In his latest article, Biberman & Co, Uri Avnery, the sagacious Israeli peace activist and founder of Gush Shalom, gives his prediction about the next stage of Israeli peace avoidance, which applies to dealing with Obama. How Netanyahu will handle Obama is apparently an old formula used before in keeping the United States in line. Although I will only quote the relevant section from Biberman & Co (meaning Bibi plus Lieberman with Ehud Barak thrown in, as in Bibarak), the entire article can be read HERE.
According to Avnery, a clash with Obama is inevitable. Obama wants to create a new world order in the Middle East and he knows that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict poisons the atmosphere against America in the Arab and the entire Muslim world. Obama wants to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is exactly what Netanyahu and his partners want to prevent.
How will Netayahu do this?
The solution is written in the Bible (Proverbs 24:6): “For by ruses thou shalt make thy war.”
(In the King James version, the Hebrew word Takhbulot is translated as “wise counsel”. In Modern Hebrew it means ruses, tricks, ploys – and that is the way it is understood by all Hebrew-speakers today.)
FROM THE beginnings of Zionism, its leaders have known that their vision necessitates a large measure of make-belief. It is impossible to take over a country inhabited by another people without disguising the aim, diverting attention, hiding the acts on the ground behind a screen of flowery words.
All states lie, of course. 400 years ago, a British diplomat, Sir Henry Wotton, observed: “An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” Because of the special circumstances of their enterprise, the Zionists have had to use deceit perhaps a bit more than usual.
Now the task is to present to the world, and especially the US and Europe, a false picture, pretending that our new government is yearning for peace, acting for peace, indeed turning every stone in search of peace – while doing the exact opposite. The world will be submerged by a deluge of declarations and promises, accompanied by lots of meaningless gestures, conferences and meetings.
People with good ears are already hearing Netanyahu, Liberman and Barak starting to play around with the “Arab Peace Initiative”. They will talk about it, interpret it, accept it ostensibly while attaching conditions that empty it of all content.
The great advantage of this initiative is that it does not come from the Palestinians, and therefore does not require negotiations with the Palestinians. Like the deceased “Jordanian Option” and others of its kind, it serves as a substitute for a dialogue with the Palestinians. The Arab League includes 22 governments, some of which cooperate on the sly with the Israeli leadership. They can be relied on not to agree among themselves on anything practical.
BUT DECEIVING, like dancing the tango, takes two: one who deceives and one who wants to be deceived.
Netanyahu believes that Obama will want to be deceived. Why would he want to quarrel with Israel, confront the mighty pro-Israel lobby and the US Congress, when he can settle for soothing words from Netanyahu? Not to mention Europe, divided and ridden by Holocaust guilt, and the pathetic Tony Blair moving around like a restless ghost.
Is Obama ready to play, like most of his predecessors, the role of the deceived lover?
The Biberman/Bibarak/Bibiyahu government believes that the answer is a resounding yes. I hope that it will be a resounding No.
(with permission)
So there we have it: the next four, maybe eight years of Middle East politics. Although things change, they may remain the same.
