Editorial Netanyahu Is Bragging About His Diplomatic Failures Again
***
haaretz.com
At the end of the meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump
in the White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that no
draft or timetable of the U.S. peace plan had been presented to him. “We
didn’t talk about the Palestinians for more than a quarter of the
meeting,” bragged Netanyahu, as though he were announcing a brilliant
diplomatic achievement, rather than an additional link in the chain of
his diplomatic failures.
The
Israeli public is supposed to accept as self-evident that Netanyahu
couldn’t have dreamed of a friendlier president and more generous
gestures. What didn’t Trump do for him? He treats Netanyahu and his wife
like royalty, and the State of Israel like an empire; he respects his
opinion (“President Trump and I see eye-to-eye on the dangers emanating
from the region”); Trump sent his ambassador Nikki Haley to fight for
Israel in the United Nations; he gives the two-state solution only lip
service; and if all that isn’t enough, he recognized Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital, announced the transfer of the U.S. embassy to
Jerusalem, and even declared that he may attend the opening ceremonies on the State of Israel’s 70th Independence Day.
But the problem of the State of
Israel is not one of image, something that can be solved by rebranding
the prime minister, Israel or the West Bank.
The
problem of the State of Israel is that for 50 years it has been keeping
over 2.5 million Palestinians (not including Gaza) under military
control, and instead of doing everything in its power to separate from
them peacefully, it is only deepening control over them by means of a
slow takeover of their land, while building on areas of their would-be
future state. The State of Israel’s problem is that in the territories
beyond the Green Line that it is holding onto by force, it is on the
spectrum between occupation and apartheid.
“If
the Palestinians don’t come to the negotiating table, there won’t be a
peace agreement, and that could be possible,” said Trump with Netanyahu
sitting next to him, chuckling happily. But Israel is just as much in
need of a solution as are the Palestinians. And therefore, if Trump were
concerned about the good of the State of Israel, he would force it and
the Palestinians to negotiate until diplomatic white smoke emerges, and
to sign a fair agreement for dividing the land.
If Trump were a true friend, he would spread out a map and help the
sides draw a border line between them, including in Jerusalem. If he
were a true friend, he would demand that Israel evacuate the settlements
and recognize a Palestinian state alongside it. In doing so he would
respect the Palestinians’ right to self determination, as well as the
formative Zionist idea of establishing a national home for the Jewish
people.
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
Commenti
Posta un commento