As the United States lumbers towards another one of its periodic displays of its own peculiar brand of democracy, there is little that all the candidates of the two major parties (Republican, aka Tweedle Dum, and Democrat, aka Tweedle Dee) agree on. But the one place where they all converge is their worshipful adoration of that most apartheid of nations, Israel.
For example, if it were possible to have a love affair with a country, Israel would most certainly be Democrat Hillary Clinton’s lover. Her almost romantic statements about that nation are nauseating to any non-Zionist observer. Across the aisle, Ted Cruz has said that if people don’t stand with Israel, he doesn’t stand with them. After observing this fact to a non-receptive audience, he stalked off the stage. We needn’t list the empty platitudes of all the candidates; these examples will suffice.
At first glance, the elevation of any of the current, clown-like contenders to the Oval office would appear to have disastrous results for Palestine. After all, when the candidates all try to outdo each other in their support for Israel, condemning Palestinian resistance and vowing to provide Israel with even more weaponry to kill innocent Palestinians, how can their election be anything but a disaster for human rights and international law? One would imagine Israeli Prime Murderer Benjamin Netanyahu gloating over the possibility of seeing any of them replace current president Barack Obama, with whom he has long had an adversarial relationship, despite Mr. Obama jumping through every hoop the Prime Murderer holds, with the possible exception of the one marked ‘Iran’.
But this election could represent a major breakthrough for the Palestinians. The world community has, incredibly, looked to the pointless negotiations the U.S. was forever brokering to give the appearance that some progress was being made in the long conflict between Palestine and Israel. With Mr. Netanyahu’s intractable attitude, even U.S. spokesmen have said that Israel can’t necessarily rely on the U.S. to protect Israel at the United Nations. As long as the farce of negotiations was ongoing, the world community could ignore the facts on the ground. But that farce has played itself out; Israel has shown its complete lack of interest in any negotiated settlement, which, of course, is unnecessary anyway, since all that is required is for Israel to adhere to international law. However, there have been interesting developments, some of which may be as result of the Prime Murderer’s intractability:
*The European Union has required that goods produced by Israel in the occupied West Bank be marked clearly as Israeli goods. To say that Israel resisted this move would be to put it mildly; with the boycott movement ever-growing, more people will be aware of what is actually Israeli-produced, thus being better able to boycott it.
*France has stated that if Israel doesn’t agree to bargaining terms that it proposes, it will recognize Palestine without delay.
*United Nations Secretary Ban Ki-Moon stated that the current resistance in the West Bank is a logical outcome of decades of repressive occupation. When Mr. Netanyahu raged against that statement, the Secretary simply re-emphasized it.
*Brazil has refused to accept the new ambassador Israel has appointed, due to his support of the illegal settlements.
So, with the U.S. no longer seen as holding the key to resolving the Palestine-Israel problem, however false that view always was, it appears that the rest of the world may be willing to step in. Oh, Israel will be able, under a new U.S. administration, to rely on constant vetoes of any U.N. proposal to condemn its blatant and ongoing violations of international law. And the U.S.’s ample purse will always be wide open to Israel, evens as U.S. citizen go bankrupt paying for higher education (please note that university education is free for students in Israel; the U.S. taxpayer is funding their tuition), and the nation’s infrastructure continues to crumble. But as Israel grows more isolated from the international community, it will find it has few companions outside of the U.S. and, to its everlasting disgrace, Canada, along with a few other nations.
But what can the Palestinians expect in the run-up to all this? Nothing good, unfortunately. Israel, like an injured and cornered wild animal, will strike out ruthlessly and relentlessly, with increased repression in the West Bank, which may seem impossible due to the cruel and deadly measures it currently takes against innocent Palestinians, and will, in all likelihood, decide to once again test its arsenal of weapons, both legal and those forbidden by international law, against the Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip. Again, the U.S. taxpayer is footing the bill.
No one can advise Israel about the folly of these actions. When one believes, incredibly, or at least hides behind the idea, that their murderous actions are God-sanctioned, what does any ‘worldly’ advise have to do with it? The fact that social media during the summer of 2014 played a major role in turning public opinion against Israel will not matter, as long as Congressional opinion doesn’t turn. The increasing toll to the Israeli economy that the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement makes will be meaningless, as long as the blank checks from the U.S. continue to be issued.
Yet even the mighty U.S. will be unable to protect Israel forever, as it couldn’t protect the apartheid regime of South Africa. It must be remembered that the U.S. was one of the last nations on the planet to condemn the horrific racist practices in South Africa, so it can be expected to be in the same place in line regarding condemnation of Israeli apartheid. Other nations within the world community must take a real lead, unlike what the U.S. ever did. Nations whose government officials are not bought and paid for by the Israeli lobby, and who might have some interest in adhering to international law, and might have some respect for the basic right of self-determination for everyone, must and will apply sufficient force on Israel to cause it to end its brutal practices, both within its own borders (the legitimacy of those borders is a topic for another discussion), and in Palestine. Only then will the Palestinians receive the basic human rights they have long deserved. Israel can pretend not to notice, and the U.S. can enable this dysfunctional attitude, but neither can stop the march of progress.