Jochanan Bloch

(Editor’s note: This is the third time we publish these prophetic words. The late Jochanan Bloch was a distinguished philosopher whose most famous work was Die Aporie des Du: Probleme der Dialogik Martin Bubers (The Internal Contradiction of the Thou: Problems in the Dialectic of Martin Buber). In 1970, Dr. Bloch, professor in the Department of the History of the Jewish People at Ben Gurion University, wrote in response to the decision of the Israeli government to accept a ceasefire at the Suez Canal. No Israeli newspaper would publish what he wrote; he was told it was too “frightening” and an “overreaction.” Outpost first printed his prophecy in May 1975 and then again in June 1994 in the wake of Oslo. What Bloch wrote is even more applicable today as international “monitors” begin to displace Israeli forces.)

The worse our position becomes, the more we will be dependent upon the help of the United States. Yet the more our situation deteriorates, the more the United States will hesitate to come to our assistance, for fear of confrontation with our enemies, and she will demand with greater sternness our retreat, a retreat we have in any case agreed to and signed. If we point to the dangers involved in a retreat, the principle of ‘protection’ will be extended whether we want it or not. As answer to any risk they will offer us the guarantees we have invited…

What the government does not realize at this point is that we will essentially have to retreat to the borders of 1949. A peace treaty we won’t get; we’ll get guarantees. Here there will be demilitarization; there will sit a UN force; here will be a corridor; there a mixed police force; here shared administration; there an enclave. Immigration will stop, for such a state will not be able to attract newcomers. Emigration will resume and reach dimensions which we have never known...Defense expenditures will not decrease but grow in direct proportion to the worsening of our situation. And peace? It is clear that the Palestinian forces will increase their activity with the support of the Arab states; even if for the time being states don’t enter into war with us. Our defensive capability will be desperately handicapped in the choking collar of the ‘peace borders’, and the international guard forces. And then we shall turn to our friendly protecting powers and will ask for their help. And it isn’t hard to guess what they will say.

They’ll tell us that they are not willing to get involved in a world war, that we must not bring war upon the world. The process of blackmail will begin. If immigration has not yet ceased by itself, they’ll demand that we stop it. And the guaranteeing powers will explain to us that it is evil for us to exist on this outdated Zionist principle that can drag us to war… We will, in fact, be returning to the Mandate period and in two or three years they will say in America that the ‘experiment of the Jewish state’ has failed, and that it is necessary to find a reasonable solution for the problem of Israel. And why not a Palestinian state in which one will ‘guarantee’ the lives of the Jews? What began with the silly slogan “territories for peace” is likely to end with the liquidation of the state, unless we can retrace our steps and escape from the nightmarish trap we have fashioned with our own hands.”