Israel decries US ‘knife in back’ over Palestinian govt (via AFP)
Washington’s support for a new Palestinian government backed by Israel’s Islamist foe Hamas, has left the Jewish state feeling betrayed, triggering a new crisis with its closest ally. Several Israeli ministers expressed public anger on Tuesday after…
This post was republished using Repost. Please read it on Informed Comment directly: https://www.juancole.com/2014/06/support-palestinian-sabotaging.html
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New Palestinian government: US declares support, Israel fumes
time the US stopped aid to Israel.
This is a major, major turning point in U.S. foreign policy.
It is also the biggest foreign policy failure of the Netanyahu government since the November 29, 2012 UN General Assembly vote granting the Palestinian Authority observer status at that body.
The State of Israel was indirectly responsible for the rise of Hamas in Gaza when it abruptly withdrew its Civil Administration and IDF occupation forces from Gaza during the historic 2005 disengagement without effectuating an orderly transition of power akin to what the U.S. did when it left Iraq. This created a power vacuum that led to shaky Palestinian Authority control over Gaza and the violent coup there in 2007 that placed Gaza under sole Hamas control.
There are liberal voices in Israeli politics that wish a direct peace dialogue with Hamas and see it as necessary to a binding final status peace pact. One of these voices is former Defense Minister Amir Peretz.. The Hamas-Palestinian Authority unity agreement with U.S. State Department recognition will aid in making this a reality and Israeli right-wingers are well aware of this. It effectively makes Hamas a key player in Israel/Palestine peace negotiations.
My guess is that the U.S. State Department was angry over the recent Netanyahu government pronouncements on the intended annexation of East Jerusalem and the vaunted West Bank Jewish settlement augmentation plans and chose this course of action as a response.
Let’s remember that the Netanyahoos over there think of the US as “Uncle Freier.” For those who don’t remember, a “freier” in unofficial Hebrew-Yiddish parlance is the worst kind of sucker. To frame how the Yahoos think, and how they think of us, one might do worse than review this little article:
link to haaretz.com
And this slightly dated pie-in-the-face-chart: link to israelpalestineguide.wordpress.com
Understand your opponent, and don’t for a minute think the Likudnik government is anything but. And why does the economic interest of Lockheed-Martin and the other corporations who sell those billions of dollars in war materiel to Israel, paid for by the laundered tax dollars of ordinary US citizens, trump the silly notion of the “general welfare,” again?\\
How interesting that “we” will be propping up the Karzai admin via the same mechanisms of wealth transfer that we use to prop up the Israeli rulership…
Meanwhile, as reported in the Australian edition of the Guardian 5/5/15, Australia takes a backward step:
The Abbott government has ruled out using the term “occupied” when describing Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, prompting suggestions about a shift in Australia’s foreign policy.
The government on Thursday delivered a statement to clarify its stand on the controversial question of the legality of settlements after the issued flared up at a Senate hearing the night before.
The attorney general, George Brandis, on behalf of the minister for foreign affairs, Julie Bishop, said it was “unhelpful” to refer to historic events when describing these areas, given the ongoing Middle East peace process.
“The description of East Jerusalem as ‘occupied’ East Jerusalem is a term freighted with pejorative implications which is neither appropriate nor useful,” Brandis told a Senate estimates hearing.
“It should not and will not be the practice of the Australian government to describe areas of negotiation in such judgmental language.”
and so on …
Israel is in great shape. Israel will show that there were attempts at a settlement, but failure… Failure will be blamed on Obama, as well as those pesky, unreasonable Palestinians. Now with Hamas on board, Israel will excuse itself from all talk of further negotiations. Israel will annex more land and continue to settle more land. If the Republicans take the Senate in the fall elections, then Israel can bank on U.S. congress’ support. Israel can likely bank on U.S. congress support anyway! If the Republicans win the presidency in 2016, then Israel rides high for the rest of the decade. And Israel rides high if Hillary wins the presidency! Any way you look at this, Israel is in the catbird seat here.
Correction – above I gave the date of the Guardian Australia article as 5/5/14 – it was in fact yesterday 5 June 2014. Apologies.