Isreal / Plaestine -What can the quartet do towards advancing a two state solution ;

galway | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis

Friday March 19, 2010 14:12

by donkylemore

More Expansionism in Jerusalem -More rockets from Gaza - Retaliation by Israel..etc etc- Another Jihad ?

Forget about Blair ..
As the baroness leads the EU team to negotiate in the region with the other members of the quartet
what can be achieved .
-Nothing unless sanctions are applied against Israel and the UN courts come out with less ambiguous deliberations .
The danger is that situation will escalate into another JIhad and open an opportunity for Iran to enter the fray..

Forget about Blair ; He holds the least laudable credit in the region. He is there because he was deemed to be the ”friendly US/ EU guy'' The one who would ensure that the moral ballast which the US afforded Israel was always'' evenhanded. in Israel's favour' ' Did he even bother to enter Gaza before Ms Clinton’s arrival, notwithstanding that he’d held the appointment for many months at the time?- He showed up just before Clinton first tour .-whose a poodle now !

What the baroness should be trying to do more that anything else is to determine what war crimes were committed during operation Dead Lead,; establish if the war was illegal, disproportionate , and if illegal weaponry was used ; She should then report immediately to the UN and urge that court to cudgel itself out of it's inertia and proceed with their deliberations against both sides.
But the Israelis until this week have always relied on strong US bias in the region.The denunciation of Israel building yet more settlements in Jerusalem may have been a tipping point . The announcement that more illegal buildings be constructed in East Jesusalm - al Qud may have proved too much for the US to stomach as it coming as it did when Mr Mitchell was about to restart negotiations- and had to abandon them.

Moreover , the overall atmosphere was further rendered all the more toxic after a recent decision by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to add two Islamic sites — the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, which Jews call the Cave of the Patriarch, and the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem, known to the Jews as Rachel’s Tomb — to a newly-founded list of Jewish heritage sites.
Another source of tension has been a decision by the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, to destroy an entire Arab neighbourhood in the eastern part of the city in order to build tourist facilities. Deemed an “act of rape” and “ethnic cleansing”, Palestinians argue that the demolition of dozens of homes in the Silwan neighbourhood is but a further attempt to judaise Arab East Jerusalem.

The timing of attack and counter attack in Gaza is predictably nauseating. Just as the Arab peoples were getting a sympathetic ear , there are more mortars launched from Gaza., and these reciprocated by a retaliatory Israeli Air strike within 24 hours.

But the threat of a new Jihad by the Palestinians should not be overlooked. And what effect could it have in advancing a 2 state solution; ? Perhaps very little and may play more favorably into the Israeli hand now that they have received a US snub and an EU rebuke.
Which of these would be the more effective ?

If the Israelis are not held to account ( in proportional degree to the way the Palestinains are made accountable ) there will be no advance .
If the EU decided to boycott Israel coupled with a similar gesture from the Obama administration after listening to the UN courts , Israel could be forced to open the borders, stop the expansionism, respect the Muslim holy places of veneration in the territories .
Otherwise the area will erupt in another Jihad and a possible fresh Israeli invasion into Gaza, and provide Muslims in the region to use the opportunity to launch a ''dirty'' bomb against Israel; Iran being the most likely to do so. , obviously being Iran.
It would also provide Iran with an opportunity to deflect attention from Persident Ahmadimijad 's sectarian government .