March 19, 2015 6:44 AM

"As an Israeli, I am ashamed that my prime minister is a racist"

If after six years of nothing, if after six years of sowing fear and anxiety, hatred and despair, this is the nation’s choice, then it is very ill indeed. If after everything that has been revealed in recent months, if after everything that has been written and said, if after all this, the Israeli phoenix succeeded in rising from the ashes and getting reelected, if after all this the Israeli people chose him to lead for another four years, something is truly broken, possibly beyond repair. Netanyahu deserves the Israeli people and they deserve him…. Yesterday the foundations were laid for the apartheid state that is to come. If Netanyahu succeeds in forming the next government in his spirit and image, then the two-state solution will finally be buried and the struggle over the character of a binational state will begin.

Judging by what can only be described as the American Far Right’s collective spontaneous orgasm over the news of Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election, the world is in, to quite a certain prior President, “deep doo-doo.” That Netanyahu’s victory is an affirmation of Israel’s openly racist agenda isn’t subject to debate; it’s a demonstrable fact. The Prime Minister played the race card late in the election season when it appeared that he was in real danger of losing, even going so far as to come out in opposition to the idea of a Palestinian state. With the two-state solution all but dead due to Netanyahu’s ugliness and intransigence, Israel is all but guaranteed a circular future of war, terrorism, and hatred. This impact us directly, because American taxpayers are going to be on the hook for a good portion of it.

I generally try to avoid commenting on the conflict in the Middle East. From where I sit, I could more productively pound my head into a wall. That said, my cynical view seems even more accurate as the smoke clears from an election in which Israel re-affirmed their confidence in an unapologetic racist who’d sooner destroy the adversaries of the Jewish state than negotiate with them. What Netanyahu fails to understand is that negotiating from the barrel of a gun may lead to a state of not-war, but peace cannot be achieved through force of arms. Peace can only be achieved through negotiation and mutual, reciprocated good will and honest intent. Unfortunately for those who fervently hope for peace in the Middle East, Netanyahu has the testicles of the American Far Right in his suit pocket. This makes any hope for peace a virtual pipe dream. Netanyahu rules because he’s able to successfully invoke the specter of The Other- an evil, shadowy force that exists primarily to drive Israel into the sea.

The worst part of the Israeli electorate’s confirmation of racism as state policy is that American taxpayers are paying for a good chunk of the infrastructure supporting that racism. I firmly believe that both sides have blood on their hands, and that Israel is every built as culpable as Hamas and other Palestinian groups dedicated to destruction of the Jewish state. There are no aggrieved parties unless you agree that everyone is an aggrieved party. Until both sides can back away from their absolutist, show-no-mercy-take-no-prisoners intransigence and negotiate in good faith, nothing will change. Instead, we’ll be left with more of what the late Yitzhak Rabin decried as “more blood and tears.”

Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election almost certainly guarantees there will be more blood and tears to come. His interests lie not in negotiating with Israel’s enemies to find a mutually satisfactory peace, but in destroying those enemies utterly. Israel has exactly the quality of leadership it deserves; who would have thought their standards were so low, and that ratcheting up the racist rhetoric would be the deciding factor?

It’s safe to say that there is no credible hope for peace with Netanyahu in office. He will continue to poison the well when it comes to any sort of negotiation with Israel’s enemies, which in turn will ensure a virtually endless flow of blood and tears.

Congratulations, Israel.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 19, 2015 6:44 AM.

Politics may stop at the water's edge...but Republican hypocrisy doesn't was the previous entry in this blog.

One of mankind's last great remaining questions answered is the next entry in this blog.

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