[R-G] Israel becoming its own worst enemy

[Anthony Fenton]

Israel becoming its own worst enemy
January 15, 2009
Haroon Siddiqui
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/571225

Away from the dust kicked up by the arguments between Israel and its  
supporters on the one hand, and Palestinians and theirs on the other,  
we see the following:

The Israeli assault on Gaza shouldn't have come as a surprise.

There had been wide speculation that in the dying days of the Bush  
administration, either Iranian nuclear facilities would be bombed by  
U.S./Israel, or the Gaza Strip attacked, with American backing.

Not only did the White House give the green light – no surprise – but  
Ehud Olmert is boasting that he telephoned George W. Bush to order  
Condoleezza Rice to abstain from voting on the Security Council  
resolution calling for a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

"She was left shamed – a resolution that she prepared and arranged and  
in the end didn't vote for," Olmert said Monday.

The Israeli-U.S.-Canadian axis is at odds with the United Nations and  
much of the world where there's near universal condemnation of Israel.

As during the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which Stephen Harper  
famously described as "a measured response," his government is flying  
in the face of facts.

Peter Kent's was only the most egregious example, parroting the  
Israeli spin on the bombing of a school that killed 43, a version that  
has since been doubted.

Now Michael Ignatieff is parroting Harper. An ostensible lifelong  
advocate of human rights, he is defending what human rights groups are  
condemning as possible war crimes.

Given the disparity between the Harper-Ignatieff position and Canadian  
public sentiment, we face a growing democratic deficit.

Similarly, in echoing the official line on the Middle East, most  
mainstream media outlets – already losing customers and revenues –  
face greater estrangement from consumers.

The web, crackling with a range of views, is attracting increasing  
traffic and not just from the partisans.

It is mostly from there that one learns of prominent Canadians, while  
condemning both Israel and Hamas, beseeching Harper to work for a  
ceasefire:

Right Rev. David Giuliano, moderator of the United Church: "The  
current crisis in Gaza is a tragic consequence of the hatred and  
hostility bred by the occupation."

Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress: "We call on  
you to urge Israel to end its year-long blockade and reopen the border  
crossings so that aid can reach the people suffering from shortages of  
food, fuel ..."

Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union: "The  
blockade over the past year, which Canada supported, has already  
created a humanitarian crisis. There's no justification for the  
collective punishment of civilians."

The Steelworker Toronto Area Council: "End the massacre of Palestinian  
civilians."

We have seen this movie before, several times.

The 1982 Israeli attack on the PLO in Beirut, the 1982-2000 occupation  
of south Lebanon, the crushing of the two intifadas (1987-93 and  
2000-04), and the 2006 invasion of Lebanon were all portrayed as part  
of the war on terror and each a fight to the finish. Now the Gaza  
operation is meant to "totally change the rules of the game," says  
Tzipi Livni. It won't.

Israel has ended up with the exact opposite of what it wanted.

Islamists have been strengthened at the expense of secularists. Hamas,  
Hezbollah and their backers Iran and Syria are riding high, while  
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are on the defensive.

Israel either does not want peace, as its critics claim, or it does  
but by dictating terms to a pliant partner. In either case, a  
ceasefire in Gaza, if and when it comes, can only buy time, if that.

What we are witnessing "will have historic consequences," writes Uri  
Avnery, veteran Israeli peace activist.

"A whole generation of Arab leaders, imbued with the ideology of  
secular Arab nationalism, may be swept from the stage. Tomorrow,  
Israel may be faced with a uniformly fundamentalist Arab world, Hamas  
multiplied by a thousand."

hsiddiq at thestar.ca