All the pushing by Obama, or anyone else for that matter, won’t by itself bring about any massive change. For too many years now the Israeli government has allowed any and all evil idealism to spread within its society, just so long as the ultimate goal was the continued colonization and spread of Israel. After generations of this, it won‘t be easy rolling the illegal hate filled apartheid tide backwards. This is Israeli problem. Even if an Israeli prime Minister decided the best option for Israel’s continued existence as a “Jewish” state was to make peace with Palestinians and give them a state, he would not be capable of doing so. This is the way the Israeli government is set up, no one can push through an agenda without all the much more nasty little fringe elements on board. It’s the powerful evil rump that rules the roost. And this is a direct result of past Israeli governments for allowing it to spin out of control, in order to make gains at the time, without having any foresight for the future conundrum it was creating.
It is only when the Israeli public get on board that we will see any real change. I immediately think of the political situation here in Ireland, when the Republican Movement and the IRA decided strategically to move towards a ceasefire and enter into politics as a way to contune the struggle. For such a sea change to work, you must always bring along your support base. This takes time and hard ground work; it also takes a phenomenal amount of meeting your supporters in order to explain the strategy so that it can be seen as part of the overall struggle, not an abandonment of Republican ideals. And yes, there were failures, more than one ceasefire forced to end due to British intransigence. But ultimately this eventually changed due to strong political work and a united strategy by well educated Republicans.
Israel has not even remotely begun this road, although I do believe even some hardcore Zionists are waking up to the fact that unless a new direction is somehow begun, the state of Israel as we know it will ultimately end, it will either become a fully fledged and world wide recognised Apartheid state, or it will no longer be a “Jewish” state. And not having a “Jewish” state is more fearful to Israelis than all the threats Obama could ever throw their way, even if he had the Chutzpah to!
So when I read things like this:
link Remembering and looking to future. On Sunday, the eve of Memorial Day, Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke at a ceremony at Tel Aviv University. "We are committed to working for the State's security, without compromise, while demonstrating responsibility, courage, and political wisdom in the struggle to achieve the desired peace, in the frame of an inclusive regional agreement in line with the Road Map and the concept of 'two states for two peoples'."It is what immediately springs to mind. Although admittedly, the Irish problem may have been entrenched for 800 years. Israel faces a much worse problem than we did here. At least Irish Republicans saw Unionists as their “Irish Brothers” in any new united Ireland. Whereas in Israel this mindset does not exist because of their insistence on having a Jewish only state. And this will be what ultimately causes Israel to do some sort of deal. Which leaves the question that stared my post today, are we starting to see the drip, drip, drip now? Will this message begin to be pushed by the Israeli government? Will Israeli state controlled media now begin to push the line that in order to maintain their Jewish state they must begin to work in earnest for a solution?
I must include here, that obviously Israel will continue to attempt to steal as much as humanly possible, right up and until any deal would ever be struck. Because part of Israel’s strategy has always been to steal 75% and then give back 10-25% as proof they are nice people.
Should the time come when the Israeli society begins to back a solution out of fear of loosing their "Jewish" state, the world must ensure that the Palestinians get a fair deal, that all democratically elected Palestinian parties are represented at the table, and full sovereignty, without American intervention or troops on the ground.
