Smooth talk
By Rabbi Berel Wein

(February 1) The joint Israeli-Palestinian news conference of 
last Saturday night was an example of smooth talk at its most 
extreme. 

The sides proclaimed with straight faces that these were the 
most serious talks ever held between them and that there was 
never such a good feeling and understanding between the parties 
as was exhibited at these talks. 

Of course, the talks produced no results, but this was blamed 
on the shortage of time before the forthcoming election this 
Tuesday. 

But if one listened carefully to the Palestinian spokesman, 
one heard that the gaps in the positions are still very wide, 
that the issue of returning all of the refugees is the 
Palestinian "red line" (Israel, of course, has no "red lines" 
left) and if the PA cannot obtain all that it desires on the 
negotiating table it will just keep on killing Jews, something 
that it has been doing for many, many decades. 

He also stated that all of the further and until now one-sided 
Israeli concessions made at Taba were binding on Israel no 
matter which government comes to power in Israel, even though 
no formal document of agreement was ever signed. 

Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami on the other hand, stressed 
how serious and frank the talks were and how good the 
atmosphere between the parties was. 

What about the eight years of talks since this whole disastrous 
process began? Were they not serious and frank? How about the 
handshakes and the joking and the friendship between the 
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators until now? Was that not for 
real? You mean we gave away 42% of the West Bank frivolously 
without really serious and frank discussions? 

Peace is not achieved solely through good atmosphere or serious 
and frank discussion between negotiators. It is achieved by 
behavior and public expressions of attitude by the parties on 
the ground itself. And our Palestinian ex-partners in the 
"peace process" have proven themselves woefully inadequate on 
that count over the last years. 

Israel needs no more smooth talk about our true prospects of 
peace and security. We had enough of it from US president 
Bill Clinton and from those of our leaders who were duped into 
bringing us to the sad situation that we find ourselves in today. 

WHAT ISRAEL needs is hard talk. No more false illusions, no more 
pie-in-the-sky fantasies about the "rose garden" of the Middle 
East, no more zigzags. And what we need desperately is to be 
able to talk to each other, seriously, frankly, in a friendly 
manner about the problems that face us. 

What about Yossi Sarid and Yosef Lapid talking to the haredim 
in a serious, frank and friendly matter about the issues that 
divide them? Wouldn't that be a novel idea? Why can't they 
imagine them to be Palestinians? Instead we are treated to 
the knee-jerk, near-hysterical reaction of Meretz to every 
statement of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, to Lapid's constant venom 
toward religious Jews, to a "civil revolution" that can only 
tear our social fabric further asunder. 

And for what gain? Who really feels persecuted in this country? 
Why is there no smooth talk present in those areas of Israeli 
life where it is most needed and could prove extremely 
beneficial? 

There is a life after the failure of the Oslo Agreements. 

We tried our best and somehow it did not turn out the way we 
had hoped. So, now let us try to pick up the pieces and try to 
rebuild ourselves. 

We are seen today by the Arabs and much of the world as being 
soft, vulnerable, without principles and idealism. We should 
therefore repair that image. 

We should stop "understanding" our enemy. We should listen 
instead to the pain of those widowed and orphaned by the 
murderers who continue to wage war against us while their 
representatives hold frank and serious discussions in a good 
atmosphere with us about the dismembering of the Jewish State. 

We should begin to talk to each other civilly, not in bombast 
and hatred. 

And we should realize that Israel is a dream of millennia and 
that the Jewish past is not capable of being cavalierly 
jettisoned in favor of a feel-good present and a utopian 
secular tomorrow. 

The religious camp in Israel should also learn the value of 
smooth talk. Not every insult has to be returned in kind, nor 
do provocative statements aid our cause. "The words of the 
wise are stated softly, gently, smoothly." 

We should learn to smile more often at our fellow Jews and 
frown less at them. We should appear less threatening, less 
imposing, less demanding. 

We speak of love of other Jews as a goal, but I think that 
first we have to attain civility of language and tolerance of 
differing opinions. 

If we can fill this hole in our own hearts, then smooth talk 
can become an asset and not a danger. 

Shabbat Shalom