Composed of roughly equal
parts racism, war-mongering, fawning and fabrication, Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of the
U.S. Congress on May 24 was received with adulation by the assembled
Democrats and Republicans alike. The reception was very different in
the Middle East. There it was widely understood – including inside
Israel itself – as closing the door on negotiations and further
isolating the Zionist state.
The day after the speech,
new Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil El-Araby announced that his
country’s border with Gaza would be permanently opened on May 28, a
significant blow to the blockade of 1.6 million Palestinians that has
been exacting a severe toll for more than four years. The ousted
Mubarak regime had maintained the blockade in collaboration with
Israel, the U.S. and the European Union .
Netanyahu’s
colonial-style, anti-Arab racism was not even thinly veiled in his
Congressional performance. He quoted the 19th
century English author George Eliot, saying that Israel “shine(s)
like a bright star of freedom amid the despotisms of the East.” He
ludicrously claimed that of 300 million Arabs, “less than one-half
of one percent are free and they’re all citizens of Israel.”
The “shining light”
theme continued: “Israel is not what is wrong with the Middle East.
Israel is what is right about the Middle East.” Repeating a tired
Israeli mantra, Netanyahu repeatedly blamed the Arabs for all the
conflicts in the region over the past six-plus decades, while
asserting that, “We will never give up on our quest for peace.”
His attempt at a redo of
history was unintentionally belied a sentence later by Netanyahu’s
own words: “I remember what it was like before we had peace. I was
nearly killed in a firefight inside the Suez Canal.” What was the
future prime minister doing in the Suez Canal, which is part of
Egypt, hundreds of miles from the claimed borders of Israel? He was a
soldier in the Israeli military, which has repeatedly attacked and/or
occupied Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan as well as Palestine since
1948. Such well-established facts did not deter another standing
ovation.
Netanyahu devoted a
considerable part of his speech to a call for more aggressive action
against Iran, which is surrounded by U.S. military power and has been
subjected to several rounds of United States and European Union
economic sanctions. The leader of Israel, the only state in the
Middle East which actually possesses nuclear weapons, said that “a
nuclear-armed Iran would ignite a nuclear arms race in the Middle
East.”
Taking a page from U.S.
and British propaganda in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, Netanyahu
lectured: “I want you to understand what this means. They could put
the bomb anywhere. They could put in on a missile. It could be on a
container ship in a port, or a suitcase on a subway.”
He called for a policy
stipulating “that all options are on the table.” This position,
shared by the Obama administration, is a coded way of saying that
Iran could be the target of military attack, including the use of
nuclear weapons.
The Israeli leader invoked
the Torah as the basis of Israel’s right to all of Palestine. “No
distortion of history can deny the four thousand year old bond
between the Jewish people and the Jewish land.” In fact, nothing
could distort history more than the use of religious scripture as a
real estate document. Many peoples have inhabited Palestine over the
past 4,000 years; for the past several hundred years until the 20th
century European-based, Zionist settler project, the population was
overwhelmingly Arab. Never mind, another standing ovation.
“In an unstable Middle
East, Israel is the one anchor of stability,” Netanyahu claimed. In
fact, since World War II Israel and U.S. imperialism have been the
most profoundly destabilizing factors in the region, both
relentlessly striving to prevent independent development.
Netanyahu mixed
boot-licking with arrogant condescension, both of which would have
been found insulting by a body any less craven than Congress:
“Providence [God] entrusted the United States to be the guardian of
liberty . . . Thank you for ensuring that the flame of freedom burns
bright throughout the world . . . May God forever bless the United
States of America.” A final standing ovation.
The five noes
“We will be very
generous on the size of a future Palestinian state,” Netanyahu
proclaimed, calling on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,
to “negotiate.” That these were nothing but empty words was as
crystal clear as his preconditions on all the major issues:
-
No return to 1967
borders. “The border will be different than the one that existed
on June 4, 1967.” On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a surprise
attack on Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Israel occupied the remaining 22
percent of Palestine – the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem –
as well as Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights.
Netanyahu asserted the right of Israel to keep and expand its
illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank, and
much of the Jordan Valley. “It is vital that Israel maintain a
long-term military presence along the Jordan River.” -
No right of return
for Palestinian refugees. By means of terror, 750,000 Palestinians
were driven out to make way for the Israeli state in 1948, their
homes, lands and other property confiscated. Today they and their
descendants number more than six million, many of whom are still
consigned to refugee camps. “This means that the Palestinian
refugee problem will be resolved outside the borders of Israel,”
stated Netanyahu. -
No to the return of
any part of Jerusalem. East Jerusalem was illegally annexed to
Israel after the 1967 war and then expanded to take in much
additional West Bank land. All Palestinian parties call for
Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state. “Jerusalem
must never again be divided. Jerusalem must remain the united
capital of Israel.” -
No to a Palestinian
state that can defend itself. “So it is therefore absolutely vital
for Israel’s security that a Palestinian state be fully
demilitarized.” Thanks to hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S.
aid, Israel is ranked as the 4th
or 5th military
power in the world. -
No negotiations at
all with the Palestinians unless the recently signed Palestinian
National Reconciliation Agreement is broken. “So I say to
President Abbas, Tear up your pact with Hamas. Sit down and
negotiate!”
The last point is the
height of cynical maneuver. Above all, what Netanyahu wants is to
continue the policy of talking peace while taking piece after piece
of Palestinian land.
By setting pre-conditions
that are impossible for the Palestinians to accept, he is attempting
to make it look like they, not the Israeli side, are responsible for
negotiations not taking place. To seal the deal, Netanyahu demands a
breaking of the just-achieved Palestinian unity agreement which is
supported by virtually the entire Palestinian population. It is at
the same time a demand by one side to be able to designate who will
represent the other side in negotiations – something no one,
anywhere would accept.
But Netanyahu’s
maneuvering, while hailed in the halls of Congress, has resolved
nothing. It will likely lead to a deepening of the struggle in
Palestine and the entire region which is in upheaval.
In his May 19 speech on
the Middle East crisis, Obama sought to present the United States as
a supporter of “democracy” and “self-determination,”
including for the Palestinian people. That too was a maneuver,
designed to strengthen the U.S. standing among people in rebellion,
but it was effectively undercut by Netanyahu’s.
But neither maneuvers nor
rhetoric can reverse the tide of history. Just like in South Africa,
the Palestinian people – with the support of the Arab nation as a
whole and all who stand for justice around the world – will
overcome colonial occupation and win self-determination and the right
of return.
