In mid-March 2013, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his new government. The new coalition will continue the old settlement policy. There will be no peace with this Israeli cabinet.
On March 18, 2013 the vice-defense minister Danny Danon (Likud) told the Israeli radio that the new government will increase its settlement activities in Galilee, Samaria and the Negev. In 2011, Danny Danon said the Israel “is not occupying anything”.
The new defense minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) said in the past that “Jews can and should live everywhere in the Land of Israel” and that there are no illegal outposts. He also called “Peace Now” a virus.
The new Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zeev Elkin, is a right-wing settler from the Likud party. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who may return to the job after settling his legal problems, are both standing behind the settlers and in no mood for serious peace talks with the Palestinians. Both Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beitenu and Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home parties are advocating the Jewish character of Israel and pushing for more settlements.
Why have Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) as well as Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) joined the new coalition government? Both claim to stand for new peace talks with the Palestinians. How can this be possible with allies such as the ones mentioned above?
I am no fan of the re-elected Messiah. But where Obama is right, he is right (and Mitt Romney was wrong): the Israeli settlement policy is an obstacle to peace. The American president rightly told students in Jerusalem during his visit to Israel and Palestine: “Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace”. He added that “an independent Palestine must be viable” and that “real borders will have to be drawn”. He urged the Israeli students to put themselves in the Palestinian shoes and “look at the world through their eyes”. Obama made clear that is was up to the students to push their politicians towards a new policy.
Unfortunately, Obama has lost his credibility in the Middle East because he first asked Israel for a settlement freeze before backtracking. Many Israeli are angry with him for his hard line towards Israel, despite the fact that he has reversed it. The Palestinians can’t see him as an honest broker anymore because he has backtracked. Obama may have realized that it is up to the two parties on the ground to push for peace. Nothing can be imposed from the US.
So far, neither the Palestinians nor the Israeli seem to be fully committed to peace. At the same time, six former Shin Bet leaders have implored the lack of strategy as well the criminal conduct of Israeli politics (including torture). However, the hubris of Israeli politicians remains largely unchallenged – or at least challenges voiced have had no effect so far.
Israel has started to exploit huge gas fields, with even larger gas resources to be tapped in the future, which may make the country energy independent for decades. Surely a good thing. However, it may add economic self-delusion to the pre-existing military and political hubris.
Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition government do have credible partners in Palestine: President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Unfortunately, they have not taken advantage of that historic situation.
At least Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized to Turkey for the killing of nine Turks during the Mavi Marmara boat incident in international waters. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accepted the apology. Former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, a diplomatic “genius”, had of course to come forward to call the apology a “serious mistake”; let’s hope that Lieberman finally gets convicted and definitively ends his political career.
Regarding Gaza, according to news sources, Khaled Mashaal has been reelected as the Hamas leader. He has apparently been elected by a secret body said to be composed by some 60 Hamas members living in Gaza, the West Bank, in exile and in Israeli prisons. Already before Khaled Mashaal’s reelction, Prime Minister Erdogan had announced his intention to visit the Gaza strip. Will this be the signal for a more pragmatic attitude by Hamas?
Regarding the Palestinian-Israeli relations however, there can (almost) be no doubt: no peace with this Israeli cabinet.
Books by and about Benjamin Netanyahu:
Jewish sheet music Klezmer sheet music.
Article added on April 3, 2013
