NETANYAHU HAS LOST IT

As predicted in the last blog, (ISRAEL: WINNERS AND LOSERS), Netanyahu was in danger of getting on the wrong side of history. Abbas has been ignored by Israel in spite of his overtures and policing the West Bank.  The inevitable happened and the UNO voted Abbas’s Palestinian movement Nation status and Observer status at that body. Palestine is no longer hanging around waiting for Godot. They don’t need Israel if they have world support for their Statehood. Israel has lost what could have been a bargaining point in negotiations. The vote was overwhelming with a few against and a number of abstentions. The reality is that world opinion, including that of Israel’s natural allies, is that Israel is not fulfilling its expectations in negotiating with Abbas’s Fatah who have, in their opinion, got weaker as a result of Israel not rewarding his stance. The same Western allies that were fore square behind Israel in Hamas’s attack somehow did not understand this time round.

Netanyahu’s response to the UNO decision was to "punish" Abbas for going to the UNO by announcing permits for new Settlements that if put into place would never allow Palestine to be an integral state. Just in case anyone had second thoughts, that they should have waited one more year to give Netanyahu an opportunity to make overtures, Netanyahu dispelled any lingering doubts by his intemperate reaction,

On the other hand Abbas, to quote the New York Times, “Made a rare but symbolic gesture to Israel saying that he had no claim on the town that he was driven from in the 1948 war of the Jewish nation’s founding”. Thus reassuring all those that had voted for Palestinian Statehood that he was serious about peace.

WHAT THIS DOESN’T MEAN.

• That nobody understands what Israel has to do to maintain its security.
• That this was part of the new wave of anti-Semitism. (Although Jay H. Ell is sure that there were some anti Semitic states among those voting.)
• That the international body does not appreciate that Israel accepted the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the UNO declaration of a two State solution to Palestine in 1947 only to be met by war after war.
• That everyone has forgotten about the Holocaust.
• That the world is unaware that Iran is the real problem that threatens Israel’s very existence and the world’s peace generally.
• That nobody knows that Hamas and a large number of Arab and Muslim states do not even recognize Israel’s existence
• That all are unaware that the Palestinians have not been cynically used over decades as a weapon to illegitmize Israel
• That those voting for the Palestinian status necessarily disagree with Israel’s perception that the Palestinians have rebuffed every offer at a two State Solution including the Barak and Olmert efforts in the last decade
• That this is part of the ongoing 3 millennium persecution of Jews
• That the international community are unaware that the Palestinian children are used as human shields and taught at school to hate Israel and the Jews
• That Hamas has randomly been shelling Israel for years on end
• That all are unaware that Abbas, like so many politicians, talks out of two sides of his mouth
• That the State of Israel is not a democracy in a sea of totalitarianism
• That the Goldstone report was balanced.
• That there are not double standards. Nobody said anything when all the Arab countries expelled all their Jews and where were the unanimous resolutions condemning the Soviets for the treatment of Soviet Jewry and the condemnation now at the outbreaks of the "new" anti-Semitism?
• That there is any meaningful International law on Israel’s situation.
• And on and on…..

WHAT IT DOES MEAN.

• That the world has come around to the opinion that the Palestinians are endlessly suffering and that they empathize with their lot.
• That they believe that Israel is doing nothing to assist Abbas, who lost a tremendous amount of influence by policing the West Bank and asking for peace. 
• That they feel Israel are exacerbating the situation by ignoring Abbas who has said that he believes that Palestine should have accepted the two state solution as far back as 1947.
• That Israel is stifling any hope of economic independence of that country by their de facto occupation and keeping the Palestinians in servitude.
• That if Israel maintains that they are more democratic, and by implication more civilized than the surrounding countries, they should be judged by the standards they claim to maintain.
• That Abbas is in now in a position to charge Israel with war crimes.
• That the world believes that Israel are at least part of the problem
• That those believe that Netanyahu is nothing but a militarist, who has no intention other than to solve this problem by violence, may have a point
• And on and on……..

ISRAELI OPINION.

This has thrown the whole Palestinian issue back into the Israeli election arena. There are of course no immediate ways to know how this turn of events may influence the outcome. However, the right wing coalition of Netanyahu and Lieberman seem to face no real opposition. In the light of the Settlement announcement one now understands why Defense Minister Barak, a moderate, resigned for “family reasons”.

There is a perception that the Israeli electorate is getting disillusioned by the same old same old. The majority felt pessimistic, prior to the UNO decision and Netanyahu’s response, at the outcome of the Hamas interlude, believing a peaceful solution was evading Israel. Implicit in their pessimism was that Israel was not able to solve this problem militarily. The majority of Israelis indicated their opposition to a ground war in the Hamas war. This course of events could not have changed their minds.

Also Obama’s approval rating has gone up to over 60% in Israel.  It is no secret that he will stand by Israel when it’s security is attacked but that he firmly believes in a two state solution. Also the animosity between him and Netanyahu is not a secret in Israel. Hillary Clinton reiterated the Obama Administration’s position on new settlements maintaining that they set back peace efforts

One can hope somehow the feelings of the majority are somehow reflected in the election results.

WHAT NOW?

One would have hoped that Netanyahu, like so many from the right before him, would be empowered, finally to make a move to sort out this thorny mess. Morsy the Egyptian President, who has far more credibility than Mubarak, has no choice really but to help him. There are so many ways he could lead – by unilaterally easing economic restrictions. He could have given them more access to water. He could make moves that would not involve political concessions. What about inviting Abbas just as a guest to his hometown of Safed? What about a three state solution?

Thinking out of the box Netanyahu could have recognized Abbas efforts long ago and rewarded it in one way or another. Instead he is already behind history with the UNO decision.

If the current wisdom is that Abbas is just posturing then prove it.

Or doesn’t Jay H. Ell understand? We should all prepare for Armageddon. Israel is the eternal victim with no control over it’s own destiny and will go down in a blaze of glory at worst or forever be fighting wars that may just be preventable. Remember by its own secular and biblical value system they should be behaving differently from the totalitarians and that they should not harm strangers, as they were strangers in Egypt.

Serendipitously this Saturday’s portion of Jewish law, (Torah portion), read in the synagogue, was about Jacob’s meeting with Esau. The lesson being, first you pray for peace then you do anything you can to obtain it, even bribe, and only if all fails resort to war. Also the portion is said to underline the fact that there is some good in everyone.

To quote Jonathon Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, in his book, The Dignity of Difference, “Will we endlessly replay the hatreds of the past? Or choose differently this time for the sake of the world’s children and their future”.