{"id":122683,"date":"2014-06-04T14:19:19","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T14:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=122683"},"modified":"2014-06-04T14:20:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T14:20:00","slug":"netanyahu-running-excuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/politics\/netanyahu-running-excuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu Is Running Out of Excuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

C\u00c3\u00a9sar Chelala<\/span><\/p>\n

The formation of a new unity government between Fatah and Hamas, although strongly resisted by the Israeli government leadership, may offer some hope for eventually leading to renewed peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel\u2019s government. For Mr. Netanyahu to resist this union is a futile exercise that may contribute to Israel\u2019s international isolation.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu couldn\u2019t hide his displeasure at the agreement between Fatah and Hamas. \u201cToday, Abu Mazen [as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is called] said yes to terrorism and no to peace,\u201d said Netanyahu. Israel\u2019s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett was even more aggressive saying, \u201cThe government of terrorists in suits established by Fatah and Hamas, the very same organization that in its charter has horrific sentences such as calling for \u2018killing the Jews who are hiding behind trees and stones,\u2019 is an illegitimate government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although this statement is certainly indefensible, so are similar statements made by leading Israeli officials regarding the Palestinians. They are no reason, in themselves, to refuse to recognize the new Palestinian government or to maintain contact with it. Urging Israel\u2018to go from defense to offense\u2019 Bennett urged the annexation of settlement blocs in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

The actions proposed by Bennett have been strongly condemned by important Israeli figures. \u201cIn the meantime, the number of settlements in the West Bankgrew threefold and fourfold, and the brutality of the occupation increased to the point where soldiers now shoot demonstrators out of nothing but boredom,\u201d wrote Gideon Levy, a leading Israeli journalist.<\/p>\n

Although the US government is clearly concerned about the role of Hamas in the new government, State Department spokeswoman Jean Psaki said last Monday that although the USwill work with the new government, it would also be \u201cwatching closely to ensure that it upholds principles that President Abbas reiterated today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbas said that the 17-member cabinet would comprise essentially technical officials who would strive to pursue peace, despite Hamas\u2019s refusal to accept coexistence with Israel. He also acknowledged that previous division between the movements had derailed the Palestinians\u2019 aims.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu not only refused to recognize the new government but appealed to the international community not to recognize it. At the same time, the Israeli government refused travel permissions to three Gaza-based ministers to travel to the West Bankfor the swearing-in ceremony.<\/p>\n

There are still serious disagreements between the two Palestinian movements, such as how to join rival security forces in Gazaand the West Bank. However, President Abbas before presiding over the Cabinet\u2019s first meeting stated, \u201cThis black page in our history has been turned forever and will never come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbas has already made some important concessions to the Israeli government: it has pledged that the new administration will abide by the principles laid down by the Middle East Peace Quartet, it will recognize Israel\u2019s right to exist and it will reject violence and abide by existing agreements. These conditions had been repeatedly rejected by Hamas in the past.<\/p>\n

These pledges are not enough for Netanyahu, who has continued the illegal and widely condemned blockade of Gaza, which has resulted in shortages of food and basic medicines that have hurt children\u2019s lives. With his characteristic double standard, Netanyahu said, \u201cEnough of these tricks. If this new Palestinian government has regained sovereignty over Gaza, the first thing that Abbas should do is announce he is starting demilitarizing Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not a view shared by all Israelis. Writing in\u00a0Haaretz<\/em>, Gideon Levy said, \u201cThe world cannot lend its hand to this. It is unacceptable, in the 21st<\/sup>century, for a state that purports to be a permanent member of the free world to keep another nation deprived of rights. It is unthinkable, simply unthinkable, for millions of Palestinians to continue to live in these conditions. It is unthinkable for a democratic state to continue to oppress them in this way. It is unthinkable that the world stands by and allows this to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.\u00a0Common Dreams<\/a><\/em>. C\u00c3\u00a9sar Chelala, MD, PhD, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award. He is also the foreign correspondent for\u00a0<\/span>Middle East Times<\/a>\u00a0International (Australia).<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C\u00c3\u00a9sar Chelala The formation of a new unity government between Fatah and Hamas, although strongly resisted by the Israeli government leadership, may offer some hope for eventually leading to renewed peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel\u2019s government. For Mr. Netanyahu to resist this union is a futile exercise that may contribute to Israel\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-122683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}