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Assem Al Abed In a bid to escape the attention their actions have elicited, Israeli leaders seem to be looking for excuses and create circumstances that might enable them to wage a new war of aggression.
Israel started feeling the heat after the Goldstone Report, so it wishes to escape the glare of the limelight the only way it knows: militarily.
" Israel’s tendency, whenever attention is directed at its acts, has been to undertake bloody military adventures, most recently in south Lebanon and Gaza, with devastating results " The international pressure seems to be building up against the rightist, racist Israeli regime whose persecution of the Palestinians and violations of the Holy City of Jerusalem have been fast escalating.
Israel’s actions blatantly disregard the interests of even its strongest ally, the U.S., whose disgraceful veto against the Goldstone Report depicts it as the protector and sponsor of this racist entity, an even more painful realization coming, as it does, after the U.S. president’s promise to work towards peace in this region.
Israel’s acts jeopardize Washington’s credibility and destroy the new image of America that President Barack Obama’s administration has been working hard to build. They obstruct all serious and honest efforts exerted by international envoys such as Tony Blair and George Mitchell to arrive at a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian problem, and lead to one path only: more isolation and exposure of Israel as a racist occupier posing a growing and direct threat to regional and world peace.
Israel’s tendency, whenever attention is directed at its acts, has been to undertake bloody military adventures, most recently in south Lebanon and Gaza, with devastating results.
It might also push its allies to attack Iran or take matters in its hands and carry out aggression, thus triggering a new war and destruction in a region that has had enough of both.
This Israeli arrogance necessitates diplomatic and legal pressure on its leaders. The Israeli administration is hostage to internal alignments and, as such, totally unable to take a decision on freezing settlement activities that would open the way to peace talks.
In an October 8 interview with Haaretz, His Majesty King Abdullah used the right words to describe the Jordanian-Israeli relationship, which, he said, “is getting colder”. Such statement should draw the attention of the sane Israeli public which holds the King in great esteem. |
" Appealing to Israel to give up violence, its aggressive nature and expansionism is utter naiveté and idealism "
Jordan, which always believed in moderation and diplomacy, is coming to regard the extreme-right Israeli government as a danger to the region, and the world. The same seems to be Turkey’s opinion, and Ankara has been working towards improving ties with Syria and Iraq, ostracizing Israel and building new alliances, in an indication that influential regional and Islamic powers are moving to new positions and placing pressure on the Israeli right. The Israeli society must be aware of the danger the Israeli right-wing government poses to it and to the region.
Appealing to Israel to give up violence, its aggressive nature and expansionism is utter naiveté and idealism. Its present regime, who believes in using excessive force and violence, cannot be made to comply with international law, both because of its entrenched strategy of expansion, settlement and war, and because of its economic and political makeup.
What is more realistic and feasible is to use diplomacy in a way that isolates this regime completely and sees its internal elements and alliances crumble.
The relationship between the U.S. administrations and Israel should become too costly for the U.S. to afford.
In parallel, active Jordanian diplomacy needs to be hard at work. For one, the structure of the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv might be reconsidered.
This is not a call to close the embassy, rather to see it double in size in term of staff. The mission should be empowered to establish wider relationship with the elements of integrity, peace and humanism in Israel, and work with these powers, along with other international peace activists, to promote peace and combat Zionism, fascism and war.
*Published in Jordan's THE JORDAN TIMES on October 20, 2009. Assem Al Abed is media consultant.
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