Is Israel really interested in real peace with its Arab neighbours?

Question

Taking in consideration the following facts:
1- Israel is an exclusive Jewish state. Peace and open borders wilt full democracy and freedom of movment will definitely mean the loss of its jewish identity and majority. so moral and physical separation barriers are always needed.
2- The very concept of establishing the state of Israel was based on the notion of the persecuted Jew. to maintain the existence of the state of Israel this notion should be preserved through the creation of ennemities.
3- Israel believes in the expansionist theological idea and prophecy of recreating the Biblical Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates... Some Answerers even mentioned that openly in their Answer to this question http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhaXd4MCioORzdjU9uLrUhLty6IX?qid=20070726080642AARZTby
4- Holding the non homogenious fabric of the Israeli community needs the rallying of the populace against an ennemy... even if it is an immaginary enemmy of minimal threat

Just to make myself clear, from the two answers I see I have been misunderstood.
I'm talking about Israel's policies as a state, which isn't necessarily identical to the views of Israelis as a people.

By the way... I have nothing personal against Israelis, I even have a couple of friends from Israel... Its just their poicies in the region and ideologies that I oppose.

Edit Tt rossonero 2006: do you call converting Gaza into a closed prison and starving its people giving it up?

Edit: to Couchpotato29, so this is how you react when you run out of convincing arguments, interesting ;-)

Edit: Want to see a genuine Israeli in action without the lamb's mask. Just read "Couchpotato29's answer. For those of you who don't speak Arabic or are not familiar with Egypt, the term "Fellahin" he used to describe me and other Arabs means Egyptian peasant or farmer. It was used by the British and the Egyptian Aristocracy before 1952 as a degrading descripton... Much like calling a Balck person "Nigre". Does this tell you anything?

Edit to mo mosh: So this is your idea of a two way street, Arabs must recognize Israel's rights in exchange for peace! What about the Arab rights? The true equation is called Land for peace not recognition for peace... recognition comes as a result of peace not vice versa. And in all cases this issue of recognition is purely hypothetical since Israel already has all its rights and more.

Well I guess the Answers are clear enough and the "thumbing" process - if I may call it - accurately separated the good answers from the bad ones.

I think Israel doesn't want a fair peace... it might accept based on its own terms, throwing their left overs to the Palestinians and Syrians and expecting them to be grateful. But I don't think this is a viable equation.

The only Answer from the other camp (i.e. pro Israeli) that I see as kind of objective and going along the line of civilized debate is the yotg's, so although I differ with what he said, I thank him.

All other Answers with a positive thumbs up result were good and I had real trouble choosing a best answer specially between Answers by Inquisitivemind, Gypsy_cat 345 and Jehan.

Answer 1

Israel wants the kind of "peace" where its peace-partner has been neutered - ex.: Egypt(run by a corrupt president-for-life).

Israel continues its genocide against the Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza. It's to Israel's monetary (and military) advantage to keep an ongoing conflict (that way America continues to pour over 4 Billion bucks into Israel yearly - a conservative estimate, some say it's much more).

And Arab-Israelis are 2nd-class citizens within Israel. They cannot buy homes in a neighborhood that is "Jewish". There was an excellent British broadcast about an Arab-Christian in Israel who wanted to buy land and build a home in a Jewish neighborhood. The blatant racist comments by his 'would-be' Jewish neighbors were astounding, but not surprising. When you are taught that you are "chosen" and someone else's land is yours....there are no boundries of respect for human rights. After all, there are rabbis in Israel who are still trying to decide if non-Jews are human beings.(Israeli Haaretz newspaper).

As someone who's mother, aunt and grandparents had their home, land, money and jewelry stolen from at rifle-point and driven out - by Jewish settlers who came over from Canada and America; the appalling racist, murderous, stealing illegal behavior of Zionists hasn't changed.

Instead the American government condons it for fear of the Israeli and American Jewish Lobbies. Sadly, most Americans know little about what Palestinians have gone through and continue to go through, at the hands of a racist,'entitled' and brutal regime that brags lyingly it's "only democracy in the middle-east".

Answer 2

In short I'd say yes, Israel does want peace.

1. Israel is an exclusive Jewish state just like its neighboring countries are exclusively Muslim: 23% of the Israeli citizens are not Jewish (either Muslim or Christian).
A utopian peace like you describe is still within the realms of a distant dream; the best thing we had so far is the peace with Egypt and Jordan, and you can't really say that the ceaseless flow of Egyptian and Jordanian emigrants to Israel changes its demographics.

