Israeli scheming is too late: the horses of freedom have bolted

First there was the ‘Israeli peace initiative’, and then the media reports that Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was considering withdrawing the Israeli occupation army from the West Bank. Two developments which, on the face of it, appear to be responses to the changes taking place across the region. Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned last month that Israel could face a “diplomatic tsunami” if the stalemate in Middle East peace talks continues. Scratch beneath the surface of both disclosures and the reality emerges: These are little more than familiar maneuvres to buy Israel more time and stem the tide of international isolation.

There is a sense in many western capitals that time is fast running out.  US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton told a meeting of the US-Islamic World Forum this week that the situation between the Israelis and Palestinians cannot continue in the same vein. Largely discredited as it is for its partisan mediation efforts and crass support for Israel, there is growing recognition in Washington that before long the winds of change sweeping the region will reach Palestine.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the strategy, the PLO’s decision to refer its cause to the UN General Assembly has, at the very least, served as an important reminder that the resolution of this conflict is not the preserve of Israel’s benefactors more than it is an international duty. Crucially, when the General Assembly is called upon to recognize an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in September 2011 there will be no US veto to subvert the international will (although America is not above exerting financial pressure on small countries to abstain or vote in Israel’s favour on GA Resolutions).

While this current ‘Israeli peace initiative’ may seem attractive on paper, it will, like the many which have preceded it, have no value unless it is adopted and enacted as official policy. It matters little if its sponsors are former Israeli generals or diplomats; they are yesterday’s men. Everyone knows it is the settlers and their American sponsors who call the shots today.

What concerns the Palestinians who have suffered under Israel’s military occupation for over four decades is not what these so-called officials say but what is actually done to make their lives more dignified and fulfilling.
On the day that the news broke of Netanyahu’s plan for a military withdrawal from the West Bank, the occupation army invaded Aanayn village in Jenin and seized hundreds of acres of land. In fact, only one month ago it seized 150 acres in the same area to make way for the apartheid wall, an outrage which the International Court of Justice ruled is illegal.

A few months ago Netanyahu was accusing the Palestinian leadership of standing in the way of peace by the refusal to negotiate while settlement expansion was taking place. He urged them to return to the table to discuss all issues. In this latest twist, he wants to discuss proposals for an ‘interim’ solution. Twenty years ago the Oslo accords envisaged a five year interim period that would end in a Palestinian state. Palestinians are still waiting. More than anything else, therefore, this latest ‘interim’ proposal demonstrates the farcical nature of negotiating with a party prone to lying, subterfuge and bad faith.

It is against this backdrop that the reports of a military withdrawal must be considered. The apparent aim is to see whether the Palestinian leadership will take the bait and run with it but that would be the height of their tragic folly; it would be a travesty to negotiate while Israeli settlements continue to devour Palestinian land, and the settler hordes continue to run amok, burning Palestinian farms and property and attacking women and children, apparently with impunity. Furthermore, what purpose does a military withdrawal serve when the settlements remain in the occupied territories and Israel retains the ‘right’ for its troops to enter in ‘hot pursuit’?
To assume that the resolve of the Palestinian people is less than their counterparts in other parts of the region is to live in cloud cuckoo land. Like the millions of other disenfranchised Arabs, Palestinians want to be free; they want to be ruled by a government of their choosing, which represents their will and aspirations. Ever since the signing of the Camp David accords they have been abandoned to their own devices in the face of a brutal occupier. Israel was given a free ride thereafter, invading Arab countries and grabbing land at will. Lebanon was the first victim in 1982 when Ariel Sharon marched all the way to Beirut. Camp David gave such security to Israel that its defence spending dropped from 35% of the national budget in the period before 1978 to 15% in recent years. Now the region has changed and Egypt is returning to its pivotal role.

To many, the overthrow of the pro-Israeli dictatorship in Egypt was the first step toward the restoration of Palestinian rights. The popular demands for rights will not stop in Cairo. People have become aware that they can forge their own destiny. They have realized that there are limits to the power of the security apparatus which has stifled their aspirations. It is this new reality that the group which sponsored the ‘Israel peace initiative’ is hoping to address, before time really does run out.

Israel’s ruling elite knows what the loss of Egypt means to them. The fact that the new Egypt could put Mubarak and his cohorts on trial is enough to send a sobering message to Tel Aviv and Washington. Despite the support Israel enjoys in the US capital and the West it will soon find that it will be meaningless while it remains a pariah state across the region and world. Clinton was right, therefore, when she said that the situation cannot continue the way it is.

The dark days of US-Israeli meddling in Arab decision-making are fast coming to an end. Moreover, the drift toward normalization which followed Camp David and Wadi Araba has also reached a dead end. All this bodes well for the people of the Middle East, especially the Palestinians; no solution stamped Made in America will be imposed on them. Israel will continue to benefit from American support, but there is no doubt its international isolation will gather momentum. The new Israeli peace initiative and the Netanyahu media stunt of military withdrawal both appear to be pitiful attempts to lock the stable doors long after the horses of freedom have bolted.