e
Bombs
Don't
Cha
Beliefs
Israelis don't seem
swayed in the
wake of what
could have been
a tragedy.
Border police officers
remove a Peace Now
activist after he
chained himself to a
tractor to prevent
Jewish settlers from
clearing land at Ras
el-Amud in east
Jerusalem.
1998
40 Detroit Jewish News
Living With Wye
NECHEMIA ME'YERS
Special to the Jewish News
Rehovot, Israel
he attack last week on
Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda
open-air market, the sev-
enth in the last three
decades, proved once again that
bombs don't change beliefs.
On the one hand, a wounded man
interviewed in the emergency ward of
Sha'arei Zedek Hospital unequivocally
declared: "Negotiations with the
Palestinians must continue until peace
is achieved." On the other hand, at
that very moment, right-wing demon-
strators in the market itself were
sho-uting: "End the negotiations.
Death to the Arabs."
This dichotomy exists all over the
country Judging by an unscientific
man-in-the-street poll carried out
early this week in Rehovot, a medi-
urn-sized city in the center of the
country, the majority of Israelis favors
continued negotiations with the Arabs
and, to the extent necessary, substan-
tial territorial concessions as well. This
fits in with public opinion surveys
over the past few years.
However, there seems to be one
clear-cut split between different sec-
tions of the population: a large major-
ity of the Orthodox are against con-
tinued negotiations, while a majority
of the secularists favor them.
Three religious young people in
their early 20s were unanimous in
their opposition to terri-
torial concessions. "In
any case," one boy assert-
ed, "the Palestinians don't
really believe in peace." A
girl sitting next to him
chipped in: "Negotiations
actually bring an increase
in terror attacks. We'd be
better off to just sit
tight."
Equally against negoti-
ations, particularly in the
wake of the latest string
of attacks since the sign-
ing of the Wye
Memorandum, was a
Boston-born Chabadnik.
He said he realizes that a
refusal to negotiate
involves risks, but, as he
sees it, "it's better to live
at risk than not to live at
all." And so far as he is
concerned, a withdrawal
from further areas would
be tantamount to com-
mitting suicide.
This is not to say that
secular Jews in Rehovot
are starry-eyed about the
Palestinians, that they
share the pie-in-the-sky
Shimon Peres dream of a
"New Middle East." Yet,
Religious Jews block traffic on a main
Jerusalem road to protest giving addi-
tional land to the Palestinians. The
banners read, "Handing over land is a
danger to Jews."
many believe that Israelis have suffered
long enough from periodic wars and
must now strive for peace. In the
words of one passerby: "We don't
know if that goal is achievable, but
we'll never know unless we try"
A Rehovot pharmacist said that any
attempt to break off negotiations with
the Palestinians would have dire con-
sequences. "However bad the terror
attacks are at the moment," he said,
"they're only the work of the
Palestinian fringe. If there were no
talks, we could expect such assaults
from all Palestinian factions, with a
consequent increase in bloodshed."
A number of respondents thought
it important to emphasize their sup-
port for Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu and his tactics. "He is
absolutely right to refuse any conces-
sions until Arafat keeps his promises,"
said a woman running a clothing -
store. A man sitting in a nearby cafe
went further: "Netanyahu should be
tougher still. He should refuse to
implement the Wye River agreement
until all terror comes to a halt."
But the majority of people inter-
viewed said that acts of terror should
not be allowed to derail the peace
process. While admitting that it was a
cliche, a Rehovot nurse defined the
blood-letting as "the price of peace."
Nechemia Meyers is an American who
has lived in Israel since 1948.