Hishmeh: Adding fuel to the Israeli fire

posted on: Sep 16, 2015

By George S. Hishmeh, Special to Gulf News
Published: 17:20 September 16, 2015

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Now that United States President Barack Obama has managed to knock down the arrogant Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after winning Congressional support for the deal that he negotiated alongside Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, to limit Iran’s nuclear arsenal, he is now hoping to bring Israel back into the fold.

But Obama’s appeasement will be costly, since many countries, especially those in the Middle East and particularly the Palestinians, will not view this step as a remarkable achievement. A pace-setting development a few days earlier occurred when a sweeping majority of the United Nations General Assembly voted to allow the Palestinian flag to fly at the UN, a much belated step.

Shockingly, the US voted against the Palestine-drafted resolution and, as expected, Israel, alongside only six other nations, followed suit. Of the 193 UN members, 119 others endorsed the step, including France, and most of the 28-nation European Union (EU) abstained from the “historic vote”, as described by Palestine’s UN Ambassador, Riyad Mansour, who called it “another step towards fulfilment of the promise of independence made to the Palestinian people nearly seven decades ago”.

In the meantime, Obama has reportedly offered his hand to Netanyahu, suggesting his readiness to see him either at next week’s opening session of the UN General Assembly, where both are expected to be present, or in Washington when the rattled Israeli leader is expected to attend the November 8 annual conference of the Jewish Federations of North America.

Interestingly, Philip Girardi, a former officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, writes this month in The Unz Review website that, “Israel is already the military colossus in the Middle East, with formidable high-tech ground, sea and air forces backed up by a semi-secret nuclear arsenal with modern delivery systems and several defensive missile systems referred to as Iron Dome, Arrow 4 and David Sling, (an Israeli magic wand)”.

He continues: “The defence systems were developed and deployed using $3 billion [Dh11 billion] of US Treasury special ‘grants’ while roughly 20 per cent of Israel’s annual total defence budget comes directly from the American taxpayer. This is all justified on the basis of sustaining Israel’s ‘Qualitative Military Edge’, an expression that has its own acronym QME and that is much loved by America’s national legislators, the White House and the media. “In reality, Israel possesses an enormous military superiority relative to all its neighbours combined and has benefited from that capability for many years, all thanks to the United States of America,” he further said.

Yet, the Obama administration and Israel, says the Israeli daily Haaretz, began, “with no public announcements, keeping a low profile and unofficial status, two weeks ago talks aimed at addressing the aftermath of the nuclear accords with Iran”.

The paper added that these “preliminary low-level contacts preceded what in coming weeks turn into full-fledged meetings at the highest levels” and culminate in early November when Obama and Netanyahu meet in Washington.

Akiva Eldar, a prominent Israeli columnist, wrote recently that these events were “a black day for Israel’s defence and diplomacy strategy under Netanyahu’s leadership”, elaborating further that “this was one of the worst years ever for Israeli deterrence and international standing”.

More to the point, the illegal Israeli colonies in the illegally occupied West Bank are “an American problem in a whole new way”, writes Philip Weiss, co-editor of Mondoweiss.net. “Nearly one out of six [illegal Israeli] colonists living in the West Bank is an American.” In other words, that amounts to “roughly 60,000 American Jews”, according to Oxford scholar Sara Hirschhorn.

How Obama will handle the ongoing strife in the Occupied Territories is anyone’s guess now that he has won his day with Israel over the Iran deal. But will he take further steps to dislodge the Israeli colonists from the West Bank or their current aggressive penetration of Al Haram Al Sharif within the Noble Sanctuary, Islam’s third holiest shrine, which is regularly penetrated by Israeli groups. There is no doubt that continued Israeli trespassing there may lead to a devastating war. Nabeel Abu Rdeinah, a Palestinian spokesman, revealed that Jordan’s King Abdullah, custodian of the Noble Sanctuary, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have both discussed over the phone the turbulence that they fear may drag the region into “endless fighting”.

Needless to say, it is time for President Obama to step forward and be counted over the heart-wrenching situation in the besieged Gaza Strip and historic occupied East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to establish their capital, and put an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967.

George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com

Source: gulfnews.com