DAVID TWERSKY
451
made up of equal parts of fact and fancy. As a result of the
intifada,
the Israeli mainstream is beginning to shake off the myth of occupa–
tion on the cheap, the possibility of sustaining the occupational
status quo for another twenty years until the Arabs come to their
senses and sue for peace. When these disturbances peter out, as they
finally must, things will not return to the status quo ante of an in–
creasingly cozy and, in the language of Meron Benvenisti, "irreversi–
ble" relationship between Israel proper and the territories.
Of course, there is no straight line from this painful awakening
to a pragmatic and peace-oriented politics. Israelis have tended to
become radicalized in their previously held positions, not converted
to a new point of view. Meir Kahane is doing well in the polls. His
ideas - including the mass "transfer" of Palestinians out of "Greater
Isreal" - are making the circuit of the hawkish parties. The
intifada
has
underscored for many Israelis the impossibility of coexistence - on
whatever basis - of the two peoples in the land of Israel. There is a
growing "there's no room here for the two of us" mentality - and a
search for the train leaving town that the Palestinians are supposed
to get on.
This may wear off in time, which is why since the riots broke
out the Labor party has dropped its call for early elections and set its
hopes on an election date as late as is legally possible. When Israel
invaded Lebanon in the summer of 1982, most people rallied to the
flag. When the war turned to rubble (literally as the headquarters of
the Christian Phalange party collapsed on the broken body of Presi–
dent Bashir Jumayel and Palestinians were massacred at Sabra and
Shatila) public opinion began to turn against the expanded version
of the war. By the summer of 1984, when the present Knesset was
elected, the national mood was sour on Lebanon and pro-with–
drawal. While this sentiment was not expressed in a shift of votes
from the pro-war Likud to the antiwar Labor party , it helped con–
vince Likud to go along with the exit from the mess into which they
had gotten the country.
By next November 1st, when Israelis go to the polls, the ex–
tended reserve duty and higher taxes they will be paying as a direct
consequence of the occupation - or, to be more precise, of Palesti–
nian resistance to the occupation - may result in a simi lar shift. As
Amos Oz to ld me recently,
"If
the new Sephardi middle class has to
choose between the West Bank and their new secondhand Subaru
and more reserve duty, they will choose to keep the Subaru and less
reserve duty." But in the meantime, politically moderate insiders see
