The triumph of law and order over criminality and chaos is always welcome. The International Court of Justice, a UN institution created with the blessing of America and its allies, has decreed that the wall being built by Israel is illegal.
As expected, Israel trashed the UN, the court, the world, and is rushing to hide behind America. The Israelis can build what they want inside their land. That is a given.
But the wall is being built on Palestinian land and dividing families unjustly. This is not security; rather, it is a bullying tactic by someone used to getting away with such behavior.
Imagine if the US built a wall inside Mexico to keep the illegal immigrants from coming in. That would be illegal. However, if the US builds such things (and there are fences and walls) within its border, no one will protest.
The UN being trashed by Israel now is the same that issued a resolution that literally created the state of Israel in 1948.
That Saddam ignored UN resolutions was one of George Bush’s strongest reasons for going to war. Of course, the UN is not perfect, but it brought peace to Serbia, it put Milosevic on trial, it provides aid to the hungry, and helps America get what it wants when in a crisis, as is now the case with Iraq.
One cannot pick and choose at will what is acceptable and what is not. Sure enough, Israel needs security, but it can’t use that for a blatant land grab.
The world, including the US, has said as much. If the issue were only security, Israel would have built its wall within its recognized borders.
There is so much that is warped in the Middle East, and Israel certainly fits into that pattern. The Israelis keep reminding the world that they are the only democracy in the area.
Fine, but how are they acting within that democracy? They are acting as any petty dictator in the neighborhood would. Is that what democracy adds up to? Would Saddam’s land grab called the “invasion of Kuwait” have been more palatable had he run a democratic regime?
There are fanatics on both sides of this divide. They have been winning this struggle to the detriment of a whole region.
It seems to me that their raison d’etre is nothing more than keeping the status quo and the blood running. Every time saner people try to build on the positive, they are thwarted.
Israel is now officially at peace with two of its neighbors. The geopolitical situation in the area has changed in a way that makes peace more attainable than it ever was.
There is talk of peace in Damascus: something that used to be anathema. Israel is no longer the weak state in a sea of hostile Arab countries.
It has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world.
It has an army that gets the latest weapons produced by American technology before NATO does. It is time to drop this fallacy.
