The right wing government of Israel has done it at last! When Vice-President Joe Biden came to Israel, he was given a mandate to restart the faltering peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Unfortunately this was not to be as Eli Yishai, leader and Minister of the Interior, of the right wing, racist,” Messengers of God" Shas Party issued a statement about building 1600 units in Ramat Shlomo for Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.
Apart from the bad timing of this announcement during Biden's visit, it also illustrated to the world that Israel has no intention of freezing settlements and it is business as usual. In practice, this means further encroachment on Palestinian lands which will form the basis of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. This will result in the end of the two state solution, as if this process has not been started already. A one state solution with Israel ruling over the Palestinians having enclaves of illegal settlements will ensure the total demise of the two-state solution. It will also spell the end of the aspirations of the Palestinians who wish to have their own state. Instead, the Palestinians will become second class citizens in a unilateral state with their basic human rights being further eroded. Israel will become an apartheid-like state run by a right wing government which will also be the death knell to democracy.
Remember Netanyahu’s famous speech at Bar Ilan University last year? He stated that he accepts the two state solution. We all know that he stated this half heartedly as a sop to the US. We also know that it is against the basic ideology of the Likud and its right wing coalition partners. Netanyahu knows that this would never occur - not while he is prime minister!
As the truth of Israel's intent leaked bluntly during Biden's visit, Netanyahu appeared red-faced and apologetic. He denied knowledge of these building intentions. This is rather strange! A prime minister giving permission for building on disputed territory is not aware of his directives. Surely this does not make sense! Now the art of misguided deception begins, and with it, the denial of intentions as usual.
Netanyahu is playing a game in the hope that he can please his right to extreme right wing partners in government by continuing to build illegal settlements in the disputed West Bank and East Jerusalem. At the same time he tries to please the Obama Administration by making the right clucking noises on the two-state solution which is incompatible with his right wing coalition world view. Israel accuses the Palestinian leadership of saying one thing to the US and Israel while it conveys a different message to its own people. Surely the Netanyahu Government is no different!
This policy is doomed to failure and the whole thing leaked out creating a severe dent in Israel's credibility to the US as well as fomenting a crisis in Israel's special relationship with the US. This of course is denied and viewed as a difference of opinion.
This turned out to be a field day for President Mahmoud Abbas and he has climbed the band wagon to make Israel cede to Palestinian demands on freezing settlements and raising all the issues that have been a cause of disagreement between Israel and the Palestinians since Israel's establishment. It will also strengthen the hand of Hamas on the West Bank who will gloat over this rift in US-Israel relations. It will consolidate the already existing Palestinian view that Israel is not interested in moving towards a final peace settlement. Even the moderate Palestinian leadership in the West Bank is being undermined by the Israeli Government.
The Netanyahu Government has erred and this is not to Israel's credit. The incident will not blow over as rapidly as Netanyahu would like despite his apologies and pleading of ignorance of the Ramat Shlomo building project for ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The whole exercise not only damages Israel's relations with the US, but also sets the moribund peace negotiations back at least to the pre-Oslo Accord days of September 1993.
The folly of appeasing Israel's extreme right wing partners will exact a heavy price. Israel needs the US. Without US support, Israel's future will be placed in jeopardy. The choice is Israel’s and Israel's choice alone. If the Netanyahu Government does not heed the wake up call which means it must cease pandering to the right wing and its religious zealot's desires to maintain the occupation and expanding existing illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian lands.
Another tactic used by the Netanyahu Government is to place great emphasis on the Iranian threat and its danger to the world. It is done as a digression to get the US off Israel's back over the illegal settlement issue.
The alternative will result in the alienation of Israel from the world community with a severe dent in Israel's relations with the US Israel's only true friend.
All the issues, including the noisy celebration by right wing religious Zealots of the completion of the restoration of the ancient Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem, added fuel to the fire on the prolongation of the occupation. Rioting by Palestinians occurred as a result. These riots were quelled by the army and police. It could erupt again if the right wing religious Zealots continue their provocative behaviour towards the Palestinians
DEMANDS
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Stop all settlements
In East Jerusalem.
Negotiate about
Jerusalem, borders,
Settlements and refugees.
These are the demands
Of Hillary Clinton.
These are the demands
Of Israelis
Who care for their country.
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Gush Shalom Ad in Haaretz - March 19, 2010
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