EDITOR: Israel hit by Tsunami of isolation!
So, within one week, Israel has managed to following: Alienate Turkey to the point that it now plans to send its navy to protect boats top Gaza, and work with Egypt to isolate Israel; Too vacate its Cairo embassy after its personnel were saved by the Egyptian commando forces, with three protesters killed and over 1000 wounded by the army; In an Avaaz poll (see below), it became clear that over two thirds of the population of the three most important states in the EU – Uk, France and Germany – support the setting up of a Palestinian state, as well as the UN vote to make Palestine a full member.In the same week, the Israeli Foreign Minister has told the world that Israel plans to support what it hitherto called a terrorist organisation – the PKK – in its armed campaign against Turkey. And I may have left out some further successes…
Indeed, a great week for Israel!
The chickens are coming home to roost, and the Israeli government does not know where to turn. What a rotten summer it has been. First, most of the population of Israel makes clear what it thinks of Netanyahu and his government by building tent cities and mass demonstrations, and now this. Is there no end to antisemitism?… and this is even before next week, when the UN vote is to be taken!
No one should hold their breath about the 20th of September in the UN, of course. Over 125 states will vote to support the PA in its bid for statehood, and then the US will veto it in the Security Council. It is called democracy.
So anyone waiting for good news from that corner, can rest and relax – nothing good will come out of this, apart from the death and burial of the international charade called the “Two State Solution”. The Two State Solution is the solution supported by two states only – the US and Israel: More settlements, higher wall, more apartheid, more Palestinian land confiscated, more brutalities and murders, more hunger in Gaza! It is time that the TSS – the Two State Solution was exposed for what it has always been – a cover for Israel’s continuing aggression and war against Palestine and the Palestinians, and for the continuation of stealing their land while making noises about peace. What this meant is the trebling of the settlements since Oslo, the majoe increase in all measures of occupation iniquities. Israel can do all this because of the Two State Solution – the solution which is built on that other state, the US of A, the great defender of human rights in Chile, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt and Afghanistan. Yes, and in Palestine, of course.
But, confused as the people of Europe are, in their support of what they think will bring some peace to the region, they are right to sense that Israel is the enemy of peace, of democracy in the Middle East, of normalising relations in the region. Israel thrives on conflict – it is the fourth largest arms exporter – it sells and promotes death and destruction at home and abroad, and benefits from the spread of terror and destruction, so that it can sell its ‘security’ products everywhere.
It seems that this poll by Avaaz is proving one point more than any other – the war Israel has declared on Palestine is also a war on the truth, a vast and expensive propaganda campaign in order to sway more and more people behind its blind alley politics and its offensive strategy of incendiary politics in the region, its anti-Arab, anti-Islamic drive, and its rampant racism. It seems, at last, that this has miserably failed, and that Europeans at least are coming to their senses, and understanding their need and duty to support Palestine. Of course, we cannot expect this of the US of A, a country where intelligence is qouted against one, and the few politicians with some pretence of an IQ are happy to renounce it in order to be reelected. But the rest of the world is turning, at last.
So the Two State Solution is the war of the Two States, US and Israel, against the rest. They may be supported by the fickle leaders of western Europe, who will vote out of fear of the US against the wishes of its own citizens. But this is probably their last stand on this – the public has spoken and will continue top shift towards rights for Palestine.
So, in the absence of a real TSS, which Israel has made impossible every day since 1967, what is left is the simple, old idea, which will win because all else has become impossible – one, secular democratic state in the whole of Palestine. It may sound far off, but it is much nearer than TSS! Anyone who speaks against it has to explain why a secular democratic state of all its citizens is bad, and a racist, ethnic autocracy based on religious exclusivity is good. Let them come forward and say so!
The people of Palestine, Arabs and Israelis – Moslems, Jews and Christians – will win, in the end, against the nationalism, colonialism and racism which Zionism has introduced and fostered for over six decades. The people shall win! They shall also win another place in the Middle East, as anew democracy amongst new democracies.
