Three weeks before the Arab League summit in Libya and two days following Arab foreign ministers’ approval of indirect negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel over a period of four months, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded with a raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque that left dozens injured.
Reading foreign and Arab news reports gives the impression that Israel had a prior intention to carry out the raid.
I have previously debunked the argument–often reiterated by Western media–that Netanyahu is a pragmatist who doesn’t subscribe to a fixed set of ideological beliefs. Ten years later, when Netanayahu again headed the government in 2009, Western media continued to describe him as a wise man capable of bringing peace through his popularity and widespread influence.
People even started comparing him to the late Menachem Begin, an extreme right leader who considered Sinai to be part of Israel, but eventually signed an agreement to withdraw from Egyptian land.
But that comparison is invalid because the West Bank has a much longer history of being included in Zionist territorial claims. Besides, the international context of Begin’s actions–the Cold War power struggle and America’s desire to break Egypt’s alliance with the Soviets–undoubtedly helped restrain Israel’s expansionist aims in Sinai.
Encouraged by President Obama’s promises for peace, Arabs have been waiting on Netanyahu’s government. But one year later it has become evident that right-wing extremists within the US Israel lobby have restricted Obama’s hopes for peace and direct negotiations. After backpedalling on its demand for an Israeli settlement freeze as a precondition to negotiations, the Obama administration now supports "indirect negotiations" between the two sides.
When Israel insisted that negotiations be launched without preconditions–meaning that they would not start from where Olmert left off and that complete withdrawal from the Gaza strip to the 1967 borders isn’t necessary–Arab foreign ministers agreed. They did so on the condition that the UN Security Council should reach a decision recognizing a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders that will not be vetoed by the US, if the four-month period of negotiations expires without any success.
This agreement was welcomed by the Israeli side, but was dealt a serious blow when Israel raided Al-Aqsa. Netanyahu’s backhanded response was intended to absorb the momentum resulting from Obama’s promises to avoid any possible clash with him.
Indeed, the Israeli invasion of Al-Aqsa openly defies the Arabs and shatters any hopes for recognition of a Palestinian state. I believe that Arabs should examine the current situation during the preparatory meetings leading up to the Arab summit. The masks are coming off as Netanyahu and the right-wing parties forming his government openly defy the Arabs prior to their meeting in March. The inclusion of two Mosques in a list of Jewish heritage sites is proof of such wicked intentions.
Israel continues to perpetuate a myth that claims Jews have a right to Palestinian land–one that is disproved by archeology and several Israeli Jewish historians. One historian even stated that the European Jews who founded the Zionist movement and then migrated to Palestine descend from a Jewish tribe that converted in the nineteenth century and were then dispersed all around Eastern Europe, which means that the current Israelis are invaders.
At a peace conference organized in February by the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian official, said that Palestinians have lost hope in forming two states, and warned that a one-state solution for both nations will emerge as the new alternative. When it was the Israeli representative’s turn to speak, he said there was still a third option whereby the Palestinians would accept the status quo. The Israeli representative added that there was a huge gap between what Israel and the Palestinians want.
The Egyptian delegation then objected, saying, "If this is the case, then why are we meeting to discuss peace?" and urged the American delegation to intervene, warning that such logic would only trigger more violence and terror in the region.
I therefore call on the Arab summit to address this Israeli "impudence," without waiting another four months.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
