Boycott of Israel Spreads in European Civil Society Over Gaza War, Could Cost $5 Bn/Yr

By Juan Cole

Shutterstock

This post originally ran on Juan Cole’s Web page.

The ill-considered and remarkably brutal Gaza war likely will give further impetus to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement by Western civil society to pressure Israel on its illegal actions toward the Palestinians.  A thoroughgoing such European set of sanctions could cost Israel as much as $5 bn a year and more.  Roughly a third of Israeli trade is with Europe, and the EU is Israel’s largest single trading partner.

Unite, the largest British trade union, has now resolved to campaign for adoption of BDS against Israel.

The Sinn Fein mayor of Newry in Northern Ireland is also calling on retailers in the town to boycott Israel.

Not Equal: Gaza in Over 1,000 Frames

"There's a tendency in most Gaza reporting to treat both sides as tough, equally-matched adversaries. Israel must stand up to those evil, deadly Hamas terrorists before the nation is overrun, eek! But if the measure of success in this conflict is the combatants-to-civilians body count ratio (and it is), then Hamas is winning handily. You can read more on my site at MarkFiore.com"

Mark Fiore's latest animation is a harrowing visual portrayal of the Palestinian death toll in Gaza as compared with Israeli casualties incurred since the beginning of the hostilities this summer. Read about the animator's research on the conflict and watch the must-see clip, "Not Equal: Gaza in Over 1000 Frames," below.  Read more

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You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

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Brzezinski has harsh words for Israel, Tells Netanyahu he's 'making a very serious mistake'

CNN

Fareed Zakaria speaks with former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski about Israel's military operation in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on CNN told Wolf Blitzer that the invasion of Gaza was a strategy to demilitarize Gaza, explaining the use of force. But it has been quite a robust use of force…Do you think that it is going to succeed, the Israeli strategy?

No, I think he is making a very serious mistake. When Hamas in effect accepted the notion of participation in the Palestinian leadership, it in effect acknowledged the determination of that leadership to seek a peaceful solution with Israel. That was a real option. They should have persisted in that.

Instead Netanyahu launched the campaign of defamation against Hamas, seized on the killing of three innocent Israeli kids to immediately charge Hamas with having done it without any evidence, and has used that to stir up public opinion in Israel in order to justify this attack on Gaza, which is so lethal.

I think he is isolating Israel. He's endangering its longer-range future. And I think we ought to make it very clear that this is a course of action which we thoroughly disapprove and which we do not support and which may compel us and the rest of the international community to take some steps of legitimizing Palestinian aspirations perhaps in the U.N.

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

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Netanyahu and Rahm Emmanuel Agree: Never Let a Crisis Go To Waste

Brandon Turbeville

While the world is focused on the questions surrounding the Malaysian flight that crashed in Ukraine on July 17 and the aftermath that will result from it, another campaign of genocide in a long list of campaigns of genocide is taking place in Gaza. 

After days of both air and sea-based military strikes against Palestinians living Gaza, Israeli tanks have crossed the border and are now pushing even deeper into the tiny sliver of land. 

According to Israeli military statements, Israel has called up 48,000 reserve troops as well as 18,000 additional soldiers which were called upon on Thursday, July 17. 

So far, the death toll in Palestine has reached around 260. There has been only fatality on the Israeli side, a soldier who was killed in the northern part of Gaza. 

Approximately one third of Palestinian casualties are women and children. 

Netanyahu thanks Obama for 'Dome' missile funding

An Israeli missile is launched from the
Iron Dome missile system
© AFP/File David Buimovitch

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Barack Obama on Monday for helping fund a missile defense system protecting the Jewish state from Palestinian rockets, the White House said.

Netanyahu "expressed his deep appreciation for US funding for the 'Iron Dome' rocket and mortar defense system, which he noted has successfully intercepted several rockets aimed at Israeli communities," the White House said in a readout of the phone call.

Obama "congratulated the prime minister on this impressive Israeli technological achievement and expressed his pride that Israeli-American cooperation made it possible."

Israel: Jerusalem Won't be Shared

Amy Teibel
Associated Press

JERUSALEM — Israel's leader on Sunday dismissed a call from a key government partner to share the holy city of Jerusalem with the Palestinians, a reminder of the obstacles facing already troubled peacemaking efforts.

Conflicting claims to east Jerusalem lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The dispute over the area, home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, has derailed past peace talks and spilled into violence. Palestinians claim the sector as the capital of their future state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reaffirmation of his intention to hold on to east Jerusalem drew criticism from the Palestinians and was likely to increase friction with the Americans. The White House Mideast envoy is scheduled to arrive this week in another attempt to push peace efforts forward.


Netanyahu's defense minister, Ehud Barak of the centrist Labor Party, called for sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians. But a government official said Barak's idea does not reflect the government's view.

The Palestinians want to establish their future state in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel later annexed east Jerusalem in a move that is not recognized by the international community.

Israel's internal diplomatic flare-up came just days after the U.S. dropped its effort to persuade Israel to reinstate a moratorium on new building states in the West Bank as a way of restarting peace talks.

Instead, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said indirect talks would resume, while insisting that the two sides must now deal with core issues. Those include the status of Jerusalem, as well as borders, settlements and refugees.

Palestinians blasted Israel's rejection of their claim to east Jerusalem.

