By John Tirman: Executive Director of the MIT Center for International Studies.
Source: Huffington Post
The nearly complete mastery of U.S. politics that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again displayed in Washington last week belies a dark reality for the Jewish State. That is the startling prospect that it has sown the seeds of its own destruction, one which will come to its ghastly fruition in a matter of a few years.
That stark judgment is not mine alone. Many of us who have marveled at Israeli’s achievements in building a thriving state and society have hoped it would secure this remarkable feat by coming to terms with the people whose land it once was, and to do so on fair and sustainable terms. It is increasingly clear this will never happen with Israel’s cooperation, however.
Three developments in the past week are emblematic of the coming disaster.
First is the fabricated fear of Iran’s nuclear program, one which poses no immediate threat to Israel — much less an “existential” threat — and very likely never will. Even if Iran at some future time managed to build a few nuclear weapons, Israel’s nuclear arsenal (reportedly 200 bombs at the ready) would serve as a deterrent, to say nothing of U.S. capability.
In this light, then, Netanyahu’s alarmist rhetoric about Iran, echoed by his legions in the United States, really serves another purpose — taking the Palestinian issue off the political agenda here and there for the foreseeable future. President Obama has not mentioned Palestine or the “peace process” for several months. As everyone admits, without U.S. pressure, the peace process — already moribund — is dead.
Without fear of even a discouraging word, the Israeli state punishes Palestinians in its manifold ways: invading and trashing a television station run by one of the most internationally respected Palestinians in the West Bank, for example, or conducting air strikes in Gaza. The notorious Jewish settlements in the West Bank continue to be built at an alarming rate. Those agitating for a “Greater Israel” that will in effect include all of Palestine, and one more beholden to religious militants, are getting their wish. Read more
I think, with its antics, Israel is taxing the patience of its diehard friends and supporters the Americans. I wrote about it some time ago, in a sort of roundabout way here:
http://open.salon.com/blog/mzafrullah/2010/03/09/a_synagogue_and_an_odd_memory
As I note in the above article the Jews have suffered throughout their history because of their trait of using their advantage to the hilt. (Now, come to think of it the immortal Shakespeare captured this trait in “The Merchant of Venice”!)
I do not want any harm to come to them after all they are humans, but they seem to be bent upon crying wolf while they have a listening ear.
The author of the article draws a conclusion that depends upon what may happen in a few years time. While I would rather look at what the Israelites have done in the past.
(I did it again! Had posted the following comment as an irrelevant response to a post!I wonder how it got there, or was I dreaming?)
The goat’s kid episode that I mention in my Salon.com post took place in Qadian, around the partition of India and Pakistan. Where else would it be so important to placate a crying kid? I wish I could personally thank my first ever (unrelated) benefactor! I do pray though that Allah Almighty treat him kindly, wherever he is.