We are still searching for ways out of the struggle between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Why is this conflict so complex? Why does peace - the thing we all need the most - slip through our hands like sand, so we can never touch it? Repetitive violence is what we see instead.

There had been some fresh hopes when the Saudi Crown Prince declared in the name of the Arabs that Israel will be accepted as a state by its neighbors. The world community had acknowledged this gesture by mentioning it in one of the last UN resolutions about Israel, the one in which the word "Palestine" also appears. Moreover, 58 renowned Palestinian personalities had signed an urgent appeal in al-Quds newspaper on June 20 to stop suicide bombings. And there were and are organized Muslims all over the world who call for peace and who reject violence. They are many and they are easy to google. And what about Israel?

In the year 2002, the official Israelis have not been too convincing, where peace is concerned. Israel has proven that it has more "political" power than the Palestinians, but peace? "We must defend ourselves", is what they are saying. "The suicide bombers!" It is a grotesque scene in which a highly armed and military giant cries like an ignorant child, because everybody allegedly is against him. When he calls it anti-Semitism and refers to his difficult past.

In the psychic reality of the official Israel World War II is not over. The hunt for anti-Semites and the feeling of general insecurity and humiliation lead to patterns of behavior indicating that Israel and the Jews are still living with the Nazis and fighting them. Before Israel's president Katzav came to Germany to ask for tanks against the "terrorists", he said: "Who once had been burnt with hot water, like the Jewish people, becomes cautious, when the water gets warm again." (Hamburger Morgenpost today). He would never assume that Israel itself could be the boiler... And every German knows the figure of the famous 20 per cent. who are anti-Semitism prone. So maybe it would be a good idea if somebody told the Jews that the war is over and that the Nazis were beaten in 1945. And that there are even reasons other than anti-Semitism, if some people are sceptical about Israel and about Jews in their capacities as its constituents and supporters. Zionism, for example.

The word "Zionism" hardly occurs in the media, especially in Germany. This is interesting, because Zionism is one of the major political forces in the world, and nobody would deny that. Until 1948, "Zionism" meant the building of a homeland in Palestine for the Jews. When the state was built, some Jews said that they don't need no more Zionism, while others redefined it and said: we need Zionism to protect this state and to give it a culture.

It is difficult to criticize Zionism, because it belongs to the identity of a former victim group. There are many Jews all over the world who feel to be Zionists without feeling to be against Palestinians. They don't see the violent Zionism with its governmental shooting of people, demolishing of houses, or attaching signs to the skins of Palestinians, they don't see the current plans of ethnic cleansing and of stifling the peaceful opposition. They know nothing about Yoni Ben Artzi and Uri Ya'acobi who refused to serve in the IOF and who are in prison for that right now!

Zionism has been highly controversial for decades, and even the United Nations for several years had claimed that it is racist. The Durban conference shortly before September 11 also showed the huge gap between the nations in this question. As non-Westerners, Arab and Muslim countries have a different attitude toward criticizing Zionism and Israel and the Jews in their capacities as its constituents and supporters. The Arabs did not start World War II, the Nazis did. It was a western World War, and it had left a feeling of guilt and regret toward the victims of the Holocaust.

Violent Zionism is something that exists and something that must be overcome. It can by no means be justified by the security aspect, because violence provokes counter-violence by definition and thus destroys the security instead of producing it. And many of those, who today are made suspects of anti-Semitism, are solely against violent Zionism, this thing that nobody wants to talk about and that kills Palestinians and threatens the Arabs and Muslims on a regular basis. If you are for peace, you cannot be for violent Zionism, simply because of its violence. This has nothing to do with Judaism. Today, "Zionism" in the inner-Jewish discourse can mean both: it can mean to be a decent Israeli and supporter of the noble cause and it can mean racist and brutal violence with the traumatic aim of being secure of Hitler and the Nazis and the anti-Semites.

As long as there is no sharp distinction here, Israel will be unable to stop the violence and to contribute to the real peace efforts. The media, which do not cover this point, are supporting the war, and will be responsible for every single article and feature in which racist violence is not called by its name. And politicians, who today give money to violent Jewish groups, will be asked about that.

Also read the article "Zionism" (9 March 2002) This article is on the net in English and German at http://www.anis-online.de/pages/_text2/essays.htm#zio