Shlomo Avineri: "The Arabs are the Same Arabs and the Sea is the Same Sea"

No, Shlomo Avineri did not say that. Who did, and what was the background?

The popular slogan of the Arabs during the Israeli War of Independence was to "throw the Jews into the Sea." They tried, but failed miserably,

Many years later, Israeli politician Yitzchak Shamir came up with the gem, “The Arabs are the same Arabs, and the sea is the same sea”. Israel's leftists were convinced that the time was ripe for peace with the Arabs. Today's Arabs are not the same bloodthirsty followers of Haj Amin al-Husseini that we knew way back when. They accept us! They are ready for reconciliation! If we only give the "palestinians" a state, we will all live happily ever after. Against this warped version of Middle Eastern reality Shamir coined his famous phrase.

Now, Shlomo Avineri, who served as Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1975–77, and was an early proponent of negotiations with the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization, recently wrote the following in Ha'aretz:

The basic Palestinian position, which usually isn’t always explicitly stated, is totally different and can be easily detected in numerous Palestinian statements. According to the Palestinians’ view, this is not a conflict between two national movements but a conflict between one national movement (the Palestinian) and a colonial and imperialistic entity (Israel). According to this view, Israel will end like all colonial phenomena – it will perish and disappear. Moreover, according to the Palestinian view, the Jews are not a nation but a religious community, and as such not entitled to national self-determination which is, after all, a universal imperative.

According to this view, the Palestinians see all of Israel – and not just the West Bank and Gaza – as analogous to Algeria: an Arab country out of which the foreign colonialists were ultimately expelled. Because of this, Israel – even in its pre-1967 borders – never appears in Palestinian school textbooks; because of this the Palestinians insist never to give up their claim to the right of return of 1948 refugees and their descendants to Israel.

Although he may not realize it, Shlomo Avineri is admitting that Yitzchak Shamir was right. “The Arabs are the same Arabs, and the sea is the same sea”. Avineri has finally grasped what Shamir knew decades ago.

This is, of course, a total denial of the Israeli Leftist creed. However, I do not see these people joining the Likud or the Jewish Home party. Cognitive dissonance is a permanent resident in the psyche of the Israeli leftist. They will continue to propose freezing, evacuating settlements, "two states for two peoples" etc. as a remedy to every ill.