Israel: next war
The US’s failure under Barack Obama to impose peace between Israel
and the Palestinians makes a new war likely
Alain Gresh
In March 1973 the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir visited US
president Richard Nixon in Washington. He told her that the Egyptian
president Anwar Sadat was prepared to negotiate a full treaty, and Meir
assured him that Israel wanted peace, but that she would prefer an
interim agreement as Cairo was not to be trusted.
She said Egypt’s primary aim was to force Israel to withdraw to the
line of 4 June 1967, then resurrect the UN plan for the partition of
Palestine that had been adopted in 1947; a solution to the problem of
Palestine would have to be discussed with Yasser Arafat and “the
terrorists”.
Israel Palestine conflict |
Israeli journalist Aluf Benn reported this conversation, on the basis
of documents disclosed by Wikileaks, and drew a parallel between the
situation then, when Israel’s refusal to negotiate led directly to war
and to Egyptian troops crossing the Suez Canal in October 1973, and
prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s current evasive response to
President Barack Obama.
Benn notes that Netanyahu, who returned from the US and rushed to the
front in October 1973, “would do well to refresh his memory by listening
to the tape of Meir and Nixon and asking himself what he can do to avoid
repeating her mistakes and keep from dragging the country blindly toward
a second Yom Kippur disaster” (1). In that war the Israeli army lost
2,600 troops.
Israel’s refusal to accept Obama’s proposal to halt settlements on
the West Bank (but not in East Jerusalem) for three months in return for
unprecedented promises or bribes, according to columnist Thomas Friedman
(2), who is not known for sympathy to the Arabs confirmed that Obama is
unable to exert any real pressure on Israel and that Netanyahu rejects
any compromise.
Netanyahu, like his predecessors, claims to want peace but he wants
the humiliating peace imposed by conquest and based on denial of
Palestinian rights.
In secret negotiations over the past year, he has repeatedly told the
Palestinians they had to accept Israel’s “security concept”, keeping
Israeli troops stationed in the Jordan valley along the “barrier” (on
the Palestinian side) and the occupation of a substantial part of the
West Bank (3). He did not say how long the occupation would last.
This deadlock is forcing the Israeli army to draw up plans for
further wars based on the “security concept” that anyone who refuses to
accept Israel’s rule in the region is a “terrorist” to be eliminated.
No other country, not even the US, has such a comprehensive security
concept, which means that Israel is permanently at war. Who will the
Israeli army attack next? Gaza?
Two years ago Israeli tanks and aircraft reduced buildings to rubble
and killed hundreds of civilians in what the Goldstone report describes
as “war crimes” and probably “crimes against humanity”. But Hamas is as
strong as ever.
How long will Israel tolerate this? Lebanon? In July-August 2006, the
Israeli army failed to bring down Hizbullah but succeeded in destroying
the country; Hizbullah is now stronger than ever and the Israeli high
command cannot rule out the possibility of a major operation and
occupation of part of Lebanon (4). Iran? At the risk of starting a major
conflict from Iraq to Lebanon, Palestine to Afghanistan? In the Middle
East unrest inevitably leads to war.
This time, unlike 1973, Israel would take the first direct step, but
it will face far more effective enemies and, as Israeli peace campaigner
Uri Avnery points out, the hostility of world public opinion (5).
Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina have recognised the Palestinian state
within the pre-1967 borders and there has been a letter from 26 European
elder statesmen (including Chris Patten, Giuliano Amato, Felipe
Gonzales, Lionel Jospin, Hubert Vodrine, Romano Prodi, Javier Solana),
who are anything but extremists, calling on the European Union to impose
sanctions if the Israeli government has not reviewed its policy by the
spring.
Human Rights Watch published a report on December 19 (Israel/West
Bank: Separate and Unequal) about the systematic discrimination against
Palestinians, calling on the US government to withhold US funding from
the Israeli government equivalent to expenditure on settlements (more
than $1bn).
Courtesy: Lie monde |