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A Speech That Echoes
Ariel harkham
Last week a dramatic exchange a generation in the making ensued, Netanyahu and Abbas squared off on the world scene, delivering at the UN what amounted to these two nations conflicting narratives. Since then the dust has settled somewhat and the conflict marches on. Abbas, surrounded by applauding leaders from around the world, confirmed the victory of Palestinian public diplomacy. But last week, Netanyahu, standing on the podium minutes after Abbas called for Palestinian independence, did something very different, he made a speech not to convince the elite actors in the capitols of nations or to the dignitaries seated before him, the Prime Minister delivered a speech crafted to engage the world public at large. He confronted the Palestinian enterprise, exposing their myths and intolerance by the simple act of declaring Jewish truths and history's testament. In stating the Jewish interest involved in this conflict, Netanyahu effectively recalibrated the dialogue by introducing a new symbol in the negotiations with the Palestinians.
What the Palestinians have long recognized and Israel is now slowly starting to understand, is that public diplomacy is at its best when incorporating the transmitting power of a cultural symbol. For the Palestinians, they have wholly embraced their symbols that revolves around occupation and destitution. Instead Israel for the most part has withheld itself from entering into mass diplomacy. Focusing most of its efforts on diplomacy directed toward foreign ministers and political elites. This explains why many have called Netanyahu’s speech undiplomatic, and have gone as far as to call it a step backwards in Israeli diplomacy, in his calling the UN a “house of lies.” But as Netanyahu said he would rather have bad PR, than "a good eulogy.” By engaging the super-narrative that has surrounded this conflict, and the unceasing global spotlight that it seems to attract, a great stride forward in Israeli public diplomacy was made.
What set Netanyahu’s speech apart was revealing the core grievance in this contest. Unlike Olmert who added Jewish recognition as part of an overall agreement with the Palestinians, Netanyahu peeled back settlement, checkpoints, refugees, and borders and deciphered what is the real issue: Jewish Sovereignty. Announcing stridently that all else is commentary and the source of it all is the Palestinian complete rejection of Jews having any sort of independent political existence.
Netanyahu was able to make this connection and deliver it unapologetically because he is the first Israeli premier that has properly assimilated the fact that globalism and the shrinking of the world require a cogent public diplomacy strategy. This can only happen when Israel can hoist up a symbol to contest the well entrenched symbology employed by the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim axis.
Seen in this light it was befitting for Israel’s Prime Minister to renounce Abbas’s dramatic call for statehood without a negotiated settlement -- not with road maps or armed with statistics, but with Israel's core right not to just simply exist, but to exist as a Jewish people. By mapping out the central problem and delivering it with clarity, Netanyahu managed to turn a seeming defeat into an unglamorous victory. This victory is the seed planted for future Israel to regain the initiative in the war of words, armed with the symbol of Jewish sovereignty.
The most quoted commentary on this conflict from pundits abroad is that the conflict centers around Israeli security versus Palestinian independence. Such a critique is cosmetic at best given the long history of the conflict, moreover, it seeks to emasculate Israel, robbing it of many interests and depriving it of its main arguments. Netanyahu’s speech attempted to reverse this base conception of security versus aspirations. Finally Israelis for the first time saw their leader successfully reorient the argument: Palestinian aspirations are also in conflict with Jewish aspirations. In taking the dialogue out of the confines of the security dimension, thrusting forward a Zionist value as a primer toward reconciliation, a symbol was born in the mind of millions of observers.
Understanding that the guiding issue in this intergenerational conflict has never been about territory, never been about political oppression and has always centered around the Arab-Jewish rivalry – of who shall have supremacy on this ancient land -- will go a long way in Israel regaining the diplomatic initiative it has long sought. We already saw the power in this symbol when Netanyahu was able to confidently call out to Abbas in his speech, “Let's meet today,” knowing all too well that Abbas would not answer. In so doing, the Prime Minister forced all honest observers of last week's interchange to come to terms with the heart of the Palestinian implacability, which has been the source of failed negotiations since Oslo, Jewish sovereignty.
Future Israeli leader and diplomats will have to explain what this Jewish State means in regards to political independence, why it is so important to maintain for Israel to prosper and how the Palestinians seek so desperately to extinguish it. For now, we can take a breath of relief and congratulate our premier for properly navigating a potentially dangerous moment in our national life. Though it was only a speech, it exemplified one of the Jewish peoples greatest strengths, the ability to learn from our mistakes, transform weakness into a source of strength and begin anew.
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