Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank is isolating the Jewish state more and more. Just before Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu agreed to these negotiations, the European Union announced new guidelines banning E.U. financing or cooperating with any Israeli institutions in territory seized during the 1967 war. This involves research grants, scholarships and cultural exchanges. The E.U. is considering requiring any products made in West Bank settlements to be labeled as such (some individual E.U. states already do) to make them easier for Europeans to boycott. These are dangerous trends for Israel. The E.U. is one of Israel’s largest trading partners. And now add the fact that Palestine has been granted U.N. status as a “nonmember observer state,” so President Mahmoud Abbas is positioned to ask the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank, which are widely viewed as contravening international law. - Thomas J. Friedman I admire Kerry’s doggedness in getting Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table for the first time in five years, in part by making clear that whoever said no to America’s urging that they resume talks would be called out publicly. I also like the fact that Kerry dared to fail. It is how you make history as a secretary of state. It can also be helpful to him going forward. Even a little success like this breeds more authority, and more authority can breed more success in other arenas. That said, the prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian deal remain slim. Indeed, if these negotiations were a play, it would be called: “When the Necessary Met the Impossible.” So why should we even bother? I’ve always thought that the most important rule of journalism is: Never try to be smarter than the story. There is every reason to doubt that these talks will succeed, but when you look under the hood of this story you find there were some powerful forces propelling both sides to say yes to Kerry — and at least consider saying yes to each other, so it’s worth letting this play out a little. Let’s start with a small item in Britain’s Independent newspaper on July 24, which began: “He once sang, ‘You Gotta Get Outta This Place,’ but now Eric Burdon is not even turning up at all having deciding to withdraw from a planned concert in Israel. ... The Animals frontman, whose hits include ‘House of the Rising Sun,’ and ‘San Franciscan Nights,’ had been due to perform alongside local Israeli bands in Binyamina. ... However, in a statement, Mr. Burdon’s management, said: ‘We’ve been receiving mounting pressure, including numerous threatening e-mails, daily. ...’ Burdon was just the latest of a rising number of artists and intellectuals who have started boycotting Israel over the occupation issue.”
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 10:22:11 +0000
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