In May, in a closed meeting of many of Israel\u2019s business leaders, Idan Ofer, a holding-company magnate, warned, \u201cWe are quickly turning into South Africa. The economic blow of sanctions will be felt by every family in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The business leaders\u2019 particular concern was the U.N. General Assembly session this September, where the Palestinian Authority is planning to call for recognition of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
Dan Gillerman, Israel\u2019s former ambassador to the United Nations, warned participants that \u201cthe morning after the anticipated announcement of recognition of a Palestinian state, a painful and dramatic process of Southafricanization will begin\u201d\u2014meaning that Israel would become a pariah state, subject to international sanctions.<\/p>\n
In this and subsequent meetings, the oligarchs urged the government to initiate efforts modeled on the Saudi (Arab League) proposals and the unofficial Geneva Accord of 2003, in which high-level Palestinian and Israeli negotiators detailed a two-state settlement that was welcomed by most of the world, dismissed by Israel and ignored by Washington.<\/p>\n
In March, Israel\u2019s Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned of the prospective U.N. action as a \u201ctsunami.\u201d The fear is that the world will condemn Israel not only for violating international law but also for carrying out its criminal acts in an occupied state recognized by the U.N.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and Israel are waging intensive diplomatic campaigns to head off the tsunami. If they fail, recognition of a Palestinian state is likely.<\/p>\n
More than 100 states already recognize Palestine. The United Kingdom, France and other European nations have upgraded the Palestine General Delegation to \u201cdiplomatic missions and embassies\u2014a status normally reserved only for states,\u201d Victor Kattan observes in the American Journal of International Law.<\/p>\n
Palestine has also been admitted to U.N. organizations apart from UNESCO and the World Health Organization, which have avoided the issue for fear of U.S. defunding\u2014no idle threat.<\/p>\n
In June the U.S. Senate passed a resolution threatening to suspend aid for the Palestine Authority if it persists with its U.N. initiative. Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned that there was \u201cno greater threat\u201d to U.S. funding of the U.N. \u201cthan the prospect of Palestinian statehood being endorsed by member states,\u201d The (London) Daily Telegraph reports. Israel\u2019s new U.N. Ambassador, Ron Prosor, informed the Israeli press that U.N. recognition \u201cwould lead to violence and war.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.N. would presumably recognize Palestine in the internationally accepted borders, including the Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza. The heights were annexed by Israel in December 1981, in violation of U.N. Security Council orders.<\/p>\n
In the West Bank, the settlements and acts to support them are clearly in violation of international law, as affirmed by the World Court and the Security Council.<\/p>\n
In February 2006, the U.S. and Israel imposed a siege in Gaza after the \u201cwrong side\u201d\u2014Hamas\u2014won elections in Palestine, recognized as free and fair. The siege became much harsher in June 2007 after the failure of a U.S.-backed military coup to overthrow the elected government.<\/p>\n
In June 2010, the siege of Gaza was condemned by the International Committee of the Red Cross\u2014which rarely issues such reports\u2014as \u201ccollective punishment imposed in clear violation\u201d of international humanitarian law. The BBC reported that the ICRC \u201cpaints a bleak picture of conditions in Gaza: hospitals short of equipment, power cuts lasting hours each day, drinking water unfit for consumption,\u201d and the population of course imprisoned.<\/p>\n
The criminal siege extends the U.S.-Israeli policy since 1991 of separating Gaza from the West Bank, thus ensuring that any eventual Palestinian state would be effectively contained within hostile powers\u2014Israel and the Jordanian dictatorship. The Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, proscribe separating Gaza from the West Bank.<\/p>\n
A more immediate threat facing U.S.-Israeli rejectionism is the Freedom Flotilla that seeks to challenge the blockade of Gaza by bringing letters and humanitarian aid. In May 2010, the last such attempt led to an attack by Israeli commandoes in international waters\u2014a major crime in itself\u2014in which nine passengers were killed, actions bitterly condemned outside the U.S.<\/p>\n
In Israel, most people convinced themselves that the commandoes were the innocent victims, attacked by passengers, another sign of the self-destructive irrationality sweeping the society.<\/p>\n
Today the U.S. and Israel are vigorously seeking to block the flotilla. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton virtually authorized violence, stating that \u201cIsraelis have the right to defend themselves\u201d if flotillas \u201ctry to provoke action by entering into Israeli waters\u201d\u2014that is, the territorial waters of Gaza, as if Gaza belonged to Israel.<\/p>\n
Greece agreed to prevent the boats from leaving (that is, those boats not already sabotaged)\u2014though, unlike Clinton, Greece referred rightly to \u201cthe maritime area of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January 2009, Greece had distinguished itself by refusing to permit U.S. arms to be shipped to Israel from Greek ports during the vicious U.S.-Israeli assault in Gaza. No longer an independent country in its current financial duress, Greece evidently cannot risk such unusual integrity.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the flotilla is a \u201cprovocation,\u201d Chris Gunness, the spokesperson for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the major aid agency for Gaza, described the situation as desperate: \u201cIf there were no humanitarian crisis, if there weren\u2019t a crisis in almost every aspect of life in Gaza there would be no need for the flotilla \u00e2(euro) .125 95 percent of all water in Gaza is undrinkable, 40 percent of all disease is water-borne \u2026 45.2 percent of the labor force is unemployed, 80 percent aid dependency, a tripling of the abject poor since the start of the blockade. Let\u2019s get rid of this blockade and there would be no need for a flotilla.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diplomatic initiatives such as the Palestinian state strategy, and nonviolent actions generally, threaten those who hold a virtual monopoly on violence. The U.S. and Israel are trying to sustain indefensible positions: the occupation and its subversion of the overwhelming, long-standing consensus on a diplomatic settlement.<\/p>\n