Time to stop Israel’s aggression

Now that US President Barak Obama managed to knock down the arrogant Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after winning congressional support for the deal he negotiated alongside five other international states, including Russia and China, to limit Iran’s nuclear arsenal, he is hoping to bring Israel back into the fold.

But the president’s appeasement will be costly, since many countries, especially those in the Middle East, and particularly the Palestinians, will not view this step a remarkable achievement.

A pace-setting development occurred earlier, when a sweeping majority of the UN General Assembly voted to allow the Palestinian flag to fly at the United Nations, a much belated step.

Shockingly, the US voted against the Palestinian-drafted resolution and, as expected, Israel alongside only six other nations followed suit.

Of the 193 UN members, 119 others endorsed the step, including France and most of the 28-nation European Union abstained from the “historic vote”, as described by Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour, who called it “another step towards fulfilment of the promise of independence made to the Palestinian people nearly seven decades ago”.

In the meantime, Obama reportedly offered his hand to Netanyahu, ready to see him either at next week’s opening session of the UN General Assembly, which both are expected to attend, or in Washington, where the rattled Israeli leader is expected to attend the November 8 annual conference of the Jewish Federations of North America. 

Philip Giraldi, a former officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, writes this month in The Unz Review website that “Israel is already the military colossus in the Middle East, with formidable high-tech ground, sea and air forces backed up by a semi-secret nuclear arsenal with modern delivery systems and several defensive missile system referred to as Iron Dome, Arrow 4 and David Sling [an Israeli magic wand.]”

He adds: “The defence systems were developed and deployed using $3 billion of US Treasury special ‘grants’ while roughly 20 per cent of Israel’s annual total defence budget comes directly from the American taxpayer. This is all justified on the basis of sustaining Israel’s ‘Qualitative Military Edge’, an expression that has its own acronym QME and that is much loved by America’s national legislators, the White House and the media.

“In reality, Israel possesses an enormous military superiority relative to all its neighbours combined and has benefited from that capability for many years, all thanks to the United States of America.”

Yet, the Obama administration and Israel, notes the Israeli daily Haaretz, began “with no public announcements, keeping a low-profile and unofficial status, two weeks ago talks aimed at addressing the aftermath of the nuclear accords with Iran”. 

The paper said that these “preliminary low-level contacts preceded what in coming weeks turn into full-fledged meetings at the highest levels” and culminate in early November when Obama and Netanyahu meet in Washington.

Akiva Eldar, a prominent Israeli columnist for Al Monitor, recently wrote that these recent events were “a black day for Israel’s defence and diplomacy strategy under Netanyahu’s leadership”, further stating that “this was one of the worst years ever for Israeli deterrence and international standing”.

More to the point, the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are “an American problem in a whole new way”, writes Philip Weiss, co-editor of Mondoweiss.net.

“Nearly one out of six settlers living in the West Bank is an American.”

In other words, that amounts to “roughly 60,000 American Jews”, according to Oxford scholar Sara Hirschhorn.

How Obama will handle the strife in the occupied Palestinian territories is anyone’s guess now that he won his day with Israel over the Iran deal.

Will he take further steps to dislodge the Israeli settlers from the West Bank or stop their current aggression on Al Aqsa Mosque, in the Noble Sanctuary, Islam’s third holiest shrine, which is regularly penetrated by Israeli groups?

There is no doubt that continued Israeli trespassing there could lead to a devastating war.

Nabil Abu Rudeinah, Palestinian president’s spokesman, said that His Majesty King Abdullah, custodian of the Noble Sanctuary, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas discussed by phone the violence that, they fear, may drag the region into “endless fighting”.

It is time for Obama to step forward and take action in regard to the besieged Gaza Strip and historic East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to establish their capital, and put to end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967.

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.