The
Trump-Netanyahu Circus: Now, No One Can Save
Israel from Itself
By Ramzy Baroud
February
25, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- The President of the United States can
hardly be taken seriously, saying much but doing
little. His words, often offensive, carry no
substance, and it is impossible to summarize his
complex political outlook about important
issues.
This is
precisely the type of American presidency that
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
prefers.
However, Donald Trump is not just a raving man,
but a dangerous one as well. His
unpredictability must worry Israel, which
expects from its American benefactors complete
clarity and consistency in terms of its
political support.
At the
age of 70, Trump is incapable of being the
stalwart, pro-Zionist ideologue in a way that
suits Israeli interests well.
Take, for example, the White
House press conference following
the much anticipated visit by Netanyahu to
Washington on 15 February.
The visit
was scheduled immediately
after Trump’s inauguration on 20 January and is
considered the Trump Presidency’s answer to what
Israel wrongly perceives as a hostile US
administration under former President Barack
Obama.
However, Obama granted Israel $38 billion over
the course of ten years, estimated to be the most
generous aid package in US history.
He supported all the Israeli wars against
Palestinians during his presidency, and
unfailingly defended Israel before the
international community, at the United Nations
and every global forum in which Israel was
justifiably criticised.
But Israel expects blind support. It needs a US
administration that is as loyal as the US
Congress, always praising Israel, degrading
Palestinians, dismissing international law,
calling to stop
funding the UN for
daring to demand accountability from Israel,
feeding Israeli “security” phobias with monetary
and absolute political backing, demonising Iran,
undermining the Arabs and repeating all Israeli
talking points fed to them by Tel Aviv and by
the fifth column lobbyists in Washington.
Trump is striving to be that person, the messiah that
Israel’s army of right-wing, ultranationalists
and religious zealots have been calling for. But
this appears beyond the man’s control, no matter
how hard he tries.
“Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the
one that both parties like. I’m very happy with
the one both parties like. I can live with
either one,” Trump
said in answer
to a journalist’s question, implying to Israel
that the US will no longer impose solutions;
instead, Trump pushed the “one-state solution”
idea to the very top of the discussion. It is
not what Israel wanted – or expected.
In Washington, Netanyahu, with unmistakable
pomposity, stood before the media and simply
lied. He
painted Israel as vulnerable, a prey for dark
“radical Islam” forces, ready to strike from
every corner.
He presented Iran’s nuclear capabilities as if
it is lined up to incinerate Israel, itself
built atop the graves and villages of
dispossessed Palestinians. No journalist had the
courage to quiz the Israeli leader about his
own country’s massive nuclear arsenal and
other weapons of mass destruction. Listening to
him preach fabricated history to the incurious
American media, one would think that militarily
powerful Israel is occupied by hostile
Palestinian foreigners, and not vice versa.
Netanyahu claimed his people belonged to
Palestine as the French belonged to France and
the Chinese to China. But if European Jewish
immigrants are the natives of Palestine, then what
is one to make of Palestinians?
How is one to explain their existence on land
that has carried their collective name for
millennia?
This is
inconsequential to the US government and
mainstream media. US media is as uninformed
about the realities of the Middle East as Trump,
who seems to have only two main talking points
about the whole issue, both embarrassingly
bizarre:
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Israel
has been treated “very, very badly” by the US,
and he has a “really great peace deal” in store.
On the contrary, Palestinians have been treated
“very, very badly” by the US, the most
generous supporter of Israel.
Israel has used mostly American weapons in its
wars against Palestinians and other Arab
nations, with thousands of Palestinians losing
their lives because of this blind American
patronage.
As for
his “really great peace deal”, Trump has
nothing. “Really great” seems to be his answer
to everything, to the point that his words are
becoming ineffectual clichés, suitable for
twitter jokes and comedy.
Furthermore, Netanyahu, urged on by – to quote
former Secretary of State, John Kerry – the “most
right-wing coalition in Israeli history” –
wants the US to unconditionally support Israel
as the latter is finalizing its future “vision”.
Now, it seems that Israel is concluding that
territorial quest. The “Regularization Law”
passed recently in Israel’s parliament – the
Knesset – will
retroactively validate all Israeli illegal
settlers’ claims over
Palestinian land. Top Israel officials now
openly speak of annexation of the West Bank,
using language that was formerly reserved for
Jewish extremists.
Israel’s president believes annexation is the
answer. “I, Rubi Rivlin, believe that Zion is
entirely ours. I believe the sovereignty of the
State of Israel must be in all the blocs,” Rivlin
said,
emphasizing that he was referring to the entire
West Bank, as quoted by the
Times of Israel.
The
consensus among Israel’s ruling class is that a
Palestinian state should never be established.
Trump, although incoherent, granted them just
that.
So what
does Netanyahu want? We know he does not want a
Palestinian state and plans to annex all Jewish
colonies, while continuing to expand over stolen
Palestinian land. He wants Palestinians to
exist, but without political will of their own,
without sovereignty, forced to accept that
Israel is a Jewish state (thus signing off on
their historic right to their own land); to
remain subdued, passive, disarmed, dehumanized.
Netanyahu’s end game is Apartheid, racist
segregation where one party, Israeli Jews,
dominates and exploits the other – Palestinian
Arabs: Muslims and Christians.
But
human dignity is not open for negotiation, no
matter how a “good negotiator” Netanyahu is –
according to Trump’s assertion.
Palestinians have resisted Israel for nearly 70
years because they challenge their servitude.
They will continue to resist.
Israel
has the military means to punish Palestinians
for their resistance, to push them behind
military checkpoints and trap them behind walls.
Yet, it is not a matter of firepower, and no
wall can be high enough to stymie the echoes of
oppressed people striving for freedom, human
rights, equality and solidarity.
Netanyahu must feel triumphant because of
Trump’s assuring words. The Israeli leader wants
any victory, however illusive, to buy time and
the allegiance of his camp of extremists,
especially now that he is being investigated for
fraud and is likely
to be indicted.
He may
even initiate a war against Gaza to create
further distraction, and will readily spin facts
so that his country is presented as a victim, to
test American support and to “downgrade” Hamas’
and other Palestinian groups’ defenses.
However, none of this will change the reality
that Netanyahu has unwisely constructed. His
vision for Israel is the perpetual subjugation
of Palestinians through a system of racial
discrimination that will continue until the
world unravels the lies and the propaganda.
Having
Trump by his side, Netanyahu will work
diligently to perfect the Palestinian prison in
the name of Israel’s security.
Palestinians must now respond, without the
irrelevant rhetoric of a “two-state solution”,
but with a unified universal message to the rest
of the world: expecting – in fact, demanding –
freedom, equality, full rights in a society that
is not predicated on racial order, but on equal
citizenship.
Israel
has laid out its dark vision. Palestinians must
present the antithesis to that destructive
vision: a road map towards justice, equality and
peace for all.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud
has been writing about the Middle East for over
20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated
columnist, a media consultant, an author of
several books and the founder of
PalestineChronicle.com. His books include
“Searching Jenin”, “The Second Palestinian
Intifada” and his latest “My Father Was a
Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story”. His
website is
www.ramzybaroud.net
.
