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Is Israel Painting Itself into a Corner?
Hameed Abdul Karim
No amount of spin the hasbara types in Israel put on the news can redeem the ‘Jewish’ state from international opprobrium. This was clearly evident in the UNESCO vote where no less than 107 countries voted in favour of Palestine‘s inclusion into the world body. Even France, which is close ally of Israel, couldn’t help voting in favour of the Palestinians, much to the annoyance of Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama who castigated Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy at the G20 Summit for his insolence in towing a line the empire did not support. UK couldn’t summon the courage to defy the empire so it quietly abstained from voting as did a few other US satellite states.
The significance is not only in the number 107 but in the fact that it represents 77.5 % of the world population and the 14 countries who voted against Palestine amount to a mere 7.3%. This means the overwhelming majority in the world is for justice for the Palestinians. If Israel, as the myth goes, is the ‘only democracy in the Middle-East’ and the US the ‘citadel’ of ‘freedom and democracy’, then surely they can read the writing on the wall. But they won’t because tyrants with imperialist mindsets don’t behave in a civilised manner.
Coming hot on the heels of the UNESCO vote, the Jury at the Russell Tribunal held in Cape Town on November 4-5 2011 declared that Israel was an apartheid state. Undoubtedly, Israeli hasbarists (spin doctors) will go flat out to label this declaration yet another case of ‘anti-Semitism’ – a ploy Israel uses at every turn to deflect any criticism of its Zionist version of apartheid. But this gambit doesn’t work anymore as the UNESCO vote clearly demonstrated. Still it will have some takers in the dovecotes of Israeli power in the US media and amongst Zionists in the US and UK. But they will only be a minority, since according to Prof Noam Chomsky, approximately 70% of Americans and Europeans support a solution to the ‘Middle-East Conflict’ and according to another poll Israel is seen as the number one threat to world peace. The US Empire ranks second.
The Russell Tribunal went one step further and recommended that ‘all states must consider appropriate measures to exert sufficient pressure on Israel, including the imposition of sanctions, the severing of diplomatic relations collectively through international organisations, or in the absence of consensus, individually by breaking bilateral relations with Israel’. This may not sound serious considering that the Russell Tribunal has no power to enforce their findings, but with Israel feeling the effects of the ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ (BDS) that are already in effect, this declaration will further damage Israel’s economy and its social malaise which was illustrated by the huge number of protestors that thronged major cities of Israel demanding a better life. If in the US the OWS protestors claim that 1% of the American population controls the balance 99%, then Israel’s situation can only be worse. The Israeli protestors allege that just 22 fat cat families control the entire economy. If that is true then the figure would be much less that 1%.
Up until the present all Israeli leaders have sold the security threat to their people thus incurring heavy expenses to build up the military at the expense of social benefits. No doubt large chunks of dollars would have gone to further fatten the 22 fat cat families which might include politicians as well. But now the Israeli public, taking a cue from the Egyptians, have realised they too had been taken for a ride by their leaders. They have now taken to the streets demanding social justice, much to the consternation of the likes of Netanyahu and other hawks like Lieberman. It looks like it’s payback time for them too.
To make a bad situation worse Zionism, Israel’s version of apartheid, has come under fire. Not by the usual suspects, but by no lesser person than Ruth Dayan the widow of Moshe Dayan. In an interview with Newsweek (Nov 7, 2011) she made a staggering statement when she said Zionism has run its course and that for Netanyahu peace is just a word barren of any meaning. She even condemned Israel’s ‘fence’ ghettoising the Palestinians the same way European Nazis treated the Jews and the same way the White apartheid regime treated the ‘blacks’ of South Africa. No wonder then that Jimmy Carter called it the ‘apartheid wall’ in his book on Palestine. Ruth Dayan goes one step further by calling Israel’s foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman a ‘Doberman’, though the Mark Twains amongst us may not be too happy with the comparison. And if that is not enough to put Israel in a spot of bother, Nicolas Sarkozy has called Netanyahu a liar and his friend Barack Obama sort of confirmed the ‘revelation’. Add to this toxic brew, then CIA head Leon Panetta (currently US Secretary of Defense) ‘predicted the demise of Zionist Israel within 20 years if general political trends in the region continue’. This was in February 2009 long before the ‘Arab Spring’.
And guess who’s dancing in the aisles? The Jewish Voices for Peace and Neturei Karta two of quite a few Jewish groups who have set their sights on dismantling the Zionist state
Appeared in 'Ceylon Today' 24 November, 2011.
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