But let us hope that Zionism does not manage to start another massacre before its downfall.
Chavez : “Damn you State of Israel” (English subtitles): YouTube
UN recognition of a Palestinian state receives public approval in Europe: Guardian
Polls in France, UK and Germany show the majority of people back recognition of a Palestinian state by the UN
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Portraits of youths pasted on the West Bank barrier show the flags of countries backing the Palestinian bid for statehood. Photograph: Darren Whiteside/Reuters
The majority of people in the UK, France and Germany want their governments to vote in favour of recognising a Palestinian state if a resolution is brought before the United Nations in the next few weeks, according to an opinion poll.
The three European countries are seen as crucial votes in the battle over the Palestinians’ bid for statehood at the UN, which meets next week. All three are pressing for a return to peace negotiations as an alternative to pursuing the statehood strategy, but they have not declared their intentions if it comes to a UN vote.
In the UK, 59% of those polled said the government should vote in favour of a UN resolution recognising a Palestinian state alongside Israel. In France and Germany, the figures were 69% and 71% respectively. Support for the Palestinians’ right to have their own state, without reference to the UN vote, was even higher: 71% in the UK, 82% in France and 86% in Germany.
The poll was conducted by YouGov on behalf of Avaaz, a global campaigning organisation that is conducting an online petition in support of a Palestinian state. It is planning to deliver more than 913,000 signatories backing what it describes as “this new opportunity for freedom” to the European parliament .
David Cameron must listen to the views of the public, said Ricken Patel of Avaaz. “The prime minister has a clear choice: stand with the British public and 120 other nations to support a Palestinian state and a new path to peace, or side with the US government, which continues to push for a failed status quo.”
The Palestinians appear to be assured of a majority if a resolution is put before the UN general assembly, whose annual session begins in New York next week. However, full membership of the UN requires security council approval, which the US confirmed last week it would veto.
The Palestinians may then seek “observer state” status at the general assembly, which is less than full membership but an advance on their current “observer entity” status.
The US, which is anxious to avoid wielding its veto and potentially incurring the wrath of Arab countries, is pushing for a return to negotiations – a move also supported by the EU, which is keen to avoid a damaging split among its 27 countries.
European foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss a common position on Palestinian statehood. Britain and France have said they would prefer to see meaningful negotiations on the basis of the pre-1967 borders with agreed land swaps, but have hinted they may vote for enhanced status for the Palestinians without such a prospect.
Germany is thought to be opposed the Palestinian plan, but on Friday the chancellor, Angela Merkel, said: “I am not going to disclose today our voting intentions, whatever they may be.” She added that Germany was wary of unilateral moves. “We are going to use the days that remain to perhaps achieve a few millimetres of movement,” she said.
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, backed the idea of a Palestinian state last week. “I support … the statehood of Palestinians, an independent, sovereign state of Palestine. It has been long overdue,” he said in Canberra.
Israel acknowledges that it has almost certainly lost the battle for votes at the general assembly. Ron Prosor, its ambassador to the UN, said last week: “This is a diplomatic endeavour against all odds … It is clear to me that we can’t win the vote.” Instead, Israel was concentrating on securing a “moral minority” of powerful countries, which it hopes will include the EU bloc.
• The Avaaz poll, carried out by YouGov in the UK and Germany, and Ifop in France, was conducted online, with 2,552 respondents in the UK, 1,017 in Germany and 1,011 in France.
Israeli actor refuses to perform in West Bank theater: JTA
September 12, 2011
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli actor Rami Baruch said he will not perform at a new cultural center in Kiryat Arba, a Jewish suburb of Hebron.
Baruch, who was scheduled to perform his play “Pollard” at the cultural center’s opening Sept. 19, announced his decision Sunday, saying that according to his contract with the Cameri Theater he does not have to perform in the West Bank.
“I made a decision, understanding that it could lead to financial ramifications and counter-boycotts,” Baruch said. “Kiryat Arba is where Baruch Goldstein and Kahane came from, and I asked myself what is my place in this whole story.”
