Newspaper Article

ROAD TO PEACE IN GAZA HAS BEEN A SLOW, STEADY CLIMB

Yossi Melman. Yossi Melman, an Israeli journalist who is on sabbatical in Ann Arbor, Mich., is co-author of "Friends In Deed:Inside the U.S.-Israeli Alliance," to be published next spring

1993

Overview

I still vividly remember how, as a teenager, while walking in downtown Tel Aviv, I witnessed a small demonstration. The protesters, no more than 30, were waving banners that called in Hebrew and Arabic for an Israeli return to \"political sanity\" and for reconciliation with the Palestinian people. As the police instructed the demonstrators to disperse, bystanders applauded. No wonder-the protesters belonged to a few small leftist organizations advocating an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The peace groups were so unpopular that some of their names became almost synonymous with treason. The demonstration took place 26 years ago, only a few weeks after the Israeli army won a war that had been imposed on Israel by neighboring Arab states. In the days before the June 1967 war, as the Arab armies were encircling the Israeli borders, Israelis' sense of security and self-confidence was very fragile. Its very existence during those days leading to the war seemed to totter. However, as the Six-Day War ended in an Israeli victory, which resulted in the seizing of Arab lands, there was a complete alteration in Israel's mood, from anxiety to euphoria. The Israelis were not in the mood to give the territories back easily, and certainly not for free. Israel wanted peace and secured borders, which would prevent the Arabs from repeating their aggression. But as the years went on, the Arabs-and particularly the Palestinians, who were and still are at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict-were not ready to pay the price asked by the Israelis.

• Publisher: Tribune Publishing Company, LLC