18, December 2014 Israel’s
identity crisis
Israel is undergoing a significant identity
crisis. Its image has been severely tarnished following the attack on Gaza last
summer. Public statements by US officials notwithstanding, Netanyahu’s
relationship with the Obama administration has turned outright hostile. In a
desperate move to salvage his falling popularity, Netanyahu has called for new
elections for March 17 and is aggressively wooing right wing settler and
ultra-religious zealots like Naftali Bennett, the economics minister. If
Bennett, who is the front runner, displaces Netanyahu as prime minister, Israel
will make a dangerous tilt to the Right.
New York Times reporter, Thomas Friedman, and Ari Shavit the Haaretz columnist,
expressed grave concern that Israel is edging towards becoming a pariah state -
shunned by the rest of the free world. American and European Jews are speaking
out in larger numbers unfraid of being labelled ‘anti-Semites’ a favorite
strategy used to silence critics of Israel.
It is become apparent that Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have no
intention of negotiating a peace treaty with Palestinians lest they are forced
to negotiate borders and thus foreclose on their vision of a greater Israel
encompassing the whole of the West Bank.
The only way forward is for Israel to adhere to its core principle as
enshrined in its Declaration of Independence, by ending its crippling
occupation, lift the siege of Gaza and guarantee equal rights for all its
citizens – the hallmark of a true democracy.
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