Obama has 'demanded' that Israel pull back to its 1967 borders. How bold and innovative the president has become since catching the US' archenemy last month. Bravo! Predictably, Netanyahu's first response is that 'Israel could never withdraw to borders that were "indefensible"'. Given Israeli activity on its borders last week, in which none of its own citizens were injured but plenty of others were, it's hard to grasp how much more defensibility they need. This may be especially true on the Syrian border, where they could just pull their units back from Golan and set them up on lawn chairs to watch Galilee sunsets with one eye and Syria with the other.
At any rate, i do wish Obama the best of luck negotiating with a state which, aside from setting terms of weapons sales agreements, has historically rejected the entire concept of negotiations. As long as the dollars keep pouring in, why should they do otherwise? The EU has embraced the same type of relationship with Israel, 'demanding' it end the occupation of Palestine (that would mean retreating to the same borders Obama cited), while concurrently pursuing further integration of Israel into the EU's economy and vice versa. The BDS movement on both sides of the Atlantic will hardly make a dent in these massive coffers, though i wouldn't say that makes it a wasted, pointless effort. The problem remains that in spite of all the international rhetoric inicating otherwise, Israel always gets what it wants and does what it wants, the intransigent state extraordinaire with a tightly knit entourage of G20 enablers.
At any rate, i do wish Obama the best of luck negotiating with a state which, aside from setting terms of weapons sales agreements, has historically rejected the entire concept of negotiations. As long as the dollars keep pouring in, why should they do otherwise? The EU has embraced the same type of relationship with Israel, 'demanding' it end the occupation of Palestine (that would mean retreating to the same borders Obama cited), while concurrently pursuing further integration of Israel into the EU's economy and vice versa. The BDS movement on both sides of the Atlantic will hardly make a dent in these massive coffers, though i wouldn't say that makes it a wasted, pointless effort. The problem remains that in spite of all the international rhetoric inicating otherwise, Israel always gets what it wants and does what it wants, the intransigent state extraordinaire with a tightly knit entourage of G20 enablers.
No comments:
Post a Comment