I COMMENT I
Let the Golden Years
Resetting The Watch
For Peace In Israel
DAVID HOLZEL
Israel Correspondent
W
hoever thought up
the idea of "Pale-
stine Time" should
consider a career on Madison
Avenue if he or she ever tires
of the intifada. This simple --
gimmick has proved to be a
most potent symbol in the
war of symbols fought by
Israel and the Palestinians.
Several weeks ago, leaflet
number umpteen issued by
the uprising leadership in-
structed Palestinians in the
territories to move their
clocks ahead one hour to
observe daylight savings
time. That it added an extra
hour of difficulty to the
sunup-to-sunset fast of
Ramadan was of no concern.
The point was to separate fur-
ther the "State of Palestine"
from the State of Israel and
its administration of the ter-
ritories, all of which remain-
ed on standard time;
lb Palestinians, that hour of
difference was a source of
pride and delight, - a sign of
true independence. Time, it
seemed, was on their side.
And it needled the Israelis.
"This is our state and it has
its own time," said one
Palestinian.
_ Some Israeli soldiers ap-
parently thought patrolling
the West Bank was bad
enough, but walking through
the Twilight Zone was too
much. They reportedly stop-
ped random Palestinians and
asked them for the time. If
the Palestinian's watch was
set to Palestine Time, the
soldiers smashed the watch.
But the intifada takes a
licking and keeps on ticking.
With Palestine Time, the
Palestinians can claim with
some evidence that they are
ahead of the Israelis in all
things. At least by an hour.
Through the fluidity and,
ultimately, indefinable
medium of time, the Palesti-
nians have defined their own
reality in a way that the
Israelis can't overturn unless
they pull the plug on every
last clock in the West Bank
and Gaza strip.
But I counsel a more
positive and benign response.
Let me tick off some reasons.
The inventor of Palestine
Time may have solved the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict by
pointing to the way to which
both peoples, with their
mutually exlusive needs,
demands, myths and symbols,
finally can coexist.
"Two peoples, two states,
.
one land, ont hour apart"
might be the motto of this
new detente, since both na-
tions would be able to exist
independently in time and
thus never cross paths.
And what is all in good time
for the Palestinians could be
used by the Israelis, as well.
Those who wish to scratch the
itch for a Greater Israel would
be able to do so. Annex Judea,
Samaria and Gaza at 9 a.m.
and the Palestinians at 10
a.m. would be unaffected.
Perhaps the followers of Meir
Kahane had this possibility
in mind when they declared
the Independent State of
Judea a few months back and
started issuing postage
stamps and the like. It's like
a Star Trek episode about
parallel universes — reduced
to a much more mundane
scope, of course — each one ex-
isting in the same place in
multiple dimensions of time.
Perhaps we'll soon have
Labor and Likud time, each
an hour apart, or secular and
Orthodox time. The pos-
sibilities are endless, if not
timeless.
In practical terms, Israel
undid the Palestinian effort
when, on April 30, the coun-
try turned its clocks ahead an
hour to begin the observance
of daylight savings time. Now,
time is no longer out of sync
and the Palestinians have lost
an ephemeral claim to dis-
tinction. Like their State of
Palestine that exists on the
maps of their minds and their
hearts but not on the ground,
Palestine Time is an adroit
way of skirting the issue. In-
stead of resetting their wat-
ches, better the Palestinians
should have asked, "How can
we come to terms with the ex-
istence of Israel?"
Many Israelis have done
their share of watch ad-
justing, mostly backwards.
Like the roads the Israelis are
building to skirt Palestinian
towns and avoid flying stones,
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir's plan for Palestinian
elections provides Israelis
with some comfort without
coming to terms with Palesti-
nian aspirations.
Israel needs to commit itself
to an interim solution that
will lead to a long-term solu-
tion to the Israel-Palestinian
conflict in particular and the
Arab-Israeli conflict in
general, whether the time
frame leading to that solution
be five years or 25 years. The
Shamir plan must be more
than an effort to buy time. ❑
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r'S
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
107