Baruch in the play portrays jailed American spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard. Noam Semel, director of the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv, said the theater would deal with the matter internally.
The center was built with public funds from three Israeli government ministries, as well as from private donations.
Theater professionals signed a petition a year ago stating that they would not perform in a new cultural center in the West Bank city of Ariel that was built with more than $10 million in public funds. The boycott spurred a controversial Israeli boycott law that would allow for civil lawsuits against individuals and groups calling for anti-Israel boycotts.
Meanwhile, opposition members in the Kiryat Arba City Council have called for a committee to approve the productions staged at the theater, including vetting the actors to make sure they have served in the Israeli military and requiring them to sign a loyalty oath to Israel.
Turkish-Egyptian alliance: Israel faces regional isolation: Guardian Editorial
Netanyahu can either prepare for another war or accept that Israel can no longer impose its will on its neighbours
Monday’s visit to Egypt by Turkey’s prime minister, Reccep Tayyip Erdogan, will be watched like no other. It comes just three days after thousands of Egyptians stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Eighty-six Israelis inside fled, and six security guards trapped inside a strong room had to be freed by Egyptian commandos, but only after intervention from the White House. What those diplomats felt was the wrath of an Egyptian people humiliated by the killing of five soldiers at the Israeli border three weeks ago. A sixth soldier died at the weekend. Mr Erdogan will bring with him the support of a regional power and Nato member whose citizens were also killed by Israeli soldiers on the Gaza flotilla last year, and who is now threatening to send warships to protect the next one. If post-revolutionary Egypt and an economically resurgent Turkey make common cause against their former common ally – and there is every indication that they will – Israel’s isolation in the region will be profound.
The pace of events has surprised everyone. The pro-Palestinian sentiment of the thousands who thronged Tahrir Square was latent rather than explicit. Analysts then expected that major foreign policy changes would have to await domestic ones like elections and a new civilian government. Israel on the other hand found itself looking the wrong way, gearing up for protest on the West Bank and on its Syrian and Lebanese borders after the declaration of statehood at the UN later this month. No one expected the forces unleashed by the Arab spring to turn this suddenly on an Israeli flagpole in Cairo.
The popular wrath is a result of two factors. First, seven and a half months after the downfall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the Egyptian street is still the cutting edge of change in the country. Its ruling military council, with elements of the former regime, are playing a double game. Assuring continuity of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty to some, and using the gradual breakdown of that treaty to reassert lost Egyptian pride and sovereignty in the Sinai to others. It may not have been accidental that during the weekend’s drama in Cairo no one in the White House could get the head of Egypt’s ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, on the end of a telephone in an effort to rescue the trapped security guards. Second, Israel’s old alliances were with regimes, usually despotic ones, not their people. Now that popular opinion is once again making itself felt in the region, Egypt will never again stand quiet – as it did when Israel launched its military campaign against Gaza in 2008 – if another war breaks out.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu now faces a real choice. He must realise that humiliating Turkey by refusing to apologise for the deaths on the Mavi Marmara was a colossal error. The strategic consequences for Israel of a hostile Turkish-Egyptian alliance could last years. They far outweigh the advantages of a tactical victory in the UN Palmer report, which lasted exactly days. Israel needs to repair relations with Turkey and do it quickly. The price of such a rapprochement will have gone up in the last week, but it is still worth paying. The Israeli premier’s reaction on Saturday to events in Cairo was, by his standards, measured and moderate, so maybe even he now realises this.
The choice he faces is clear. He can either prepare for another war (Avigdor Lieberman’s response to Turkey was to suggest that Israel arm the PKK) or he can accept that Israel can no longer impose its will on hostile and weaker neighbours. For one thing, the neighbours are growing stronger. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz put it more bluntly. In an editorial about the harassment of Israeli passengers on a Turkish Airlines flight in retaliation for similar treatment Israeli authorities meted out to Turkish passengers, it suggested that Israel needs humiliation in order to respect others. No one needs further humiliation, but respect of its neighbours is in short supply.