Netanyahu Isolating Israel To The Point Of Sanctions

Palestinian civil society movement is fast gaining momentum

By As'ad Abdul Rahman

The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, has predicted that Netanyahu’s presentation of ‘obsolete positions’ is definitely going “to end up with isolating Israel to the point of sanctions, thus, delegitimising Israel as the case was with the South Africa apartheid”. Haaretz editorial declared that “US Jews must support Obama’s Mideast vision”. Such a conclusion is one of the outcomes of the call of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) civil society movement against the colonial Zionist entity, increasingly being heeded all over the world.

The BDS campaign is now on the map in Australia. It has become the most effective peaceful tool against Israel’s apartheid policy that will hopefully lead it to be completely delegitimised as South Africa’s apartheid regime which collapsed under international sanctions. In fact, increasing numbers of trade unions, student unions and anti-Zionist Jewish organisations including rabbinical councils are voicing demands to sanction Israel in every possible way, especially now with the peace process being dead and buried by the Netanyahu government.

 Indeed, the last exchange between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama at the White House in which Netanyahu completely rejected Obama’s vision for resolving the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict calling it ‘naive’, right in the face of the American president while the whole world was watching, must have added to the tension in the USA/ Israel relations. This has made the Netanyahu government a party in American politics supporting the Republicans in the next elections against Obama and his Democrats. This is why the only way left for the current American administration — as many observers assert — is not to make this dispute public, but to work with extreme diligence to end Netanyahu’s government.

Obama succeeded in limiting effects of his differences with Netanyahu in front of the Jewish Aipac lobby meeting in Washington. Netanyahu was hoping to pick a fight with him in order to erode his support among Jewish voters. But the president explained to Aipac what he meant by the ‘1967 borders’ which is not much, to say the least. Many Middle East experts believe that Obama’s position was intentionally misinterpreted by Netanyahu to get Jewish voters to abandon his bandwagon. Yet, the American Jewish voters are mostly liberals, unlike the conservative republican base which is made up of Christian fundamentalists. Only a big fight between the American administration and the current Israeli government would have caused Jewish voters in America to switch sides.

Obama denied Netanyahu this ‘big fight’ which was very much desired by the Israeli leader. Obama — in the eyes of some knowledgeable observers — had to control his anger and finish the job at the Aipac meeting, biding his time until after the presidential elections on November 2011. In the meantime, pressure will have to be put on the Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak to quit the Netanyahu government which would force new elections to take place in Israel in 2012.

With the increasing isolation of Israel, the United States government can never afford to be with Israel against the whole world. The obsolete policies of the Netanyahu government can never be defended, especially when signs surrounded the White House, during the meeting with Netanyahu, calling for “End the Israeli Occupation of the US Congress”. The American administration will not stand alone, since a large number of conscientious Jewish organisations (cooperating with the BDS movement their Palestinian peaceful partner) are more than willing to join the campaign to bring the collapse of the Netanyahu government upon its rejection of peace based on justice and UN resolutions.

Netanyahu’s current attempt to unseat Obama in the coming elections will probably unseat Netanyahu himself, according to many observers in the know in Washington, D.C. These observers believe that Netanyahu is betting on a dead horse, the Republican Party, in the election race. No Republican candidate among all the known hopefuls can muster enough votes to unseat Obama. That is why many circles in Washington and around the world (including Israel itself) believe that the extreme egotistical adventurism of Netanyahu made him enter a war that will end in his utter defeat. Gaining a second term as the president of the US, will make Obama very powerful because he would no longer need votes or contributions from any one, including America’s Jews. Indeed, more experts believe that in spite of his peaceful demeanour, Obama, will never forget Netanyahu’s humiliating him in front of all the cameras. A growing number of observers in Washington D.C. (and Israel as well) predict that the US is going to play on the outside the neutral role in the United Nations while voting on Palestinian statehood, but supporting it on the inside and blaming all on Netanyahu.

This is why it is extremely vital to prepare the Palestinian house for the next moves. The next Palestinian government, and not the Palestinian organisations, will be responsible for the political settlement. It will be judged by the quality of its members and by its political and economical platform. Negotiations will also be conducted by this government only, as Israel is hoping to single out Hamas as the party that killed the peace process, not the Israeli extremist positions. Yet, to be effective, the new Palestinian ‘unity government” needs to regard the BDS as an example of diligence with far ahead planning that has led the Palestinian presence to gain world recognition ahead of a possible recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

-This commentary was published in The GULF NEWS on 23/07/2011
-Professor As’ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopeadia