Zvi Bar'el : Our sister Yemen's role in Netanyahu's strange mental world

 

 

 

Our sister Yemen's role in Netanyahu's strange mental world

Anyone who demands that the international community bare its teeth against Iran's occupation of Yemen is inviting it to pounce on Israel as well.

HAARETZ.COM

“One can't understand that when forces supported by Iran are taking more ground in Yemen, they're closing their eyes to this aggression in Lausanne,” marveled the prime minister as the international community continued to ignore his pleas against a nuclear agreement with Iran.
Benjamin Netanyahu is right, and his concerns about Yemen are sincere and even moving. But Yemen is not alone. The same international community headed by the U.S. president, which Netanyahu asserts is blindly walking into the Iranian trap, also avoided a head-on confrontation with Russia when Moscow annexed Crimea and its proxies took over eastern Ukraine.
This community is also ignoring the 230,000 dead in Syria and has done little to alleviate the plight of the millions of Syrian refugees. And it just clucks its tongue at the horrors perpetrated by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Netanyahu will undoubtedly have something to say about all this one day too. After all, he’s very sensitive when it comes to occupations and terror.
But when it comes to Israel, the international community’s fecklessness is a blessing. Its indifference to the occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, to the blockade of Gaza and the settling of Jews in areas intended for a Palestinian state is what Netanyahu relies on.
So he should be careful. Anyone who demands that the international community bare its teeth against Iran's occupation of Yemen is inviting it to pounce on Israel as well, and anyone who scolds the major powers for not lifting a finger against the occupation of territory throughout the Middle East should remember that’s he’s living in a glass house.
Like our sister Yemen, Netanyahu feels protected by an Arab coalition that fears Iran's expanding influence in the region — as if from now on any Arab coalition against Iran is a coalition for Israel. The magic spell cast by the united Arab front fighting in Yemen against Iran has made Netanyahu forget his traditional fear of an Arab coalition. He’s sounding almost as if he’s part of the Sunni axis that's fighting the Shi'ites.
But think again. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf states, commonly referred to as the “pro-Western states,” are the same countries that view Israel as an occupier that must be ousted from the West Bank. Their hatred for Iran is not altering their attitude toward Israel.
Anyone who sees Saudi Arabia as an ally against Iran should remember that this is the same Saudi Arabia that put forth the Arab Peace Initiative that Netanyahu rejected. And this is the same anti-Iranian alliance calling on Israel to adopt the peace initiative as a way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The truth is, Netanyahu’s Israel doesn't belong to any Arab or international coalition. It's an isolated country struggling to convince people about the threat at its doorstep. When it was invited to join the Arab coalition that sought to resolve the conflict, Netanyahu viewed this coalition as a threat and the intention to establish a Palestinian state as a mortal danger.
As Netanyahu sees it, Palestine and Iran are pretty much the same thing. To him, Mahmoud Abbas, Khaled Meshal, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Ayatollah Khamenei are identical quadruplets, the devil’s spawn, relatives of Barack Obama. Meanwhile, an agreement with the Palestinians is no different than an agreement with Iran, because the establishment of a Palestinian state would mean Iranian forces at Israel’s border, just as is happening in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
And who wouldn’t be convinced by this bleak forecast that musters all the threats in the world to justify the perpetuation of the occupation? Just one small matter remains to complete the victory of this nonsense: to prevent an agreement with Iran, and if one is signed, to portray it as an ongoing threat.
After all, an Iran that possesses an international seal of approval, rebuilds its economy and maintains good relations with Western countries will no longer be able to serve Israel as a dangerous threat that precludes the establishment of a Palestinian state.