Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Shooting themselves in the foot.

In Israel, the hits just keep on coming.  The recent 'formalization' of settlements in the occupied West Bank have caused worldwide condemnation and a UK boycott of settlement-made goods (a token gesture, but still a gesture), and a UN human rights investigation is "appalled" at the treatment of Palestinian prisoners under Israeli watch.  And recently the Israeli government ordered the uprooting of Palestinian olive groves on private land, which seems as nothing more than a punitive action for the crime of not being Israeli.  In a move that beggars belief, Israeli officials attempted to influence a news report on Palestinian Christians, most likely because it endangers the simple Muslim-Jewish narrative that Israel has relied upon for outside support.

This type of governance by Israel is not sustainable.  Israel cannot justifiably be called a democracy if it treats people within its borders this way, and in doing so only makes its security situation that much more fragile.  It's as if Israel wants Palestinian violence, in order to justify crackdowns on Palestinians.

This also makes it harder for America to justify its support of Israel, especially among the non-Jewish or non-apocalyptic Evangelical (compare the rapport of Bush-Netanyahu to the icy exchanges of Obama-Netanyahu) voter and legislator.  Unless Israel looks to reign in its domestic policies, the unconditional military and diplomatic support of the US will gradually be worn away.

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