Israel is purposely
destroying the building blocks of a potential peace agreement just as the
Palestinian Authority is finally being led by a pragmatic, Western-oriented
leader committed to a negotiated two-state solution. “By expanding settlements
instead of separating from the Palestinians while we still can, we Israelis are
dooming ourselves to lose the Jewish and democratic state that has been won with
so much sacrifice,” wrote Uri Dromi, spokesman for the Rabin and Peres
governments from 1992 to 1996, in the International Herald Tribune.
Indeed, as the prominent Fatah statesman and former Palestinian foreign minister
Nabil Shaath told London’s Independent, the government’s actions have
sabotaged the peace process: “The speed at which Jerusalem is being Judaized and
de-Arabized has surpassed any period in the history of the peace process and is
so alarming that we cannot possibly continue giving cover to Mr. Netanyahu that
we are still negotiating while he is doing this.” --
Eric
Alterman
By
Eric
Alterman
The title of this column is not intended to be
purposely provocative. I mean it. Leave aside whatever motivation Benjamin
Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition may have for their actions. Let’s just
focus on real world consequences.
In March, Israel’s government deliberately
alienated its most important friend, patron and strategic asset, the United
States government, by announcing the building of 1,600 new apartments for
ultra-Orthodox Jews in Arab East Jerusalem just hours after Vice President
Joseph Biden arrived for an official visit. Biden had told the Knesset there was
“no space” between the two nations. Lest anyone think this move was accidental,
it came a day after the government approved 112 new homes in Beitar Illit, an
ultra-Orthodox settlement in the occupied West Bank, despite having agreed in
November to curb settlement growth under its (unfulfilled) obligations to the
George W. Bush administration’s road map. Israel’s action was quite obviously
intended as “dafka, the proverbial stab in the back,” in the words of
a Forward editorial. If it had been intended to infuriate every friend of
Israel in the U.S. government, it could not have been much better
planned.
Recall that just before these incidents, the
Mossad apparently assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas official, in
Dubai, one of the most pro-Western and moderate places in the Arab world, using
stolen British and French passports. Dubai officials and Israel’s Western
European allies were infuriated. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called
the incident “intolerable” and expelled an Israeli diplomat. “The fact that this
was done by a country which is a friend only adds insult to injury,” he added.
Again, this was part of a destructive diplomatic pattern undertaken by the
Netanyahu government. In January, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon
deliberately seated Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, then the Turkish ambassador to Israel,
in a low chair and removed the Turkish flag from a meeting in response to a
Turkish television drama unfriendly to the Mossad. This only delivered a
gratuitous insult to what is perhaps Israel’s strongest ally in the Muslim
world. Ayalon was forced to apologize, but Celikkol left his post early. The
list goes on and on.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who heads Israel’s
friendliest border state, recently told The Wall Street Journal that
Netanyahu’s policy of building homes for Jewish families in East Jerusalem has
pushed Jordanian-Israeli relations into a downward spiral. “Unfortunately, for
the first time since my father made peace with Israel [in 1994], our
relationship is at an all bottom low,” Abdullah said. “I think the long-term
future of Israel is in jeopardy unless we solve our
problems.”
So where will all this
lead?
First, it renders any likely cooperation from
these nations extremely more difficult regarding the very real threat to Israel
from Iran. What’s more, it endangers U.S. and allied troops around the world,
according to General David Petraeus, the United States Central Command head.
Petraeus recently told Congress that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of
the “root causes of instability” in the region and endangered U.S. goals in
Iraq, Afghanistan and his area of responsibility. “The conflict foments
anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel,”
Petraeus said. “Arab anger,” he continued, “over the Palestinian question limits
the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the
area of responsibility and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the
Arab world. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to
mobilize support. The conflict also gives Iran influence in the Arab world
through its clients, Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas.”
Second, Israel is purposely destroying the
building blocks of a potential peace agreement just as the Palestinian Authority
is finally being led by a pragmatic, Western-oriented leader committed to a
negotiated two-state solution. “By expanding settlements instead of separating
from the Palestinians while we still can, we Israelis are dooming ourselves to
lose the Jewish and democratic state that has been won with so much sacrifice,”
wrote Uri Dromi, spokesman for the Rabin and Peres governments from 1992 to
1996, in the International Herald Tribune. Indeed, as the prominent Fatah
statesman and former Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath told
London’s Independent, the government’s actions have sabotaged the peace
process: “The speed at which Jerusalem is being Judaized and de-Arabized has
surpassed any period in the history of the peace process and is so alarming that
we cannot possibly continue giving cover to Mr. Netanyahu that we are still
negotiating while he is doing this.”
Before he left office, the formerly hawkish
ex-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned his nation, “Who thinks seriously that if
we sit on another hilltop, on another hundred meters, that this is what will
make the difference for the State of Israel’s basic security?” To preserve
itself as a Jewish state, he insisted, Israel needed to give up “almost all the
territories, if not all,” including the Arab parts of East Jerusalem. More
recently, ex-Prime Minister and current Defense Minister Ehud Barak added: “The
simple truth is, if there is one state” including Israel, the West Bank and
Gaza, “it will have to be either binational or undemocratic. … if this bloc of
millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid
state.”
And yet, this is exactly the path upon which
Netanyahu has embarked. Call it what you will, but in light of the above,
“suicide,” for a Jewish, democratic Israel, is, sadly, not too strong a
word.
Eric
Alterman is a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and City
University of New York’s graduate school. His latest book is Why
We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush
America.
Source: Moment
9:47 PM
Sultan Shahin
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