Thursday 19 March 2015

Why I’m relieved that Netanyahu won


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Netanyahu’s win will make it harder than ever for Israelis to use their fake “peace process” to camouflage their atrocities. Had the Zionist Union won, the Palestinians would have been dragged back a decade into fruitless Oslo-style “negotiations” that would have served as a cover for continued subjugation and colonization. Such “negotiations” have provided the principal excuse for the “international community” to avoid holding Israel even minimally accountable for its crimes. The refrain from gutless officials is always some version of “Yes, isn’t it terrible what’s going on, but there’s a peace process and we support the peace process.” The one positive outcome of Israel’s election is that path seems to be closed.

The Electronic Intifada

With virtually all the votes counted, Likud has 30 seats, the Zionist Union has 24 and the Joint List of predominantly Arab parties is in third place with 14.

It seems all but certain that Netanyahu will retain his post as Israel’s prime minister and head another fanatically right-wing government.

TRUTH IN LABELING

Netanyahu is no worse than his rivals. Livni, a fugitive war crimes suspect, was one of the proud and unrepentant architects of Israel’s massacre in Gaza in 2008-2009, which no doubt served as Netanyahu’s model.

Livni’s partner Herzog has faulted Netanyahu for not attacking Gaza viciously enough.

Netanyahu’s ugly election-day incitement that the “Arabs are advancing on the ballot boxes” revealed once again his true feelings that Palestinian citizens of Israel are not legitimate citizens deserving full rights. But Tzipi Livni has frequently expressed the same view.

A recent interactive feature published by The New York Times shows that Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank (excluding occupied Jerusalem) was often far higher under the supposed peace-seeking governments of Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert.

But what has distinguished Netanyahu is that he strips away the opportunities for the so-called “international community” to hide its complicity with Israel’s ugly crimes behind a charade of a “peace process.”

Moreover, Netanyahu’s open alliance with the most racist, white supremacist, Islamophobic and bigoted elements of the North American and European right – hisspeech to Congress earlier this month was a manifestation of this – strip away all masks. Israel can no longer practice apartheid at home while falsely presenting itself as a beacon of liberalism abroad.

In short, Netanyahu’s re-election is like the “Nutrition Facts” label on a box of junk food: it tells you about the toxic ingredients inside.

Netanyahu’s clear declaration days before the vote that he will not allow a Palestinian state was simply an affirmation of the real policy of every Israeli government since 1967, to which Herzog and Livni would have adhered.

Herzog and Livni would not have permitted a Palestinian state. Rather, they would have tried to draw Palestinians back into fake “negotiations” over what would at most be a ghetto-like bantustan designed to legitimize Israel’s theft of vast tracts of land, its annexation of Jerusalem, and its abrogation of the rights of Palestinian refugees. (Ben White’s analysis of this horrifying plan for permanent apartheid is a must read.)

Netanyahu and Herzog have both vowed to continue building settlements on stolen Palestinian land. But Herzog would have hidden this expansionist policy behind one of the cosmetic and fraudulent “freezes” during which colonization continues unabated.

Had the Zionist Union won, the Palestinians would have been dragged back into fruitless Oslo-style “negotiations” that would have served as a cover for their continued subjugation and colonization.

Such “negotiations” have provided the principal excuse for the “international community” to avoid holding Israel even minimally accountable for its crimes. The refrain from gutless officials is always some version of “Yes, isn’t it terrible what’s going on, but there’s a peace process and we support the peace process.”

The one positive outcome of Israel’s election is that path seems to be closed.

BDS

The Israeli Jewish public’s choice to re-elect Netanyahu should make it clear to people around the world that Israel does not seek peace or justice. Israel will continue to oppress and ethnically cleanse Palestinians until it is stopped.

The message we should take away is simple: the proper treatment for a polity committed to occupation, apartheid and ethno-racial supremacy is to isolate it until it recognizes that it must abandon those commitments.

Palestinians have asked the world to do that through boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). Netanyahu makes the case a little easier, so it’s time to step it up.

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[1] A Jew responded to the above post:

You are ignoring the fact that most Israelis fear what will happen if the Palestinians achieve a state in the West Bank. It is a simple, rational, act of self-preservation. Not many human beings are willing to do the right thing when they believe it will endanger themselves, their families, and their way of life. By ignoring this factor, you make it look like most Israelis take pleasure in the status quo, rather than them simply believing it’s the best of a bunch of bad options.

A reader’s response:

White South Africans tried to justify their behavior the same way. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work for Israelis now. You omit the fact that Israel is the occupier and the aggressor. You also ignore Gaza.

 If you call the occupation and extermination of the Palestinians a “simple, rational, act of self-preservation,” then there is something terribly wrong with you. It’s like “reasoning” that you have to kill all the bears when you set up camp in bear country, because one bear might raid your refrigerator.

[2] I too am relieved. If Netanyahu had lost, then many people might have had the false illusion that something was going to change. At least with Netanyahu, we will see things for what they are. Netanyahu’s declared opposition to a Palestinian state makes it crystal clear to the whole world who the real obstacle to peace is. It puts pressure on the PA to abandon its failed collaborationist policies. It strengthens the BDS movement. It exposes the complicity of the Arab regimes. And it makes the one-state solution the only viable option to pursue. Thanks to all the Israelis who voted Netanyahu in again. You made our day!

[3] If Netanyahu had lost, the global community may have taken a wait-and-see approach to the Israeli political scene, thereby sapping momentum from BDS activism. Now that we see that Zionist extremism is back at the helm, there can be no denying that peace is a dried out carcass.

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