] Abbas stands to lose most from the summit. He stressed to the Palestinian public at every opportunity that there is little point to a tripartite summit before there's an agreement on a construction freeze[…]. The hands of the American administration are not particularly clean. The State Department envoys assured the Palestinians that Washington was on their side this time, and was not going to yield to the Israelis. Only in the last few weeks did Abbas[…] find out the White House was, in fact, very understanding of the Israeli demand not to freeze construction in the settlements altogether.[…] Abbas was apparently prepared to forgo his dignity rather than replace Netanyahu as the bad boy in the peace process.” Avi Issacharoff, HAA 21.09.09 3. Tod Assaf Ramons Sechs Jahre nachdem Ilan Ramon, Israels erster Astronaut und einer der Kampfpiloten, die 1981 den Osiraq-Reaktor zerstörten, bei der Explosion des Spaceshuttles Columbia ums Leben kam, ist nun sein Sohn Asaf, ebenfalls Pilot, bei einem Trainingsunfall tödlich verunglückt. In den israelischen Medien kam es zur fast sofortigen Mythenbildung und hochrangige Politiker nahmen an der Beerdigung Ramons teil. Gerade Kampfpiloten wird im Allgemeinen viel Respekt entgegen gebracht. Gleichzeitig entfachte das Unglück jedoch auch die Debatte darüber, wer in Kampfeinheiten dienen darf. Bisher dürfen Rekruten, die ein Familienmitglied im Militärdienst verloren haben, nur mit Einwilligung der Eltern zu den Kampftruppen. Our broken hearts „There are only a few human interest stories that turn into symbols here and maintain this status over the years. The Ramon family’s story has been part of the national ethos for a while now. An Israeli story about talent and success; a story about a breakthrough and national pride. […] So if on Sunday you felt great sorrow coupled with a sense of cruel and unfair destiny, you were not alone.[…] These feelings overwhelmed an entire nation Sunday. We are a people who has suffered many tragedies. […] Yet the Ramon family’s story touches us in the deepest places and stirs our most sensitive emotions[…]. It is a story of refined Israeliness. It is the story of the way we wish to see ourselves: Beautiful, talented, distinguished, highly educated and highly moral. Now, this horrifying and incomprehensible bereavement, which is beyond our grasp, merely serves to reinforce the myth.” Sima Kadmon, JED 14.09.09 The price of survival “Nearly every Israeli has had a personal experience of loss in Israel's struggle to be born and survive. The shared pain felt nationwide is not only national, but also deeply personal. Six years after the loss of Ilan, today Assaf and his mother Rona are once again stand-ins for someone specific in every Israeli's mind.[…] A personal familiarity with sacrifice and loss is, in this country, not the domain of the poor or the disenfranchised.[…] Historical need has produced in Israel a different aristocracy- an aristocracy of commitment and sacrifice, an absolute meritocracy based on the willingness to give. Assaf Ramon, following in the footsteps of his father but remarkable in his own right, represented a tradition of service and commitment that is vital to our very survival. Israel has told the world: The Jews will not turn to others for their defense, and the Jews are not defenseless.[…] Those watching from afar would be mistaken to interpret the current nationwide grief over the death of one young man as weakness. By extension, even some of Israel's friends are often mystified at the country's apparent obsession with the fate of our young soldiers, and 4

baffled by the lengths we go to retrieve them- or even their bodies- from enemy hands. But these are all of our soldiers, and they serve to protect all of us.” JPO 14.09.09 In sorrow and esteem “The death of Captain Asaf Ramon, a fighter pilot and the son of a fighter pilot, shocked the entire State of Israel yesterday. For one rare moment[…] light was shed on that sector of Israeli society that is too often taken for granted: young people[…] who volunteer to risk their lives every day to protect the country. The sorrow that encompassed Israel yesterday is another aspect of the tribute to their sacrifice.[…] The public is divided over Israel's security policy. The pilots themselves, like other soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces, have varying opinions on what is right, permissible and prohibited in combat. However, the existence of these essential controversies must not allow us to forget the devotion of those who have given their lives[…]. Without them there would be no debate, and there would also be no Israel.” HAA 14.09.09 „Nach der Trauerzeit für Assaf Ramon muss der Sicherheitsapparat einen Prozess ankurbeln, an dessen Ende unerschütterlich und ausnahmslos festgelegt wird, dass Söhne von Soldaten, die im Wehrdienst gefallen sind, nicht in Kampfeinheiten dienen dürfen. Die Mütter müssen ein für allemal von dieser schweren Entscheidung entbunden werden.[…] Die Familie wird in eine unmögliche Situation gebracht. Viele Söhne, die nicht nur ihren Vater sondern auch ihr männliches Vorbild verloren haben, wollen unbedingt den Weg des Vaters fortsetzen.