Thoughts on the Aughts

As someone trained in the study of history, I am fully cognizant that a proper accounting of a decade in time can be properly accomplished only many years post hence - with the benefit of added knowledge and broader perspective.

That being said, who can resist the urge to sum up the 10 years that end tonight, the first decade of the new millennium?!

Here, therefore, is a series of unsystematic, incomprehensive, but hopefully not inconsequential impressions on the decade that began on 1/1/00.

To set the table (and with a nod to Billy Joel), let's start with a few names and terms that entered our everyday lexicon over the last ten years: Camp David II. Second Intifada. Hanging chads. Taba. Dubya. Durban Conference. 9/11. "Defensive Shield". WMD. The Quartet. Geneva Initiative. Roadmap. "Shock and Awe". Kadima. Gaza disengagement. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mearsheimer & Walt. Gilad Shalit. Tzipi Livni. Sderot. Annapolis. Facebook. J Street. Barack Obama. "Price Tag". "Cast Lead". BDS. Bernard Madoff. Avigdor Lieberman. Settlement Freeze.

With appetites hopefully whetted, allow me to reflect on a few of the decade's more important themes, focusing in particular on Israel's ongoing conflict with its neighbors.

• The ups and downs and ups again of the two-state solution: As we entered the Aughts, we were brimming with hope, as a novice Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, and a seasoned Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, seemed poised to finally make peace at Camp David. Although the decade has moved us from expectation to exasperation, the two-state solution, like the Phoenix, has refused to die - surviving suicide bombings and targeted killings, Israeli unilateralism and the rise of Hamas, settlement expansion and seven full years of American diplomatic neglect. Hey, even Binyamin Netanyahu now says he's a two-state fan!

• Israeli unilateralism - a one-hit wonder? The failure to reach peace in 2000-01, coupled with the outbreak of the Second Intifada, drove Israelis to seek a remedy that they could achieve solo. Enter the policy of ‘unilateralism', tested in South Lebanon in 2000 and brought to fruition in the Gaza disengagement of 2005. By the end of the decade, Israelis of all political persuasions seemed to agree that peace is not a game of solitaire.

• The growth of Palestinian unilateralism: Although Palestinian public opinion continues to prefer a negotiated two-state solution, alternative strategies have been making gains, with the diplomatic track chronically stalled. Twenty-two years after the PLO embraced two-states, supporters of a one-state arrangement have gained renewed credibility. Meanwhile, the end of the decade has witnessed a new Palestinian initiative for "bottom-up" state building that would culminate in gaining international recognition outside the framework of negotiations with Israel.

• The return of the "military solution": The ‘90s were a decade in which the majority of Israelis decided to ‘give peace a chance'. But during the Aughts, despair and fear convinced many to indulge in the fantasy that Israel's might could do what diplomacy hadn't. As more and more Israelis embraced the populist slogan, "let the IDF win", the Aughts saw Israel launch a series of targeted killings and nightly raids, and embark on massive military efforts, the most famous of which being "Defensive Shield" and "Cast Lead". While achieving tactical success at times, these missions were a major factor in the decline of Israel's international image (see below).

• Israel's image plummets: The "Oslo years" of the 1990s saw Israel build or restore diplomatic ties with dozens of countries around the world. The 2000s witnessed the unraveling of these gains. Arab countries downgraded their relations with Israel; a former American President compared the Occupation to Apartheid; and the left in Europe - and to a lesser extent the US - began to rally support for a Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement.

• The rise of the extra-parliamentary Israeli left: While Labor and Meretz, the parties that brought Israel the Oslo process, have taken their lumps over the last 10 years, a slew of new Israeli non-profits have emerged to fight the Occupation and its excesses. Joining the veteran B'Tselem, ACRI and HaMoked have been Gisha, Yesh Din, Breaking the Silence, Machsom Watch, Bimkom, and others, which use first-hand testimonies, the court system and the media to campaign for human rights and to highlight the vicious cycle of occupation-armed resistance-security response-oppression.

• Pro-Israel, pro-peace goes to Washington: While the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" banner has been flying for much more than a decade, it is only in the last two years that it has become a significant presence on Capitol Hill. The meteoric growth of the J Street lobby and PAC has hopefully put an end to the myth of a monolithic "Israel lobby" in lockstep with the Israeli right.

• From Assad ... to Assad: The decade began with Israel and Syria close to a peace deal involving withdrawal from the Golan Heights and demilitarization. Ten years later, although Syria's President is Bashar, not Hafez, Assad, the central elements of an Israeli-Syrian bargain remain the same. Although new complications have emerged - Damascus' relations with Tehran and Hezbollah, for example - recent mediation efforts by Turkey show that both sides still have an interest in making it happen.

• Israel's Palestinian citizens: Quietly, perhaps the thorniest issue of the decade.

In October 2000, 13 Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel were shot dead by the Israel Police during several days of rioting. The rioting began as a show of solidarity with the Palestinians killed in Jerusalem at the start of the Intifada. Although the Orr Commission, appointed in response by the Israeli government, issued recommendations in 2003 urging widespread reforms to promote equality for the Arab sector, little was implemented in practice.

A position paper issued in 2006 by prominent Palestinian-Israelis offered a radical challenge to the Orr reforms, suggesting an Israeli democracy in which not only are Jews and Arabs equal citizens, but the Jewish and Arab collectives (75% and 20% respectively) are ethnic and cultural entities on an equal national footing. As the decade came to a close, Israel's electorate responded to what it saw as a call for a bi-national state and made Avigdor Lieberman's xenophobic Yisrael Beiteinu party the third largest in the Knesset.

Clearly this has not been an easy decade, but with your steadfast support, Meretz USA will continue to campaign for the values of peace, security, human rights, dignity and justice, so that the 2010s may be a more celebratory time for the citizens of Israel and throughout the Middle East.

Wishing you and your family a very happy and healthy new year,

Ron Skolnik
Executive Director