Tag Archives: Benjamin Netanyahu

So Netanyahu Doesn’t Like The Agreement. So What?

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Whether or not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likes our nuclear agreement with Iran shouldn’t matter. He wasn’t in the room while the deal was being made. And if he had been, we’d likely be at war right now. You see, it’s clear by now that Netanyahu doesn’t want peace in the Middle East. It appears that he won’t be happy until Israel has annexed all of the Palestinian territory and blasted its neighbors back to the stone age.

Not even world opinion has swayed him from his expansionist goals. Not the world outrage at Israel’s disproportionate response to Palestinian rockets. Not the international outrage at the increasing number of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Not the Obama administration’s outrage at the break in protocol when Netanyahu accepted the Republican invitation to speak to the US Congress.

For certain, Israel has the right to exist and a right to live in peace. But, just as certainly, Israel’s leader does not have the right to dictate foreign policy to the US or any other nation. Neither should he have any say in the just announced agreement between the US, Iran and other world powers. Of course, that hasn’t stopped him from trying to derail the deal. From the very beginning of the talks, Netanyahu has appealed to the Republican chicken hawks in Congress to use force to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Never mind that the use of force would almost certainly backfire (quite literally). A military strike against Iran’s nuclear installations, would incense Iran and much of the rest of the world. Worse, it would give Iran even more incentive to complete a nuclear weapon.

After all, military powers, even superpowers, tend not to attack countries that possess nuclear weapons. For good reason. The consequences are simply too dire. And a nuclear-armed Iran that has been previously attacked would likely feel justified in supporting more terrorism and pursuing retribution against its attackers. Moreover, the sanctions against Iran…even the proposed increased sanctions…were not hindering Iran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb. The sanctions were only hurting innocent Iranian civilians and entrenching Iran’s antagonism with the West.

The fact is, the nuclear agreement was by far the best of all of the available options. At minimum it delays Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It provides a framework for inspections. And it opens the door to more negotiations and more cooperation.

Make no mistake, the new agreement is not a one-sided concession to Iran. The agreement calls for Iran to submit to inspections and to dispose of nuclear fuel in exchange for the lifting of the current sanctions by international community. That is not only fair. It is a positive for everyone involved. Indeed, history has shown that such agreements are far more productive than the alternatives. For example, as a result of our engagement with China, it has gone from a Cold War enemy to our largest trading partner in just 3 decades. In contrast, our get-tough expansion of NATO and deployment of missiles on Russia’s doorstep has led to increased tensions and armed incursions by Russian troops into Ukraine. And we all know what has happened as the result of our ill-conceived invasion of Iraq. Not only has it destabilized Iraq and much of the Middle East, it has led to the creation of a much more dangerous enemy – ISIS.

So Netanyahu thinks the nuclear agreement with Iran is a historic mistake? So what? Let’s not let him derail the agreement and lead us, along with the Republican warmongers, down the path to yet another war. He can continue to bluster and act the spoiled brat. It really shouldn’t matter. And, if Netanyahu threatens to do more than whine, we should ignore him.

Check that…we should make it clear that any attempt to derail the agreement will be met with a suspension of US support and an embargo on weapons.

Is It Time To Break The “Unbreakable Bond?”

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Following the results of the Israeli elections in which the Likud party led by Benjamin Netanyahu won the most seats in the Knesset, it’s time for the United States to make some difficult decisions. In order to push his party over the top, Netanyahu made a last minute statement that he would never agree to a Palestinian state or a divided Jerusalem. In addition, he created fear among Israeli Jews by saying that the opposition party was busing Israeli Arabs to the polls in droves.

That may have worked for Netanyahu in the short term. But it has most certainly created a long-term problem for all of the Middle East, including Israel, and, by extension, the United States. By dismissing the possibility of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu has dashed the hopes of self-determination for millions of Palestinian people – most of whom are refugees pushed off of their land in Israel. Further, Netanyahu has widened the rift between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews by pitting them against each other in the election.

What does all of this mean?

It means that Palestinians no longer have a reason to negotiate peace with Israel. It means that Palestine’s only peaceful option is to pursue state recognition from the world community through the United Nations. It means that the United States will be placed in the awkward position of either continuing its unwavering support of Israel by using its power as a member of the UN Security Council to deny Palestinian statehood or standing up for one of its core beliefs – the right to self-determination. It means that Netanyahu has, in all likelihood, inflamed tensions with Israel’s neighbors, especially Iran. It means that Netanyahu will continue to lead Israel and the United States to the brink of a widespread regional war.

The only apparent way out of Netanyahu’s path toward war is for the US to finally break our so-called “Unbreakable Bond” with Israel.

The voters of Israel have clearly shown that they have prioritized greed and hatred over peace. They have shown that they would rather continue to bully their neighbors and, if possible, the United States (How else could you describe Netanyahu’s speech before Congress?) than give back the land they stole from Palestinians. And they seem to expect the US to back their hard line positions with American treasure and blood.

It’s time for US taxpayers to ask some difficult questions. We should start by asking, what do we get for our approximately $20 billion per year in foreign aid to Israel? We should ask, who is driving US policy in the Middle East? The US government? Or Israelis?

Based on recent decisions by the GOP-led Congress, it’s difficult to tell.

Does Israel Actually Want Peace?

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It’s a fair question. Because nearly every time Israel is presented with a real opportunity, it seems to turn, instead, to violence.

