Ethan Bronner wrote a story today with the deeply ironic (for him) title:Beyond Cairo, Israel Sensing a Wider Siege. Ironic, of course, because one of the major themes of the Israeli Occupation of late has been the siege against Gaza. Now it appears, the siege is staring Israel right back in the face.
Bronner’s story actually isn’t half-bad, which is a major achievement for him. But it must’ve pained him deeply to have done so, since the story presented Israel’s status in the Middle East in a dispiriting way. It’s almost unremittingy bleak. Which is uncharacteristic of Bronner, who almost always tries to see the glass as half full as far as Israel is concerned.
With the storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo yesterday, Turkey close to severing relations with Israel, and the Palestinians prepared to mount the barricades to gain statehood this month at the UN, things are looking mighty grim for Bibi Netanyahu these days. As usual, he manages to put the shoe on the other foot by blaming everyone but himself for this predicament:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel warned that Egypt “cannot ignore the heavy damage done to the fabric of peace.”
What Bibi fails to get into his thick skull is that with the Arab Spring, most frontline countries, with the possible exception of Jordan, no longer value the cold peace Israel has offered for decades. With Egypt now run by a regime more prone to acknowledge popular will, and Turkey run by a government which is refusing to take s(^t from Israel, and the PA possibly awakening a least for a moment from its slumber, Israel can no longer feign shock and indignation when Arab states with whom it was ostensibly at peace take a look at the mess of porridge Israel has offered them and respond: “No thanks, we prefer the real thing.”
When I read the following quotations from Israeli diplomatic ‘sages,’ they reminded me of the sort of shoulder-shrugging statements one might’ve heard from Roman diplomats on the eve of the sacking of the city by the Germanic hordes:
“Egypt is not going toward democracy but toward Islamicization,” said Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Cairo who reflected the government’s view. “It is the same in Turkey and in Gaza. It is just like what happened in Iran in 1979.”
A senior official said Israel had few options other than to pursue what he called a “porcupine policy” to defend itself against aggression. Another official, asked about Turkey, said, “There is little that we can do.”
Another way of looking at this sort of attitude is that it’s like a man whose bedroom catches fire. Instead of putting out the fire, he shuts the door and moves to the living room, dons ear buds and cranks up his iPod.
Like the ancient Chinese, Israel is contemplating building yet another wall to keep the Arab hordes out, this time in Sinai. But once again Israel refuses to learn from history. That wall in China didn’t work. The empire’s enemies simply went around it.
Israel, of course, has one reliable ally, the U.S. No matter what Israel does or says, no matter how outrageous its behavior, Barack Obama seems to have fallen back on the Bush administration approach of benign neglect. The only problem with this approach, advocated in another Times story yesterday by an administration voice that sounded like Dennis Ross’, is that benign neglect doesn’t work when both sides have lots of weapons in their hands and aren’t afraid to use them. Such neglect will lead almost inexorably to yet another blood bath. The question is not if, but when and where and how many [die].
POLITICAL PROSTITUTION
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to condemn the attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo but added that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt was still intact.”
It is still intact only for so long as the American Israel lobby can demand its government continues to pay Egypt US$2 billion and Israel US$3 billion annually. When that greasing money in the form of American tax dollars stops, then we can all start running for the fallout shelters.
There is no state in the M E that will voluntarily deal with Israel unless it is paid huge amounts of US money to do so.
It’s political prostitution but who is the pimp that profits?
“What Bibi fails to get into his thick skull is that with the Arab Spring, most frontline countries, with the possible exception of Jordan, no longer value the cold peace Israel has offered for decades. ”
Ha’aretz
Breaking News
Sunday, September 11, 2011
09:49Jordan strengthens security around Israeli Embassy in Amman (Ch. 10)”
looks jordan
Second:
Netanyahu’s government had a clear warning
“Shortly after the masses began crowding into Cairo’s Tahrir Square earlier this year, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a senior official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to prepare for a dramatic change in the relations between Israel and Egypt.
…
Either way, Netanyhau refused Abbas’ offer to renew negotiations based on U.S. President Barack Obama’s May 19 speech calling for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders and agreed land swaps. Simultaneously, Netanyahu made great efforts to convince “the world” that the Israeli-Arab conflict and anti-Israel sentiments are not related to the June 1967 borders but to the May 1948 borders – hence the very existence of Israel.
The conclusion was that ending the occupation will not affect Israel’s international and regional standing. The result: a political deadlock and new construction in West Bank settlements.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-warned-israel-at-start-of-arab-spring-ties-with-egypt-will-change-1.383754
what a funny guy Bibi is:
“Netanyahu now hopes that Israel might be able to get close with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States, who also seek to block the possibility of an Arab Spring in the region. In the West, Netanyahu is hoping to circumvent Turkey by strengthening ties with Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/analysis-crises-with-turkey-and-egypt-represent-a-political-tsunami-for-israel-1.383596
Well, good luck with the political tsunami Israel will face the next weeks, right now it’s just the beginning… And enjoy your new “Friends” as long as they are able to support you and enjoy the political isolation.
We finally agree on something! Well said.
Israel is in a big mess, partly to blame is Bibi, whose incompetence has led us to the situation with Turkey and the Palestinians. However, one should acknowledge that the partners Israel is dealing with are very problematic – often driven by Islamic anti-Zionist sentiment. The thugs that ransacked the Israeli embassy show how different both sides are – and how delicate Israel must be in order to maintain its fragile relations with Egypt.
Israel’s enemies are gloating at Israel’s distress. I am personally concerned by the surge of violent and crazy anti-Zionist sentiment in the region.
Israel’s creation was meant to solve the ghetto mentality. The irony of the Jewish states behaviour is there is no better example of a ghetto than what fortress Israel has now become.
“Israel, of course, has one reliable ally, the U.S. No matter what Israel does or says, no matter how outrageous its behavior…”
Unfortunately you appear to have forgotten our Canadian PM, whose bootlicking is not provided with gritted teeth as is Pres. Obama’s, but rather with unconditional gusto.
That’s right. Sorry I forgot. Yr PM is a disgrace. Totally in the pocket of Canada’s pro Israel Jewish lobby. But Canada as an Israeli ally isn’t nearly as decisive as the U.S.
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RE: “Beyond Cairo, Israel Sensing a Wider Siege.” ~ Bronner
FROM Aluf Benn, Haaretz, 9/10/11
SOURCE – http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/analysis-crises-with-turkey-and-egypt-represent-a-political-tsunami-for-israel-1.383596
ALSO SEE: Former aide to Netanyahu offers Arab proverbs, one about a falling camel, in ‘Washington Times’, By Philip Weiss, 8/21/11