by John D. Johnson
Download the Full Article: Prospects for Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Will the Arab Spring turn into an Israeli-Palestinian Winter? Judging by the recent icy meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, there is a significant chance it may. Also, the proposed vote for recognizing a Palestinian state in the UN General Assembly this fall may well be the critical turning point in the seasons of Middle East politics.
As has happened many times before, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was in the news recently as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu met with President Obama in the Oval Office, Egypt brokered a unity agreement between Palestinian groups HAMAS in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank, and Israel celebrated its Independence Day while Palestinians marked what they call the "catastrophe" where many Palestinians circa 1948 left or were removed from their homes in present-day Israel, to name just a few headlines.
Download the Full Article: Prospects for Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Lieutenant Colonel John D. Johnson is a U.S. Army Officer. He has served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of the Army Staff, U.S. Army Europe, Multi-National Forces-Iraq (Baghdad), III Corps, U.S. Division South-Iraq (Basra), the 1st Infantry Division, the 1st Cavalry Division, the 501st Military Intelligence Brigade (Korea) and most recently at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. The views expressed here are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Army or Defense Department.
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I agree with much of the substance of Eugnid's comment. That said, speaking as an American Jew of European origin, it is remarkable to note that few in Europe see Israel as "a European, not a Middle Eastern nation". The left in Europe portrays Israel as a European colony, invading the land of the native Palestinians. As always, Europe characterizes the Jews in whatever way serves the prejudices of the moment.
Is there really any prospect for peace given the Likud determination to more than double Israel's size as a JEWS ONLY land, even if Palestinians must be made to go poof?
A mixed French/Brits perspective on colonies post-WWII and South Afrikaner attitude in 1960s permeates the Right Zionists, sons of the "Revisionists" racists. Netanyahu lost faith in his integrated perspective and put his future in the hands of Likudniks. The Arab Spring is seen by this group of Zionists as a danger and an opportunity-- a perspective that always in the past the "final solution" exploitation notion they resorted to before: firepower blitzkreig now to hit Arabs when divided and distracted from the Jewish question. So often this has been the choice made by Israeli militarists to catastrophic effect. 60+ years old and Israel feels no safer now than ever. The reason is that as its strength grew its avarice did too and so it bet everything on more land even if that meant less Jews choosing the Zionist path.
Alas, power grabs and exterminations of Arabs only result in the roots abroad of Diaspora Jews deepening and Israel exsanguinating it's best & brightest through emigration rather than combat. It should be kept in mind that all Israeli hawks have dual passports, unlike most Israelis, in case things go bad; this is not the case for IDF conscripted grunts they burden with their expansionist plans.
Israel never faced a broke America before, one that will no longer foot the bill for a Zionist blitz anymore against the Arabs. The right-Zionists assume that Diaspora Jews will be drawn to Israel by the failing US/Europe economies. But how they figure that Jews will chose to go from the frying pan into the fire is unclear to me. Israel, afterall, no matter how much money it makes, lives on American welfare, its domestic profits going to Swiss bank accounts
Obama's investment of military assets in Libya clearly indicates that the US is betting on the Arab Spring, not the Israeli blitz. Consequently, a lot of Israelis are now seeing their leadership as betting the farm on an inevitable nuclear conflagration by the one nation in the Middle Eastthat has nuclear weapons. Rather than get politically involved to have a say in the issue, the Israeli citizens are plotting their transfer to the Diaspora, seeing a successful future like Diasporic Jews in the Christian West as a far more od a healthy prospect than militarist expanding Israel.
For now, Israel is a secondary issue to most Arabs as it was when they had switched from nationalism to Fundamentalism. But now, as they are switching from Fundamentalism to Modernization, Israel could lead them, given its advanced state and the disdain of Arab youths feel for past paroxysms. But Israel chose to stand with the overthrown Arab leaders because it was comfortable with the Arab world in corrupt stasis. Israelis ceased looking outward and forward to a bright future in Israel. Theyre living day by day, leaving politics to the radicals-- the Jewish Ahmadinejads. This may end Israel's existence unless Jews, Diasproic and Israeli, get re-involved. War is at hand and the numbers don't favor Israeli lebensraum thesis through war. A smaller Israel in peace, prosperous leader of the Middle East, living in peace with its Arab cousins, is a lot better than a bigger Israel on fire. Netanyahu may well be at the crossroad at which Hitler found himself in 1930s when Germany was beginning to recover economically: having to choose lebensraum or economic integration as a leader of the region. The recent insistence by Israeli officials that Israel is a European, not a Middle Eastern nation is ominous indeed for few in Europe see it that way so a NATO dedication to its defense is out of the question. It would be a lot safer as the leader of Mideast modernization than as the modern European invader of the Muslim world.