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Eric Cantor's Pledge of Allegiance

Glenn Greenwald
Salon

Soon-to-be GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor met on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- the same day when the actual U.S. Secretary of State met with Netanyahu -- and vowed that he and his GOP colleagues would protect and defend Israeli interests against his own Government.  According to a statement proudly issued by Cantor's own office:

Regarding the midterms, Cantor may have given Netanyahu some reason to stand firm against the American administration.

"Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington," the readout continued. "He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other."

Leave aside the absurdity of believing that Israel needs to be protected from the extremely deferential and devoted Obama administration.  So extraordinary is Cantor's pledge that even theJewish Telegraph Agency's Ron Kampeas -- himself a reflexive American defender of most things Israel -- was astonished, and wrote:

I can't remember an opposition leader telling a foreign leader, in a personal meeting, that he would side, as a policy, with that leader against the president.  Certainly, in statements on one specific issue or another -- building in Jerusalem, or somesuch -- lawmakers have taken the sides of other nations.  But to have-a-face to face and say, in general, we will take your side against the White House -- that sounds to me extraordinary.

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Israel PM praises troops who raided Gaza flotilla

"You responded professionally, heroically, with restraint and ethically." -- Netanyahu

Amy Teibel
Associated Press

ATLIT, Israel — Israel's leader praised on Tuesday the naval commandos who participated in a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last May that drew international condemnation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a special visit to a military base, told the men they acted "heroically" and "ethically" in an attempt to stop "people who sought to kill you."

The commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists from Turkey in the May 31 raid, which worsened already strained ties with Turkey and ultimately forced Israel to ease its land blockade of Gaza imposed after Iranian-backed Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory in 2007.

A naval blockade remains intact – a measure Israel says is needed to prevent arms from reaching Gaza's Hamas rulers – and subsequent efforts to break it have been quashed without violence.



The May raid turned deadly when commandos rappelled onto the lead ship of the flotilla and were attacked by activists as they came down from helicopters. The commandos armed with paint guns and pistols opened fire in response to the assault.

"Gaza has become an Iranian terror base – very close and very dangerous," Netanyahu told the fighters at their base in this seaside northern town. The raid was "vital, imperative, important and legal," he added.

Facing a deadly threat, "you responded professionally, heroically, with restraint and ethically."

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Clinton resuming 'last chance' Mideast peace talks

Robert Burns
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is shepherding Mideast talks this week that she says may be the last chance for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Clinton and former Sen. George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region, planned to be in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, for talks Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.


They're scheduled to shift to Jerusalem for a second day of talks Wednesday, and it's likely that Obama will resume negotiations with Abbas and Netanyahu in New York the following week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

The most immediate obstacle for negotiators is a Palestinian demand that Israel extend a curb on new housing construction in the West Bank – a constraint that Israel says will expire Sept. 26.

The Palestinians have insisted that without an extension, the peace talks will go nowhere.

Raising the pressure, Obama said Friday that he has urged the Israeli leader to extend the partial moratorium as long as talks are making progress. Obama also said he's told Abbas that if he shows he's serious about negotiating, it will give political maneuver room for Netanyahu to take the domestically unpopular step of extending the limits on settlements.

Abbas knows "the window for creating a Palestinian state is closing," Obama said.

Clinton's task, he said, is to get the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to "start thinking about how can they help the other succeed, as opposed to how do they figure out a way for the other to fail."

Previewing the upcoming talks, Clinton said "there is a certain momentum" after an initial round in Washington on Sept. 2., which marked the first direct Israeli-Palestinian talks in nearly two years.

In an appearance this past week at the Council on Foreign Relations, Clinton was asked why those who see little chance of reaching a settlement in the one-year deadline Obama has set are wrong.

"I think they're wrong because I think that both sides and both leaders recognize that there may not ever be another chance," she replied.

The "last chance" notion is based in part on the knowledge that Abbas is living on borrowed time, in a political sense. His electoral mandate expired in 2009 and he fears a Hamas takeover of the West Bank, which is supposed to make up the bulk of an independent Palestinian state.

Time is a motivating factor for the Israelis, too. Some Israelis believe the longer that Israel occupies the West Bank and its growing Arab population, the more Israel's future as a Jewish state is imperiled. Creating a sovereign Palestine would get Israel out of the occupation business.

More broadly, the status quo is a drag on U.S. interests. The wars and grievances that flowed from Israel's 1948 founding as a Jewish state have divided the Middle East, and U.S. officials have argued that the conflict begets hatred and suspicion of the U.S. as Israel's principal ally.

Obama wants a deal within a year; Israelis are deeply skeptical after decades of failed efforts.

Netanyahu acknowledges the widespread doubts.

"There are many obstacles, many skeptics, and many reasons for skepticism," he said in a Jewish new year address last Tuesday. He called the resumed negotiations "an important step in an attempt" to make peace, but added that it "is an attempt because there is no certainty of success."

One concern of all the parties to the talks is Hamas, the militant Islamist movement that refuses to negotiate and opposes Israel's very existence. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, which is supposed to be part of a negotiated Palestinian state along with most of the West Bank.

Michele Dunne, a Mideast expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it appears the talks will go nowhere until the two sides, with Clinton's help, can find a compromise solution to the settlements issue.

"That's probably going to have to be the first item on the agenda," she said in a telephone interview. "The first priority is to make sure that the talks don't collapse at the end of September."

She gives the current format for negotiations about six months before the U.S. will have to either give up or put forth its own peace plan and try to rally support for it from moderate Arab states.

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