Daily Times

Israel is one of the few countries in the world that can get away with murder. It has evicted, killed and occupied Palestinian lands and still able to pronounce that they are the real victims. Of course, they (the Jews) have been among the most persecuted people in the world, as evidenced by the holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany. But to somehow punish the Palestinian people for something they had nothing to do with — the persecution of Jews — is twisted history. The argument that the present day Israel and the contiguous Palestinian land is traditional Jewish homeland and the Jews have only returned to what had always belonged to them tends to turn logic upside down. By this logic, the Palestinians and Arabs were occupiers of traditional Jewish homeland and by evicting them from it where they have lived for centuries, Israel was simply righting the wrong done to them. Therefore, Israel is within its right to occupy the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem. Much of the world was not convinced of Israel’s twisted logic, and regarded Israel’s expanded system of settlements on Palestinian territory as illegal. But Israel has got away with it because the US vetoed Security Council resolutions in the past that might have resulted in some concrete international action against Israel, such as sanctions of some sorts.

When Barack Obama came to power, he wanted to improve relations with the Islamic world and made this pitch in his 2009 Cairo speech. And the Obama administration followed it up by seeking to find a solution to the Palestinian issue by pushing the two state formulae, with Israel and Palestine living peacefully along each other. Which required, to begin with, a halt to new Israeli settlements, but the Israeli government responded only with more of the same. Later, when John Kerry, became the US secretary of state under the Obama administration, he worked hard to promote a peaceful settlement based on the two state formulae, with Tel Aviv only hating him for his mission as it exposed its real intention of creeping annexation of the West Bank and Jerusalem to frustrate any hope of statehood for Palestine.

As Bob Carr, a former Australian foreign affairs minister has written in a Sydney Morning Herald article, “…”Thirty-five per cent [of new settlements] are now being approved deep in the territory everyone sees as an ultimate Palestinian state.” At the rate the settlement activity is preceding there will be no scope for a viable Palestinian state. Whatever is left or will be left of Palestine will be covered with more observation posts, checkpoints and periodic army raids to test the effectiveness of occupation — in many ways an apartheid state with Palestinian population held to ransom. The Israeli argument that a Palestinian state will be a security hazard has no validity, first, because Israel is the most powerful state in the region and, second, Palestinians are offering a demilitarized state without an army with western peacekeepers to oversee within their borders. As Carr rightly points out, “It is hard to imagine more explicit security guarantees.”

Israel is mad with the Obama administration for not vetoing the recent Security Council resolution declaring the Israeli settlements illegal and allowing it to be adopted by abstaining on it. Indeed, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that it was done at the behest of the US, regarding it as an act of betrayal. Netanyahu reportedly said at a cabinet meeting that, “From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed.” John Kerry, the US secretary of state denied the Israeli charge of collusion and said that, “The US did not draft or originate this resolution. Nor did we put it forward.” He added, “It was drafted by Egypt… which is one of Israel’s closest friends in the region, in coordination, with the Palestinians and others.” Under pressure from Israel and President-elect Trump, the Egyptians though backed off leaving New Zealand and others to put it up for a vote in the Security Council for adoption. Which was duly done, with the US abstaining. For New Zealand’s principled initiative, Netanyahu threatened Auckland reportedly calling it an act of war. Israel’s arrogance is insufferable, but the international community has lived with it so long and, most likely, will still have to put up with it despite the Security Council resolution.

This is simply because Israel has powerful protectors like the United States. During its eight years, the Obama administration sought to facilitate a diplomatic solution based on a two-state solution. But it didn’t succeed faced with Israel’s intransigence and belligerence and Netanyahu’s open defiance of US efforts, including undisguised contempt for President Obama and secretary of state Kerry. The Obama administration put up with all this because Israel has a powerful political lobby across the board in the US that any administration might cross at its peril. Now that Obama is leaving the presidency, his administration has made a last ditch effort to save Israel from Netanyahu and its ultra right allies. Israel hopes that, over time, their occupation of Palestine will become an accepted and normalized part of international reality. And they might be right since they are getting away with it so far, though the latest resolution declaring Israeli settlements illegal might suggest that it might not be forever.

But Israel is not worried since they have the unstinted support of the incoming President Donald Trump and his key policy advisers. Trump had urged a veto of the Security Council resolution and in the event that it was adopted, he tweeted for Israel to “stay strong” until his inauguration. Indeed, he mocked the UN as “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” In other words, the incoming Trump administration might take steps to crimp UN’s role by reducing/withholding its funding. Where Israel is concerned, it is above international law going by the Trump administration’s unquestioned support for it.

The writer is a senior journalist and academic based in Sydney, Australia. He can be reached at sushilpseth@yahoo.com.au