The Wrong SideUri Avnery, Gush Shalom: Between Israel and the United States a gap has opened... a narrow gap, almost invisible -- but it may widen into an abyss. The first signs are small. In his inaugural speech, Obama proclaimed that 'We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers.' Since when? Since when do the Muslims precede the Jews? ... The very next morning, Obama phoned a number of Middle East leaders... placing the first call to Mahmoud Abbas, and only the next to Olmert...
Instead of the group of American Jews who had been in charge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during both the Clinton and Bush administrations, Obama, on his very first day in office, appointed an Arab-American, George Mitchell... These are not good tidings for the Israeli leaders. For the last 42 years, they have pursued a policy of expansion, occupation and settlements in close cooperation with Washington. They have relied on unlimited American support, from the massive supply of money and arms to the use of the veto in the Security Council. This support was essential to their policy. This support may now be reaching its limits.
Fred Reed: The practical question regarding Israel's recent invasion of Gaza is not 'Who is right?' but 'Can Israel last?' ... Israel today is not the country once dreamed, in which Heidelberg professors escaped from Europe would work the soil with their hands on kibbutzim and play chess and the violin at night. It looks more like what the professors fled. Brutal conflicts breed brutal people. Atrocities engender counter-atrocities, extremists come to the fore, and military solutions seem the only solutions... Say I, either the country finds peace with its neighbors or it goes the way of the Crusader Kingdom...
The Israelis appear to be trapping themselves... They continue their annexation of the West Bank,... which rules out a two-state solution. To control a large hostile population, you need harsh methods, which keep the population hostile... Sooner or later, the question will be: Democratic, or Jewish? America killed its indigenous population, the Spanish married theirs, but Israel can do neither. Now what? ...
Israel depends entirely on a foreign country, namely America, for its survival. The US provides the weaponry, the financial aid, the vetoes in the UN, and the last-resort military support... Without this support, Israel could not last... Methinks a faint smell of doom hangs over Tel Aviv... Nothing Israel is likely to do looks workable in the long run. The demographics are terrible, regional Arab hostility assured, the military balance only able to deteriorate, the whole enterprise hanging by a lobby... Unless something changes, and I don't have any bright ideas, I don't see a happy ending.
