When it comes to the facts and the moral high ground, Israel always comes up lacking.
The Jewish state hides behind its religious history to defend itself against its own crimes against humanity, deflects talk about justice by issuing a one-sided claim on security, and says it wants peace but really wants land.
And the reason Israel gets away with this is that it also manipulates the spin masterfully.
It doesn’t “walk the walk” when it comes to really wanting peace based on compromise, but better than anyone and more importantly, Israel knows how to “talk the talk.” When President Barack Obama made an unprecedented speech to the Arab and Muslim World in June, he offered something that few predecessors even bothered to consider: empathy for the suffering of the Palestinian people and a recognition that both sides deserve justice along with peace.
The concept of peace and justice is in fact the perfect balance that could result in an end to the longstanding conflict with Israel. Israel knows that. But Israel also knows that it can offer peace and stop short on “justice” and thereby thwart peace.
What does Israel lose without peace? Nothing. Israel has everything it wants, and that is the one thing President Obama does not understand. Israel would just as soon have no peace by creating an environment in which it can continue to talk the walk while refusing to walk.
That explains why Israel’s right-wing fanatic Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, can get away with his duplicitous rhetoric.
For example, Netanyahu said he shared Obama’s vision for peace and he spoke of extending his country’s hand to its “Arab neighbors” — Israel doesn’t consider the Palestinians neighbors, but as an annoyance that must be eliminated.
But in reality, Netanyahu has played games with Obama, who called for Israel to freeze the illegal settlements which are built on Arab-owned lands and backed by a government policy of religious racism. Those settlements are for “Jews only.” Netanyahu refuses to freeze the settlements and has accelerated plans to expand the settlements, increasing the Jewish presence in the occupied territories while continuing to reduce both Christian and Muslim Arab presence through expulsion and home demolition.
This past week, Israel evicted two Arab families living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood which, from a hilltop, overlooks the occupied Old City of Jerusalem. More than 50 people, mostly children, were thrown out on the street in another incident involving home expulsions. They have been replaced by Jewish settlers, most of them racists who support apartheid policies to “transfer” non-Jews out of Israel.
Netanyahu is the master of talking the talk. In his speech responding to Obama — as if he is anywhere near a close match to Obama when it comes to morality, ethics and principle — Netanyahu declared that Palestinians and Israelis should return to the negotiating table “without pre-conditions.” And then, Netanyahu spent the remainder of the speech outlining in specific detail preconditions that he insists Palestinians must accept as a precursor to resuming talks.
Palestinians, Netanyahu asserts, must give up all claims to Arab East Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967.
He says Palestinians must agree to a state presumably sovereign but without sovereignty. The Palestinian state cannot have a military, cannot enter into foreign alliances and cannot have control of the airspace over its own lands.
In fact, when the list of Netanyahu’s preconditions ends, the only thing left for Palestinians is that they can “exist” with a flag, a national anthem and a ‘pretend’ government that is powerless but responsible for keeping its people in line.
In other words, Netanyahu says that Palestinians in the West Bank should do what he insists Hamas must do in the Gaza Strip, control the Israeli prison. Keep the Palestinians in line. Do not benefit from the land, and accept the continued presence of settlements in the occupied territories.
The biggest mistake Palestinians and the Arab world have made is to believe that Israel will ever negotiate in good faith during a period of peace. Whether it is peace talks or continued conflict, Israel’s policies remain the same. They want the Palestinian lands. As much of those lands as possible.
Backed against a wall, many Palestinians believe their only option has been to fight. But fighting and violence have won nothing. What Palestinians must do is to find a way to unify behind one secular government. Set aside the religious extremism that has given Hamas an artificial claim to power. And focus not on Netanyahu but on the people of Israel and the American public.
The American public needs to be made to understand the real consequences of Israel’s arrogance — that Americans always end up paying the price. And if the Israeli public can be dislodged from their supremacist arrogance to recognize that genuine peace based on justice can result in real peace, then and only then can Palestinians finally have their own state.
Palestinians must step back from the Israeli game, because that is what Israel is doing. Israel knows how to provoke and manipulate Palestinian public emotions.
It’s time the Palestinians stopped allowing themselves being so easily manipulated by extremist Israeli rhetoric, policies and even criminal acts by the settler terrorists.
Palestinians need to learn how to manipulate Israeli public opinion and public opinion in the United States.
President Barack Obama may not be able to usher in a genuine peace accord. But his understanding and empathy for the just Palestinian cause has created an opportunity for strategic Palestinian thinking that will allow for the manipulation of both American and Israeli public opinion.
— Ray Hanania is an award winning Palestinian American columnist, author and radio talk show host.
