{"id":87200,"date":"2017-02-20T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=87200"},"modified":"2017-02-21T13:08:05","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:08:05","slug":"israels-vision-for-the-future-is-terrifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/02\/israels-vision-for-the-future-is-terrifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s Vision for the Future Is Terrifying – Doublespeak Abolished"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

Crossing the Qalandiya Checkpoint. (Photo: Tamar Fleishman, PC)<\/p><\/div>\n

15 Feb 2017 – <\/em>Empirical historical evidence combined with little common-sense are enough to tell us the type of future options that Israel has in store for the Palestinian people: perpetual apartheid or ethnic cleansing, or a mix of both.<\/p>\n

The passing of the \u201cRegularisation Bill<\/a>\u201d on 6 February is all we need to imagine the Israeli-envisaged future. The new law allows the Israeli government to retroactively recognise Jewish outposts built without official permission on privately-owned Palestinian land.<\/p>\n

All settlements \u2013 officially recognised settlements and unauthorised outposts \u2013 are illegal under international law. The verdict has been passed numerous times by the United Nations and, more recently, pronounced with unmistakable clarity in\u00a0UN Security Council Resolution 2334<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s response was the announcement of the construction of over 6,000 new housing units to be built throughout the Occupied Palestinian territories, the construction of a brand new settlement (the first in 20 years), and the new law that paves the way for the annexation of large swathes of the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, the law is the \u201clast nail in the coffin of the two-state solution<\/a>\u201d, but that is not important. It never mattered to Israel, anyway. The talk of a solution was mere smoke and mirrors as far as Israel was concerned. All the \u201cpeace talks\u201d and the entirety of \u201cpeace process\u201d, even when it was in its zenith, rarely slowed down the Israeli bulldozers, the construction of more \u201cJewish homes\u201d or ended the unceasing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Writing in Newsweek<\/em><\/a>, Diana Buttu described how the process of building settlements is always accompanied by the demolition of Palestinian homes. 140 Palestinian structures<\/a>\u00a0were demolished since the beginning of 2017, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories.<\/p>\n

Since Donald Trump was sworn in as president of America, Israel has felt liberated from its obligation to doublespeak. For decades, Israeli officials spoke passionately about peace, and did everything in their power to hinder its attainment. Now, they simply do not care. Period.<\/p>\n

They have perfected their balancing act simply because they had to, because Washington expected it, demanded it. But Trump had given them a blank cheque: do as you please; settlements are not obstacles to peace; Israel has been \u201ctreated very, very unfairly<\/a>\u201d and I will correct that historical injustice, and so on.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately after Trump was inaugurated as president on 20 January, all masks came off.<\/p>\n

On 25 January, the real Benjamin Netanyahu resurfaced, dropping his act altogether, and\u00a0declaring in enviable brazenness<\/a>: \u201cWe are building, and we will continue to build\u201d illegal settlements.<\/p>\n

What more is there to talk about with Israel at this point? Nothing. The only solution that mattered to Israel is Israel\u2019s own \u201csolution\u201d, always driven by blind American support, European uselessness and always imposed on the Palestinians and other Arab countries, by force if needed.<\/p>\n

The guardians of the grand charade of the two-state solution, who shrewdly crafted the \u201cpeace process\u201d and danced to every Israeli tune are now bewildered. They have been outed by Israel\u2019s dreadful plans that shot their \u201csolution\u201d right between the eyes, leaving Palestinians to choose between subjugation, humiliation or imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Cook is right<\/a>. The new law is the first step towards the annexing of the West Bank or, at least, most of it. Once small outposts are legalised, they would need to be fortified, (\u201cnaturally\u201d) expanded and protected. The military occupation, in effect for 50 years, will no longer be temporary and reversible. Civil law will continue to apply to Jews in Occupied Palestinian Territories and military laws on occupied Palestinians.<\/p>\n

It is the very definition of Apartheid, in case you are still wondering.<\/p>\n

To meet the \u201csecurity needs\u201d of the settlers, more \u201cJewish-only\u201d bypass roads will be constructed, more walls erected, more gates to keep Palestinians away from their land, schools and livelihood will be put up, more checkpoints, more suffering, more pain, more anger and more violence.<\/p>\n

That is Israel\u2019s vision. Even Trump is growing frustrated by Israel\u2019s shamelessness and audacity. He called on Israel in an\u00a0interview with Israel Hayom<\/em><\/a> newspaper to \u201cbe reasonable with respect to peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much land left. And every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left,\u201d Trump said. He is backtracking on promises he made with regard to moving the US embassy and the unchecked expansion of the settlements and more, as he is realising that Netanyahu and his US supporters have led him to a cliff and are now asking him to jump.<\/p>\n

But it matters little, anyway. Whether Trump holds on to his extremely pro-Israel position or reverts to a wishy-washy stance similar to that of his predecessor, Barack Obama, reality is unlikely to change \u2013 for only Israel is ultimately allowed to influence outcomes.<\/p>\n

Israeli lawmakers\u2019 approval of the bill is, indeed, an end of an era. We have reached the point where we can openly declare that the so-called \u201cpeace process\u201d was an illusion from the start, for Israel had no intentions of ever conceding the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian leadership is hardly blameless in all of this.<\/p>\n

The greatest mistake that the Palestinian leadership committed (aside from its disgraceful disunity) was entrusting the US, Israel\u2019s main enabler, with managing a \u201cpeace process\u201d that has allowed Israel time and resources to finish its colonial projects, while devastating Palestinian rights and political aspirations.<\/p>\n

Returning to the same old channels, using the same language, seeking salvation at the altar of the same old \u201ctwo-state solution\u201d will achieve nothing but waste further time and energy.<\/p>\n

But Israel\u2019s humiliating options to the Palestinians can also be read in a different way. Indeed, it is Israel\u2019s obstinacy that is now leaving Palestinians (and Israelis) with one option, and only one option: equal citizenship in one single state or a horrific apartheid and more ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

In the words of former President Jimmy Carter<\/a>: \u201cIsrael will never find peace until it permit(s) the Palestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Israeli \u201cpermission\u201d is yet to arrive, leaving the international community with the moral responsibility to exact it.<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ramzy Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter. He 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 <\/em>Searching Jenin, <\/em>The Second Palestinian Intifada, and his latest, <\/em>My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza\u2019s Untold Story.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 Feb 2017 – Empirical historical evidence combined with little common-sense are enough to tell us the type of future options that Israel has in store for the Palestinian people: perpetual apartheid or ethnic cleansing, or a mix of both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}