A responsible government would calm, not escalate
A single cell of murderers has come and changed the trend of Netanyahu and Barak's actions to a toughening of positions and the decision to build 500 new housing units in the settlements.
Haaretz EditorialThe despicable murder of five members of the Fogel family on Saturday is a crime against every human being. But the atrocity in Itamar is not only a criminal act. It was committed in a diplomatic and security context, and we have to examine its background and consequences. Not, heaven forbid, to justify what cannot be justified or grant absolution. Instead, we have to study the complex situation that makes Israel responsible for preventing an escalation that could result in many new victims.
A diplomatic stagnation marks relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Both sides have contributed to this, as has the ineffectiveness of the U.S. administration under President Barack Obama. Two years after his administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government took over, there has been no progress on the formula that ostensibly everyone agrees on: the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The diplomatic vacuum is enabling extremist elements on both sides - terror organizations (and individuals acting alone ) on the one side and settlers ravenous for more territory and a price tag on the other - to take the initiative and dictate events instead of the leaders.
In recent weeks, under pressure from visitors from Washington, Berlin and other foreign capitals, Netanyahu seems to be signaling he intends to unveil a more moderate policy in about two months. Moreover, he and his partner, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, have explained that the moderation will not be a favor to the Palestinians, but rather what Israel needs. They have also promised to evacuate settlements built on privately owned land stolen from Palestinians. For a moment it appeared that the government, to develop a moderate image, was heading for a clash with the settlers.
Now, a single cell of murderers has come and changed the trend of Netanyahu and Barak's actions to a toughening of positions and the decision to build 500 new housing units in the settlements. This is a terrible decision that will neither placate the settlers nor prevent a revenge attack by the lawless among them. In addition, it is making things difficult for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, angering Obama and feeding the unrest in the territories in advance of tomorrow, a day of planned demonstrations.
A responsible government would act now to calm and not to escalate, to pursue a diplomatic solution and not a belligerent confrontation. But in Jerusalem we don't have a government like that.
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| Photo by: Amos Biderman | amosb@haaretz.co.il |
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Every day one reads of yet another tactic or action taken by the government of Israel to bring about its own demise. So, this newest announcement that comes on the back of the same announcement made less public, is not to be unexpected. One must remember what zionism is and what its primary goals are and which Israel is doing everything to achieve and it is not peace. Hardly. It bears repeating over and over again and is testified to by the facts israel is and will continue to create on the ground. 1. Maximise the amount of land taken in the West Bank and EJ, by whatever means possible and providing rationalisation as historical right,security, natural growth. 2. Work with full diligence to change the demographic composition by moving in the conquering population to inhabit Arab areas to achieve numerical dominance. Peace is an enemy which must be given lip service only. That is zionism and nothing else.
I was going to buy a copy of Mein Kampf since it is always good to know what your enemy is thinking. Then I remembered I can get Haaretz on line for free
I agree with you position. Lookoing from the US as a dedicated Pro-Israel Jew I am amazed how Israeli politicians keep shooting themselves in the foot. Israel lives in a world community, and cannot ignore the feelings of that community. The stupidity and arrogance of the present government is difficult for me to understand.
I agree with everything you said in your article. Reactionary response to the crimes of fatical people doesn't solve anything. If settlements are the cause of not furthering a peace agreement. Why would one with any kind of intilect wish to expand the cause of desention? Netanyahu keeps shooting himself in the foot.
himself in the food - -pretending or even worse -believing that it does not even hurt.
Netanyahu calls himself a peacemaker, yet his response to a murderous attack triggered by Palestinian opposition to the settlements is to buid more units. By his actions, Israel is increasingly being perceived as a rogue state within the international community and its leadership as destabilising to global peace as Iran's. How tragic that this is proving to be the outcome for the State, a gift from the world to the Jewish people, following our genocide.
I totally disagree. The only mistake the gov't did was not add 500 housing units per murdered person. This is called pressure and the Palestinians need a whole bunch of it. The Palestinians must put stop the glorification of murderers, start putting Israel on their maps, find the courage (and the people) for a Palestinian peace now movement, etc.