Israel’s latest misadventure was soundly criticized this past Sunday by former Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski during an appearance on Fareed Zakaria’s Global Public Square. When asked if the Israeli invasion of Gaza was a wise move, he pulled no punches. “No,” he said, “When Hamas accepted the notion of participation in the Palestinian leadership, it, in effect, acknowledged the determination of that leadership to seek a peaceful solution with Israel. That was a real option. They should have persisted in that. Instead, Netanyahu launched a campaign of defammation against Hamas, seized on the killing of three Israeli kids to immediately charge Hamas with having done it without any evidence, and has used that to stir up public opinion in Israel in order to justify this attack in Gaza which is so lethal. I think he is isolating Israel. He is endangering its long-range future, and I think we ought to make it very clear that this is a course of action that we thoroughly disapprove, that we do not support, and which may compel us and the rest of the international community to take somes steps of legitimizing Palestinian aspirations, perhaps in the UN.”

In other words, instead of seeking peace with his neighbors through negotiation and conciliation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was looking for an excuse to militarily destroy his enemies. He claims that the military operation is limited with pinpoint strikes. If it is, then the Israelis have been targeting civilians and children since they represent the majority of the casualties. In doing so, Netanyahu is continuing the never-ending cycle of violence thereby ensuring that the conflict will continue for many more generations.

Not that violence in the territory is anything new. Jews, Arab Muslims and Christians have occupied and fought over the land for millenia with the Israelis being emboldened by their religious doctrine. They claim that they are the “chosen people” and that Jerusalem and the “Holy Land” was a gift from God…a claim that makes sharing the territory all but impossible. In fact, the modern State of Israel was a gift from the British Empire and the United Nations Partition Plan. Out of a sense of guilt following World War II, the UN drew up borders creating the Jewish State of Israel and the Arab State of Palestine.

However, re-drawing borders and relocating people has seldom led to a peaceful coexistence. Not in Israel. Not in Iraq. Not in Ukraine.

Israel’s military control of Gaza, by fencing its borders, blockading its ports and controlling everyone and everything that enters or leaves Gaza has turned it into what is, in effect, the world’s largest and most populous prison. It has not only created economic hardships for Palestinians. It has robbed them of hope. That’s a situation that simply cannot end well.

As for the notion that Israel will eventually agree to a two-state solution, one has to ask, which two states? Israel has already claimed all of Jerusalem for itself. It has accelerated settlements on the West Bank to the point that almost nothing is left for Palestinians. It continues to delay peace negotiations to allow the settlements to continue. It even called upon the US to block Palestine’s membership in the UN. All of this has been pushed by conservative Tea Party-like politicians who are even to the right of Netanyahu, powerful Jewish lobbying groups in the US and certain evangelical US churches who believe that the removal of Arabs from the “Holy Land” will hasten the coming of the new Messiah.

Fortunately, these groups don’t seem to represent the majority sentiment of the Israeli and American people. A number of Jewish organizations are dismayed by the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. The Jewish Voice for Peace is calling for the US to stop funding the on-going massacre in Gaza. And the Jewish organization, J Street, has long called for moderation and a two-state solution. These groups seem to understand that peace cannot be achieved until each side recognizes the rights and circumstances of the other. Palestinians must recognize the historical claims of the Jews and Israel’s right to exist. Conversely, Israel must recognize the historical claims of the Arabs and the ongoing hardships for the Palestinian people.

But a recent article in the New Republic detailing Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempt to negotiate peace between the two sides reveals the depth of the problem.

Middle East Peace Held Hostage By Four Terrorist Groups.

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Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s announcement that Israel is withdrawing from US-brokered peace talks with Palestinians came as no surprise. He and his conservative Israeli supporters have long looked for an excuse…any excuse…to avoid peace. That excuse presented itself when Palestinians announced that Fatah and Hamas, the two largest political parties in Palestine, had joined hands for the negotiations.

Certainly, Hamas has been an enemy of Israel. But so has Fatah. In return, Israel has been an enemy of Palestine. Exactly what is the difference? In the past, none of these groups has believed the others have a right to exist. But if warring parties want to achieve peace, they absolutely must negotiate with their enemies. That’s why they’re called peace talks! If you’re unwilling to negotiate with your enemies, you are doomed to be perpetually at war.

The other player in this standoff that is seldom recognized is the organization of Christian evangelicals that sponsors and finances the expansion of Israeli “settlements” in the occupied territories of the West Bank. These “settlements” are, in reality, large suburbs of Jerusalem built to ensure that the territories, and all of Jerusalem, remain under Israeli control.

Why, you may ask, would Christian evangelicals care about the settlements?

The answer is that they hope that complete Israeli occupation of the “Promised Land” will hasten Armageddon and the return of Christ. They believe that, when the “Promised Land” is fully occupied by Jews, the Messiah will return and they will be magically, and immediately, transported to the golden city in the sky.

Seriously.

So let’s review. The players in this bizarre melodrama include Fatah, the party of Yasser Arafat, that engaged in terrorist acts from the very beginnings of Israel; Hamas, the fundamentalist Islamic political party allied with the Muslim Brotherhood and Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades; Israel, the Jewish nation that has ignored the nuclear proliferation treaty, spied on its allies, trampled on the civil rights of Palestinians and believes in disproportionate response to any form of attack; and Christian zealots who are in such a hurry to get to heaven that they are willing to foment terrorism and armed combat.

Ironically, these characters all claim to be following the teachings of their respective religions! I guess those teachings don’t include compassion and common sense.