A Dissenting Democracy: The Israeli Movement 'Peace Now' by Magnus Norell

Author:Magnus Norell [Norell, Magnus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Social Science, Political Science, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9781135292812
Google: fR-4AQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 20846762
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2002-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

1973–77: The Tom Kippur War – A Watershed

In 1973, the Yom Kippur War brought new changes. It was an important turning point with regard to the peace process, shocking many Israelis into realising that it was not enough to win a solid military victory in order to achieve real peace.

For the Arabs, the war meant that they could regain some of their lost pride at the same time as the military option reached a political impasse. For Egypt in particular, with Nasser’s successor Sadat at the helm, the war provided leverage for creating new motivation to bargain for peace.

The step-by-step approach, engineered by Henry Kissinger, to reach the cease-fire agreements after the war made it possible to talk about a peace process for the first time.

For the peace movement, the war proved that the government was incapable of dealing with the peace issue, and that hanging on to the status quo had not prevented another war. Dissatisfaction and frustration with the government grew into a protest movement, including not only the peace movement, but also new groups seeking ways to vent their desire for change. With clear demands for change, this new mass movement turned into a channel of political influence that the earlier peace movement had never had. It was to become a new factor in Israeli politics, not only protesting against the perceived government inertia regarding peace initiatives, but also demanding a change of political leadership. This call for internal changes meant that peace policies also became intra-party business, coming to the fore particularly after the Israeli election in December 1973.

These new sentiments in Israeli society – aggravated by the economic hardships caused by the war – gave the peace movement a boost. From 1973 to 1977, parties hatched from the peace movement had a limited, but very strong, impact on political life. In the December 1973 election, a new party – the ‘Citizens’ Rights Movement’ (CRM) – made it into the Knesset. Considering Israel’s tradition of party politics and regulated political life, this was a definite achievement.

The Labour-dominated government managed to stay in power, however, even though significant gains were made not only by the protest movement, but also by a bloc consisting of conservatives and liberals (Likud), led by Begin. Had the election been further postponed – it should have been held in November but the war intervened – the Labour-led government might have fallen. Now it could stay in power, but the writing on the wall was becoming plain.

For the peace movement, the period between 1973 and 1977 was a time of laying the groundwork for the future. This involved not only being more visible to a larger public but also, and probably more importantly, making their ideas (peace with the Arabs and a two-state solution) part and parcel of the internal Israeli political debate. Even if there were differences of opinion on details and how to proceed within the peace movement, the issues were firmly planted in the political soil.

Reactions and protests in the aftermath of the war hit the political establishment with full force in the 1977 election.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.