2. Not really. There's no one firm concept behind the establishment of Israel: the Zionist movement is assembled of many minor sub-movements that support the idea of Israel for many reasons; some of these groups don't agree on anything except for their support in the existence of Israel.
As pervious answerers wrote, if your point was accurate, then why did we sign the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan? Both countries could have been a great deterrent force.

3. You stated an obvious gap between the Israeli people and the Israeli leadership. If any- here's your difference. There's no actual desire or intention to be spread out all the way to the "biblical boundaries". It is simply out of any discussion, and I daresay that most of the Israelis don't believe in this concept either.
And again, if we had any intentions to "acquire more pieces of land" (as one of the scholarly answerers said)- why did we give Sinai and Gaza back? Why are there discussions of giving the Golan back?

4. Same as #2- apparently we did want peace with Jordan and Egypt. What you write is not one hundred percent erroneous, but it applies for all countries and policies that are found in a conflict (aren't some of the countries of the Muslim world educating for hating Israel?).
Anyway, some of Israel's "enemies" are not imaginary or minimal at all, to say the least.

Your theory is based on speculations only; I really don't see how it is manifested in real life. I think that Israel has a lot more to benefit from peace than it has from the current status.

Answer 3

I think the good citizens of any country anywhere on earth truly want peace.. I am a muslim, and I know many good people from Israel.. You cant blame the actions of a warped government on the good people of a country.. .. Im sure they want peace like anyone else..

Answer 4

1- Israel is not in fact an exclusive Jewish state, and is rather only 78% Jewish. Freedom of movement means nothing in this context; that non-Jews can freely visit Israel (which they do) does not mean that Israel will lose its Jewish character; that can only happen by granting citizenship to non-Jews, which is not neccessary to visitors.
2- You miss the point of Israel. Israel was based on the notion that sooner or later something bad will happen to the Jews because they just can't trust the diaspora. Trust me, we Jews need no help being persecuted; we certainly don't need extra enemies. If you can name a century where no major atrocity was commited against the Jews, you would have a point (still maybe not). Now that Israel exists, the first such century will by the 21st.
3- You are mistaken. A very small minority of Israelis believe in theological expansionism (only 20% of the country is practicing religious), while only a very tiny minority of those think that we should bring about this expansionism in the modern day. In short, we're talking about a very small percentage indeed. To contrast, the Palestinian party that wants to expand to take over all of Israel won the election. History, my friend, proves you wrong. Israel has given away Sinai and Gaza, and withdrawn from southern Lebanon. Not exactly the actions of an expansionist regime, eh?
4- This is pure speculation. From a psychological point of view you are right in that it is easy to rally around an enemy, but I don't think this is applicable here. Israel may not be homogeneous, but no good society is. Israel can stick together just fine. Further, Israel's enemies today are no less real than those of the past. Let us not forget that one year ago a border that was reasonably quiet suddenly turned hot. We don't take safety for granted here.

In conclusion, both history and I say yes.

Answer 5

Its basic human nature to want peace and to live in peace, no matter which country you are from. Isreal is a little different to most other countries, they have Jews and they have zionists, one side believes the words of Moses, the other side doesnt. One side feel and act like victims, the other side will do anything to make sure they are never victimized again, even if it means pre emptive retaliation against Arab or Persian states.

Answer 6

Of course not. How can the Israeli government continue its land grab if it's at peace with its neighbors?
I liken it (albeit on a smaller scale) to the notion of "Manifest Destiny", the European-American idea that Christian Whites had a God-given mandate to steal and colonize the land once occupied by Native Americans.
Edit: Msafwat, Couchpotato is well-known here on YA as virtual pond scum. He has nothing to offer but insults, being in possession of no amount of reason or intelligence; it would be an indictment of your own good judgment if he were actually to agree with you. So please consider his dislike of you a COMPLIMENT :)

Answer 7

Hardline, Meir Kahane-loving Israeli nationalists may not be interested in anything less than genocide, but I would hesitate to say that ALL Israelis hate Arabs.

Answer 8

Yes Zionists want peace so long as they're not prepared for wars, otherwise they wouldn't hesitate killing and murdering every living thing on earth..

Answer 9

The Israeli leaders are interested in acquiring more pieces of land more than peace itself. They want to keep occupying land that was never part of Israel or belong to Israel.

Answer 10

Seems you've learned about Israel from watching Al-Jeezera's "news".

Israel wants nothing more than peace and freedom from the jihad maniacs surrounding her. Peace, however, is a two-way street.

The Arabs first need to make peace with the idea of Jews as human being who deserve rights, respect and freedom in their country.