Netanyahu's High-stakes Game in Gaza:
Same Time, Same Place
21 November 2012
By Ramzy Baroud
Many key phrases have been presented to explain
Israel's latest military onslaught against Gaza, which
left scores dead and wounded. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is flexing his muscles in
preparation for the Israeli general elections in
January, suggested some. It is Israel's way of testing
the administration of Egyptian President Mahmoud Morsi,
commented others. It was a stern message to Iran,
instructed few. Or that Israel is simply assessing its
‘deterrence' capabilities. And so on.
But there is more than those ready-to-serve analyses.
It has been four years since Israel mixed up the cards
through an unhindered show of force. Last time it did
so was in 2008-09, in a 22-day war it termed
‘Operation Cast Lead'. Then, it killed over 1,400
Palestinians and wounded over 5,000 others. Excluding
Israel's diehard supporters, the general consensus
was, including that of many UN and international
rights organizations: Israel committed war crimes and
crimes against humanity deserving of international
tribunals and due retribution.
Of course, none took place. The US government and
media stood as an impenetrable shield between Israel's
accused war criminals and those daring to level
accusations. Four years later little has changed. Then
as it is now, Israel was embarking on national
elections, and since ‘security' is Israel's enduring
strategy whether in national or international
politics, it was suddenly realized that Gaza posed a
‘security threat', thus had to be suppressed or at
least taught a lesson. Never mind that a truce was in
affect and was mostly holding up, that it was Israel
that provoked Palestinian factions to retaliate –
before the retaliation was itself considered the
original act of aggression as willfully validated by
mainstream western media.
In 2008, Barack Obama was elected president, and the
outgoing George W. Bush administration remained
largely ‘uninvolved', save for the reiteration of
Israel's right to defend itself against hordes of
Palestinian terrorists and such. Some then, suggested
that Cast Lead was an Israeli trial balloon to test
Obama, whom Israel viewed with much suspicion despite
all the groveling he has done at Israeli lobby
meetings to assure Israel that a president with a
middle name such as ‘Hussein' will not dare demand
accountability from Israel. Obama eventually lived up
to Israel's expectations, and despite few hiccups in
their relations, the new administration was hardly
different from its predecessors. Under Obama's, Israel
remained a top priority for American diplomacy,
politics, military and financial aid and more.
However, Israel was still dissatisfied.
Political analysts cite few incidents that made
Netanyahu look unfavorably at Obama from the onset.
The latter ushered in his foreign policy with the
appointment of a Middle East peace envoy, and expected
Israel to work towards the resumption of the so-called
peace process. More dangerously however, Obama spoke
bluntly for the need to freeze settlement
construction, as a necessary first step before the
return to the ‘negotiations table'. Even Secretary of
State Hilary Clinton, who understands well the
importance of Israeli support for any ambition US
politician, was clear regarding the settlements:
President Obama, she said, "wants to see a stop to
settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not
natural-growth exceptions."
Gradually that position weakened, if not entirely
reversed. Over the following months and years, the
Obama administration retreated to the US' foreign
policy comfort zone regarding Israel: give generously
(even in times of economic recession), expect nothing
in return, and in the meantime ask no question. But it
takes more to placate an ever-demanding government as
that of Netanyahu.
The Israeli Prime Minister is himself troubled by
fears that his palpable support of the Republican
candidate Mitt Romney, his trademark arrogance and
lecturing of Obama regarding Iran could prove costly
during Obama's new term. Not that Obama is likely to
be any less enthusiastic about supporting Israel, but
the Israeli government is concerned that the US
administration might not adopt Israeli foreign policy
priorities as if it's an American doctrine, which has
been the case for years.
Hours after the election results declared Obama a
winner, the Israeli media began censuring the
injudiciousness of their prime minister. Articles with
such titles as "So Sorry, President Obama, Please
Forgive Netanyahu,"(Haaretz) and "Bibi Gambled, We'll
Pay," (Yedioth Ahronoth) became commonplace. Romney's
defeat was particularly sobering for Israel since it's
the first time that the power of the Zionist lobby and
the endless millions of their patrons, such as
multibillionaire gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson were
rarely as useful in determining election results of
this scale.
Truth to be told, Obama is not only unpopular among
Israeli political elites, by the Israeli public as
well. "In global polls, Israel is the only country in
the world that would have elected Romney over Obama,"
said ABC, and with a huge margin too.
It was early morning time on Wednesday Nov 7 in Israel
and the occupied territories when the US election
results were declared. The Israeli cabinet swung into
action, and the Israel army was quickly deployed to
seek provocations at the Gaza border. An earlier
incident on Nov 5, where an apparently mentally unfit
man, Ahmad al-Nabaheen was shot dead by Israeli
troops, heightened tension, although a truce remained
in effect. On Nov 8, however, Israel sought its Casus
belli as it moved in Gaza with tanks and attack
helicopters. An early victim was a 12-year-old boy
gunned down while playing soccer. Palestinians
retaliated, although projectiles inside Israel caused
no damage. One Israeli soldier was injured near the
border with Gaza and more firing was reported by
Palestinian fighters aimed at an Israeli military
jeep, injuring four. Two more children were killed in
an open soccer field on Nov 10, prompting more,
although still guarded Palestinian retaliation. And
another civilian in Gaza was killed the following day
when Israel bombed the funeral tent set up to mourn
the victims of past days.
On Nov 12, Egypt was concluding yet another truce
between Israel and resistance factions. But that
turned out to be a diplomatic embarrassment for Egypt,
as the man who agreed to the text of the truce on the
Palestinian side, the leader of the Hamas armed
resistance in Gaza Ahmed Jabari, was himself
assassinated by an Israeli missile on Nov 14. No other
meaning can be extracted from Jabari's murder but the
fact that Israel had decided to pull the Palestinians
into an all-out war. Scores of Palestinians, many of
whom civilians, were killed in the subsequent days.
Palestinians extended the range of their projectiles
into areas near Tel Aviv and as far as Jerusalem.
Three Israelis were reportedly killed.
Israel's obsession with security often, if not always
leads it to create the very conditions that compromise
on its own security, so that its leaders may
demonstrate the authenticity of their original claim.
It is a strange logic that is as old as the state of
Israel itself. But the timing of the latest war on
Gaza as in the previous one partly meant to push the
subject of Israel's security on the top of the new
administration's agenda, rife with crises and
challenges. No US administration risks initiating its
term in office with an open confrontation with Israel.
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that in times
of war, Israel is right even if it's wrong, as it
often is. Not even Barack Hussein Obama is strong
enough to change that reasoning.
"We strongly condemn the barrage of rocket fire from
Gaza into Israel," said Jay Carney, the White House
spokesman. "There is no justification for the violence
that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are
employing against the people of Israel."
Now that Israel once more pushing its agenda as an
American priority, the time is ripe for further
escalation and for more saber-rattling against Iran,
Hezbollah and whomever else Israel perceives as an
enemy. Israeli causalities will be used to demonstrate
Israel's supposed vulnerability, and Palestinian
deaths will buttress Netanyahy's rightwing government
as Israel's unbending guardian against those who
continue to pose ‘an existential threat' to the Jewish
state. The truth, of course, remains the least
relevant.
– Ramzy Baroud (ramzybaroud.net) is an
internationally syndicated columnist and the editor of
PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father
Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto
Press, London).
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EsinIslam.Com
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