Gershon Baskin

All of his achievements

16.08.2018

Gershon Baskin. Photo: Otmar Steinbicker

After nine years in power, three wars in Gaza and endless missed opportunities to renew genuine negotiations with the Palestinians, there is no need to guess what the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are. One needs only to observe, analyze and think straight.

Netanyahu has implanted policies aimed at preserving a weak Hamas regime in Gaza and a castrated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. In his view of Israel, a divided Palestinian political house with a regime in Gaza considered to be unacceptable to much of the world, and a Palestinian Authority with very limited authority in the West Bank, completely delegitimized in the eyes if its own people, is the perfect pretext for Netanyahu not to have to negotiate with the Palestinians from any side. The scenario works. The Palestinians, he claims, are not under Israeli control, they have their own government in Gaza and their own government in the West Bank. There is only minor resistance by radicals and Islamic fanatics who are committed to Israel’s destruction. There is no pressure for him to negotiate land for peace, there is no peace process. Israel does whatever it wants in the West Bank and in Gaza, and he gets away with it.

Netanyahu has succeeded in forcing Palestinians to leave Area C in the West Bank, demolishing homes, wells and communities – and this is in 62% of the West Bank. Netanyahu has succeeded in expanding the Israeli population in settlements throughout the West Bank – especially outside of the so-called settlement blocks. He has succeeded in expropriating more Palestinian land in the West Bank, gaining support of the Knesset and the courts. He has convinced donor nations – the United States the most important among them – to reduce financial support to the Palestinian Authority, bringing it dangerously close to bankruptcy.

At the same time, Israel continues to coordinate security with the Palestinian security forces, while arresting Palestinians every night from their beds, and almost no one in Israel, or around the world lifts a finger or shows sign of even caring. Palestinian building on their own private land in Area C is deemed illegal by the occupation authorities and Palestinians have no recourse anywhere to prevent this.

Netanyahu has succeeded in increasing the demolition of more Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and forcing more Palestinians out of their homes in Jerusalem, enabling Jewish settlers to take over properties in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. Netanyahu and his regime have changed the consciousness of perhaps most Israelis regarding one of the largest Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem (Silwan), virtually erasing its dominance over the landscape in favor a story of 3,000 years ago. He has legalized and finances a private extremist right-wing political foundation (El’ad) to be in charge of one of the most historic and sensitive parts of Jerusalem as the arm of the National Parks Authority of the Government of Israel. He finances another settler organization (Ateret Kohanim) in Jerusalem, which works to displace Palestinian families all over Jerusalem and place right-wing religious Jewish families in their place and then charges the taxpayers millions to provide those Jewish invaders private security services.

Netanyahu has succeeded in keeping two million Palestinians in Gaza constantly just on the brink of humanitarian disaster. He has held Gaza as the world’s largest open-air prison, preventing the movement of people, the flow of electricity and water, freezing the economy there. While terming the Hamas government of Gaza the front line of Iran in the region, he has indirectly repeatedly negotiated cease-fires with them. He has successfully strategized and implemented a situation of mutual aid and support between his own government and Hamas, constantly marginalizing and delegitimizing Palestinian moderates in favor of the extremists.

Netanyahu has succeeded in enabling a policy that prevents critics of Israel from entering Israel – regardless of their nationality and religion – including Jews. This prime minister has turned support for Israel into a partisan issue in the US Congress, putting his support behind the Republican Party and losing support for Israel among Democrats at an alarming pace. He has succeeded in convincing Israelis and Jews around the world that criticism against Israel’s occupation policies is equal to being anti-Israel, to delegitimizing Israel’s existence and even to being antisemitic (which it is not).

Netanyahu has alienated millions of American Jews who identify with the Reform and Conservative movements of Judaism. He has supported policies that deny non-Orthodox forms of Judaism legitimacy and equal rights in the State of Israel.

From day one in office, Netanyahu has incited against the Palestinian citizens of Israel. He has called them terrorist arsonists. He has alienated 1.5 million Israeli citizens from their state. He has downgraded the Arabic language, which was never treated as an official language to begin with. He has continued the policies of not building a single new community for this population of Israeli citizens who continue to contribute to the State’s economy and its society, despite Netanyahu and his right-wing regime.

Netanyahu has succeeded to be in office for nine years without presenting a single Israeli peace initiative. He has succeeded in reducing the chances of ever being able to create a two-state solution between the river and the sea. In what was called the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people, Netanyahu has succeeded in solidifying the non-validity of both of those pillars of Israel’s identity. In the real Israel of 2018, the territory under Israel’s control between the river and the sea, at least 50% of the people do not enjoy democracy, nor are they Jewish.

What does that make Israel, Mr. Netanyahu?

Our collective tragedy is that in the years to come we will probably see more of Netanyahu’s successes pile up.

Gershon Baskin ist Autor des Aachener Friedensmagazins www.aixpaix.de. Seine Beiträge finden Sie hier


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Beiträge von Gershon Baskin
2018

All of his achievements

A question of honor

Heroes and terrorists

Barak is coming?

Israel’s strategic dead end in Gaza

Undoing the two-state solution

Leveraging the Gaza crisis

Memories and the future

Encountering drama and lies

From Jerusalem will come hope!

Preventing the next war

No more slogans, we need action!

The missing Jerusalem

It still is the occupation

Beyond deterrence

Alienation

It is up to us

The past is beyond us

Existential Realities

2017

Our Jerusalem

November 29 - a national holiday

Two nation-states, two national minorities

Being Jewish

Public diplomacy

Gabbay on the road to defeat

Gaza’s geo-strategic remaking

The Americans are Coming, Again!

The next Palestinian generation

The house of God

IF I WERE THE PALESTINIAN LEADER...

The Zionist Left – Israel’s only hope

To be a free people

The Day after Independence Day

Prisoners, strikes and rights

The inevitability of peace

From Washington to Jerusalem

Eight pieces of advice to Trump envoy Jason Greenblatt

Becoming a real, effective democracy requires a real, effective opposition

Only two states – nothing else

The fatal Israeli-Gaza mistake (2)

The fatal Israeli-Gaza mistakes

The wisdom to limit our rights

Where to, Israel?

Get out of our lives already!

The authority of the Authority

2016

The state of denial

Settlements, annexation and the death of Zionism

It’s not just the economy

Encountering peace?

Building a shared society

Excuse me for asking

Secret back channels

Anti-anti-normalization

The Left is right

A moment of opportunity

The worst negotiations, the best negotiations

Palestinian suffering makes no sense for Israel

Creating a compelling vision for peace

It is also in our hands

There is no partner

2015

The partnership challenge

A new intifada?

After Abbas

A bad agreement is better than no agreement

Israel’s strategic choices regarding Gaza

2014

Jerusalem of peace, Jerusalem of war

The Gaza challenge

Is Hamas prepared to end this war with a long-term ceasefire?

Some thoughts this morning

Regional forum for security and stability – Gaza first

After a long phone conversation with a Hamas leader in Gaza

Don’t destroy Gaza, build it!

Framework document for the establishment of permanent peace (part 3 of 3)

Framework document for the establishment of permanent peace (part 2 of 3)

Framework document for the establishment of permanent peace

2013

My Conversation With Hamas

Keine Fortsetzung des Unilateralismus!

Diesen Weg müssen wir einschlagen!

2012

Eine Ein-Staat-Realität ist nicht durchführbar

Mord an der Chance für Ruhe

Das Ende des Raketenbeschusses aus Gaza

Es gibt einen Ausweg

Atomwaffen raus aus dem Arsenal

Was Abbas Israel sagen sollte

Ist mein zionistischer Traum gestorben?