viernes, septiembre 16, 2011

The 15 Lost Years of Israel

Yes yes, I know this is a Spanish-oriented blog, but this time I think the audience would appretiate it if I write in English, for I think this has more relevance in English-speaking circles.

In a few days, on September 20th, the Palestineans decided to take their demands for an independent recognized State to the United Nations' general assembly. It is expected that over 2/3rds of the countries will vote Yes, which implies that Palestineans become an Observer Nation, like the Vatican, in the UN.

The actions taken by the PLO are a severe blow to the international image of both Israel and the USA, which will be expected to veto the decision for full membership at the UN Security Council. Mostly because the US will be the only country to vote against it, the single voice against the Palestinean cause. It will be, indeed, a blow for Israel that will be faced with possible legal actions taken by a now recognized Palestinean State, and thus Israel's position as a negotiator (if there ever was one) will be diminished. It will be the first time Israel's hand will be forced, and a legitimate Casus Belli will be hovering on the Jewish State for the first time in its history.

The current hardcore Right-winged Israeli government has two options to take. 1) To stop this by caving in on preconditions by ending further settlements in the West Bank and recognizing the eventual creation of the Palestinean State as a sovereign Arab State alongsinde a sovereign Jewish State which is Israel. Or 2) Pressure harder those who were supposed to save Israel's and, most of all, the US's face in the UN.

What did the Foreign Minister, the notorious racist and thief Avigdor Lieberman do? Well, he sent his cronies to do a pathetic propaganda video full of inaccuracies and idiotic one-liners only to reasure his own ranks that they are on the "right side of history", and later to harass verbally the embassadors of France, Spain, Great Britain, Germany and Italy for DARING to give a half-way solution that gives Palestineans what they want and avoid Israeli and American humiliation.

This Israeli government's arrogant jingoistic attitude gave the Turkish thug Erdogan the perfect excuse to effectively end the alliance with Israel and publicly denounce it, at a moment when Egypt and Jordan won't lift a finger in favor of Israeli interests in the region as they did before. So Israel, being utterly isolated, decided to shun away also their European allies, and will have to pay heavily in having the US humiliate itself for their increasingly needy and bothersome Middle Eastern ally.

Perhaps it's too late now. There's no stopping the damage done for Israel. But now that this catastrophe will occur for Israeli interests, I would love to ask the Israeli public this: was it worth it? Thousands of people died these last decade and a half, and what did you get? Nothing. Israel's level of political and economic corruption is so high that hundreds of thousands go out to the street to protest about it. But of course, one of the key reasons why there is so much inequality in Israel is because the State wastes twice as much money on each settler as it invests in an Israeli citizen. But the worse of it all is the human cost: thousands upon thousands of Israelis and Palestineans died or were injured, all for this crucial moment when Israel is royaly screwed.

The Right Wing in Israel always boasted itself as being those who know how to "handle" the Arabs and the diplomatic situation of Israel. They always claimed that they, as Begin before them, are the ones who would force the Palestineans into a peace process, denouncing the Left-wingers as naive doves that would bring Israel to a weakening position (if it's not what those lefties wanted in the first place).

But now, when this moment has come, it seems the thugish methods used by Israel's Right Wing has led the country to its worse situation in it's history. And this isn't just the work of Netanyahu, but also of Sharon and Olmert before him. After 15 years (with the parenthesis of Barak's 2 year government), they don't know what to do except what they always did: being bullies.

So as we knew, Rabin was right. The Oslo Accords were the best way out for Israel, and Israel should come back to that spirit. If not, the precipice the Right Wing led the country will be too close to avoid it.