Netanyahu’s outbursts serve no purpose

Hardly has any Israeli leader in generations clashed so loudly with their key powerful supporters — American presidents — as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently done with President Barack Obama over the current United States peace-seeking stance with Iran over its nuclear aspirations.

This conflict has equally touched off a serious rift between this arrogant Israeli leader and several of his prominent co-religionists in the US, who run influential American Jewish organisations.

At the same time another front-page issue, the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is bound to precipitate a similar result primarily because of Israel’s expansionist policies in the Occupied Territories and its continued failure to spell out its readiness to accept a fair settlement which the Palestinians, unlike the Israelis, have publicly outlined.

Although international attention towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has not recently been as focussed as towards the Iranian issue, an announcement from the so-called Middle East Quartet last Sunday unexpectedly sought the resumption of Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations as soon as possible.

The representatives of the Quartet — comprised of the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — urged a “sustainable peace”, which they stressed, according to a State Department statement, “requires the Palestinians’ aspirations for statehood and sovereignty and those of Israelis for security to be fulfilled through negotiations based on the two-state solution”.

The western negotiators on the Iran nuclear issue, known as the P5+1 (US, Russia, Britain, France, China + Germany), are at present in Munich in the midst of negotiations in the hope of reaching an outline for a nuclear deal by the end of March, in keeping with a target set by negotiators last year.

And then there is the upcoming divisive visit of Netanyahu to Washington, at the surprise invitation of Speaker John A. Boehner, to address next month a joint session of Congress, which has been split over whether to impose further sanctions on Iran or — as favoured by most Democratic Congressmen and several prominent Jewish leaders — to lie low until the negotiations in Munich are over. Obama has gone on record against any vote on sanctions in order not to jeopardise the current negotiations regarding the controversial Iranian nuclear programme. Consequently, there was a justifiable outcry both in Israel and the US against the visit by the Israeli prime minister, who remains determined to come. His point, “Just as I went to Paris (after the recent terrorist attack there), so I will go anyplace I’m invited to convey the Israelis position against those who want to kill us.”

Interestingly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in Sweden this week to meet the new Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven, who had infuriated Israel when Sweden became the first major European country to recognise Palestine as a state.

Consequently, Sweden’s relationship with Israel has nose-dived, the first sign being the cancellations of visit the Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom to Israel reportedly because Israel would not give her an official welcome.

Before his arrival in Sweden, Abbas seemed determined to pursue the advantages that he had gained after Palestine joined the International Criminal Court (ICC), a step that will also infuriate Israel. And he has just announced the formation of a new 32-member committee, led by Saeb Erekat, the top Palestinian negotiator, that will be assigned to submit war crimes and crimes against humanity complaints against Israel.

The Palestinian National Authority, which had already asked the ICC to investigate the Gaza operation, is now planning to also ask the court to look into Israel’s colony construction. The latest infraction in this respect has been the publication of Israeli tenders for 580 hotel rooms in occupied East Jerusalem.

However, these recent ugly steps taken by the arrogant Netanyahu are likely to cripple his attempt to retain his country’s premiership after national elections on March 17 — a view that is shared by many Israelis as recent polls have indicated there.

George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com