[…] Ein behinderter Mensch kann nicht in einer Kampfeinheit dienen. Der Verlust des Vaters ist eine Behinderung. Vielleicht nicht für den Jungen selbst […], aber mit Sicherheit für seine Mutter.” Ofer Shelach, MAA 15.09.09 Of sorrow, shock and suffocation „They are all deserving of praise and, primarily, of honest concern for their fate, but we have lost all proportion in relation to all of them. They are/were young people, private individuals, who were sent by the country to their deaths or to captivity. They did not necessarily excel in unique demonstrations of heroism; only cruel fate turned them into heroes in our eyes. And after fate was cruel to them, a state, government and media apparatus began to turn them into national heroes- without allowing them any say in the matter.[…] The collective demonstration of mourning lasted for two or three days, until the entire inventory of clichés was used up. That is how to unite the Jewish people, even if momentarily: Give them a worthy tragedy.[…] We should have sent off Asaf with grassroots mourning and sadness. His was indeed a terrible tragedy, a shocking coincidence- but not a national disaster.” Gideon Levy, HAA 25.09.09 4. Medienquerschnitt Die Vielfalt der in Israel relevanten Themen kann in einem Medienspiegel natürlich nicht umfassend wiedergegeben werden. Um den deutschen Leser/innen dennoch einen Einblick in das große Themenspektrum, das in den Medien behandelt wird, zu gewähren, veröffentlichen wir in dieser Schlaglichtausgabe wieder eine kleine Auswahl an weiteren Themen, die in den letzten Wochen die israelische Gesellschaft bewegten. Über den 16. Jahrestag des Oslo-Abkommens, mit dem sich Israel und PLO 1993 anerkannten und der Friedensprozess begonnen werden sollte: Unhappy birthday, bitter 16 „Not all birthdays are sweet at 16.[…] Sometimes what grew up before our very eyes is nothing less than a teenage nightmare, certainly nothing to rejoice about. Such is the pitiless pseudo-peace conceived clandestinely in Oslo, imposed undemocratically on hapless Israelis[…]. Worst of all, this misshapen 16year-old grotesque has changed our circumstances forever. The cataclysmic chain reaction it set off rages still. Thus far nobody has possessed the pluck to snuff the monstrosity. Even those who once pronounced it dead, like Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, now make nice and vow to nurture it. […] After two intifadas, nearly 2,000 Israeli dead, the attendant betrayal and folly of disengagement, the Hamas takeover of Gaza(which resulted from disengagement) and an ever-burgeoning series of egregious Israeli concessions[…], it can be confidently concluded that our geopolitical situation has never been this bad.” Sarah Honig, JPO 10.09.09 5

Oslo succeeded more than most will admit “Oslo was supposed to mark the beginning of the end of the conflict.[…] High hopes soon came crashing down on the rocks of reality, but the conventional wisdom that Oslo was a total failure is unjustified. Yes, it was deeply flawed, but it also was a historic turning point that has not been reversed. Oslo meant the Palestinians accepted Israel's right to exist, and Israel recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. It effectively endorsed the two-state approach, although Israel would take a decade to formalize that.[…] But there was a huge gap between promise and performance. The five-year timetable for a final status agreement was unrealistic. Oslo's architects failed to clearly spell out their goals, how to achieve them and how to monitor and correct violations.[…] Oslo was a starter –[…]. It should be judged not for what it failed to achieve but for what it set in motion.” Douglas Bloomfield, 09.09.09 Über die Wiederaufnahme der Verhandlungen mit dem Iran über sein Nuklearprogramm: Iran’s North Korean model “What Iran is carefully studying is how North Korea has artfully defied the world for the last 16 years and managed to accrue nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.[…] As one senior Israeli official recently put it, the US let North Korea slip through its fingers, and the real concern here is that this pattern is repeating itself with Iran.[…] With two critical international meetings on the Iranian issue coming up next week, it is vital that the international community- which has just agreed to enter into further talks with Iran, this time with the participation of the US- look carefully at the mistakes that were made with North Korea, and not repeat them.[…] Obama[…] needs to have debilitating sanctions in place for the moment it becomes clear the Iranians […] were using the next round of talks of not to solve the nuclear crisis, but rather to create a far bigger one.” JPO 15.09.09 Don’t disturb the diplomats “Talks are to resume on October 1 between Iran and six major powers[…]. From the American perspective, this will be the first test of the‘dialogue approach’ championed by President Barack Obama […]. Obama believes that appropriate engagement, backed by threats of more serious sanctions than in the past, can neutralize the developing nuclear threat in Iran.[…] Skepticism over the success of the talks has its place. But for that very reason, Israel must not be seen as the party that is hampering the diplomatic process with ill-considered statements and threats of war.[…] It must continue preparations for a rainy day. But at the same time, it must not impair Obama's attempts to exhaust the diplomatic process.” HAA 16.09.09 HAA= Haaretz HZO= Ha Tzofe IHY= Israeli HaYom JED= Jedioth Ahronoth JPO= Jerusalem Post MAA= Maariv Die Artikel aus HZO und IHY wurden dem Medienspiegel der Deutschen Botschaft Israel entnommen. Veröffentlicht im: September 2009 Verantwortlich: Dr. Ralf Hexel, Leiter der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Israel Redaktion: Maike Harel Anita Haviv Homepage: www.fes.org.il Email: fes@fes.org.il 6