So you're saying what the Palestinians need are precisely the "despicable leftists" and "peaceniks" that you hate so much when they are Israeli? Funny suggestion that one.
If you think that masses of pressure would make the Palestinians calm down and willingly give Israel their land and love them unquestioningly, your mental faculties must be impaired.
when the opposite is needed--the removal of more outposts and settlement blocs. Get to it! Dutch
A despicable crime was just committed, and that crime was then seized upon by a venal and unscupulous bunch of scoundrels who claim to be "leaders". It is unseemly, and it certainly will not pass unnoticed.
There is no explanation for Israeli behavior if we accept the formula "that ostensibly everyone agrees on", that is that "the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel", is an accurate presumption. I don't believe that everyone accepts that, and I suspect that Ha'aretz doesn't either. The colonists don't, a vocal (and wealthy) segment of the US jewish community doesn't. The murderer of Rabin, and the murder's many supporters certainly didn't. Netanyahu has said "call it a state if you like", and has bragged on Israeli TV that he (practically single handedly) sabotaged previous efforts at peacemaking. Barak created the myth that there is no one to talk with, and said that he agreed to the Taba negotiations for the purpose of showing that the Palestinians were not sincere. Only when we cast aside the assumption that the policy makers want (or will accept) a Palestinian state, will Israeli behavior make any sense.
True. Netanyahu has been leaning back for a long time, waiting for convenient pretexts and excuses. He believes that the terrorattack in Itamar strengthens his case and coalition. Netanyahu needs heinous crimes and terror. Having said that - please don´t put Abbas in juxtaposition to the twisted and cynical policies of Bibi. They are both partners in a macabre dance of death. And who pays for this "show"? You and I - the people that suffers from the destructive coward behaviour of corrupt leaders. The media-move by Abbas constitutes HUGE hypocrisy. And the cynical media-blitz by Netanyahu is destroying yet another part of my country.
That's it all in a few words.
totally agree... the decision to constract in the settlement can only harm israel and hinder the renovation of the peace process. this should not have been the answer of the government. it only shows the lack of common sense and logic on its part... such a provocative step...
more land rather than showing a hint of wisdom. they are faster in serving the belly rather than the head.
Made worse by a government that politisizes it & escalates this tragedy....it will use this situation to further its own agenda....
But what else is new? This is the man who decided Leiberman should represent Israel around the world, and Yishai should hold sway over the nation's internal affairs. Could he have picked less intelligent, less liberal-democratic people? that's all we need to know about this man. Get rid of him.
Though if the Obama administration has proven ineffective it has been manifested more in its ambiguous and untenable decisions in the UN (e.g. the settlement resolution veto) as well as its inability (or unwillingness) to explain these ambiguous decisions, not only to the international community, but to the American electorate.
Netanyahu's position has not changed; he just feels that this has given him a pass on international pressure - which it hasn't! Before he was dragging along with a vague promise of some sort of breakthrough of which there's little doubt he didn't have a clue as to what it would be - and recall that he and/or his office has been alluding to the same for months already. All this crime did was to provide him an escape route which he feels will buy him some understanding from the international community...only he's never really been in tune with the change in the international perspective - no more is Israel able to hoodwink it like in the past - so he's kidding himself by thinking that. What he's doing is going to bury Israel even deeper in the dungpile that he's been burying it in over the last two years. "Delegitimization of Israel"? Only by Bibi and his coalition of fanatics. Criticism isn't delegitimization; the arrogant and blatant continuation of what draws that criticism IS!
1. The attack occurred not in Israel, not even close to Israel, but deep in Samaria, in a place expected to be part of Palestine. There was no terror in Israel, so Israeli security is still intact, as far as we can tell. 2. The attack was very low-tech. No missiles, not even bombs, nor firearms. As low tech as it can get. There is no reason to conclude that a well-equipped terror organization was involved. In short, this attack indicates nothing bad when Israel and Palestine agree on a border between them.