Dr. Ghada Karmi is the Palestinian author of “In Search of Fatima” and “Married to Another Man.” Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, interviewed her for Progressive Radio on April 14.

Q: Why is Israel wrong in the supposition that it can just continue to suppress and win by strength of arms?

Dr. Ghada Karmi: Well, I have to say, it’s done quite well so far. We have to say that. But it’s been at quite a lot of cost to the Israelis, leaving aside the costs to the Arabs, which one must assume that people understand. . . Now there is a limit, it seems to me, on common sense grounds, for how long you can survive by force of arms, by crushing your enemies, by continually courting your friends, by ensuring you have the support of outside powers because that state of affairs is precarious because it rests on a number of assumptions which all have to hold, otherwise you’re in trouble. And those assumptions are, number one: that the Arabs around you (you as Israel) remain disunited and weak and incapable and helpless and can’t do anything. Number two, that your support base in the Western world and particularly in the United States continues to be super strong. So it’s not enough to just be given help and be like an ordinary state in the region. You have to be a super state in order to keep this arrangement going. So you have to continually make sure that the United States gives you money, gives you arms, shares technology, relies on you, considers you indispensable. This is very tiring. If, for example, let us imagine, there is a change in the world. We live in a world which is dynamic. These are not static structures. Let’s look at the rise of China. Let’s look at the rise of Southeast Asia. Economically at first. Now, what will that do to the world order? What if the United States does not remain preeminent? What if there are forces within the United States that finally resent having their taxes going to support this external country that is really not doing them any good. What good does Israel do for the ordinary American citizen? Answer: no good at all. Now what if some of these things change? What if the wave of Islamism that is sweeping the region, what if that becomes stronger? All the indications show that it’s getting stronger. What if that overturns these client regimes in the Arab world, which are subservient to American interests? What if they change? What if these Islamists gain hold of oil? What if all these things? Would you like to be in Israel when these things happen? Well, I wouldn’t be. I think it’s pretty dangerous for the Israelis. So that’s therefore in a way an answer to your question. It is not sensible for a state, having imposed itself by force, having invited, provoked, the hatred and the enmity of the people in whose midst it lives, it is not sensible for it to continue to behave in such a way that ensures their continued hostility and enmity, the fact that they’re all waiting for a time to strike. That is not a sensible way to be.

To hear the entire 28-minute interview, please click here..