Middle East Press on Israeli Hard Liners and Rohingya: New Age Islam's Selection, 24 September 2020
By New Age Islam Edit
Bureau
24
September 2020
• Peace Will Pull the Rug From Under Israel’s
Hard-Liners
By Ray Hanania
• US Push To Get Sudan to Recognize Israel
Faces Setback
By Jared Szuba
• Palestinian Security Forces Round up Dahlan
Supporters in West Bank
By Daoud Kuttab
• Other Nations Must Join ICJ Action On Behalf
Of Rohingya
By Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
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Peace Will Pull the Rug From Under Israel’s
Hard-Liners
By Ray Hanania
September
23, 2020
In the fog
of years of anger, it is perhaps easy to lose sight of the fact that Israel and
the Israeli government are two different things. The extremists who defend the
government want us to combine the two so that they can point fingers at us and
make false and ugly accusations of anti-Semitism.
They argue
that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Sadly, we fall into the trap of
making it easy for them to make that argument when we, as Palestinians
championing our rights in historic Palestine, fail to distinguish between the
two entities.
Israel was
founded in 1948. I wasn’t around then but I understand why my father and his
family opposed its creation. They wanted a single state that was equal and fair
to all religions. That is not what was formed when the UN recognized the
partition of Palestine and the creation of two rival areas: One Jewish and the
other non-Jewish.
But Israel
was founded nonetheless. More than 70 years of conflict has driven that reality
home for the majority of Palestinians, who are a peace-loving people that wants
justice. They are willing to accept the reality and embrace a two-state
solution, which was rejected by the Arabs in 1948. It was only “recently”
accepted during the failed Oslo Peace Accords and the famous and inspiring 1993
handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation
Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, my personal hero.
Israel’s
existence has been recognized internationally, as well as by the nearly 2
million Christian and Muslim Palestinians who live in the “Jewish state.” Those
Arabs make up more than 20 percent of the country’s population, but they are,
unfortunately, treated as second-class citizens — not by the mere existence of
the state, but by the governments that have ruled Israel.
However,
those Palestinians have a significant voice in defining Israel’s policies. The
Joint Arab List holds 15 of the 120 seats in the Israeli parliament, the
Knesset, making it the third-largest grouping behind coalition government
partners the right-wing Likud and the centrist Blue and White. The number of
Arab Knesset members has the potential to grow, increasing their influence and
political empowerment. One day, they will change Israel’s government. But they
shouldn’t have to do it alone.
Palestinians
deserve to have a state and they deserve to have all of their civil and human
rights respected. Israel’s governments have not lived up to the ideals that
were laid out in the country’s declaration of statehood of May 14, 1948. They
have passed more than 60 laws that treat non-Jews differently to Jews. Many of
those differences are significant.
Palestinians
can continue to fight these discriminatory government policies, but they need
to do it smartly, by focusing their criticisms on Israel’s government. That
means we Palestinians should not oppose Israel’s treaties with the UAE and
Bahrain, for example. What we should do instead is focus our opposition on the
conduct of Israel’s government.
Much of
Israel’s Jewish majority lives in fear due to the endless conflict and the
violent actions of extremists on both sides — that is why so many of them
choose to vote for the likes of the Likud party. However, the UAE and Bahrain
peace accords could be the first steps toward changing that mind-set and they
could, perhaps even by the time of the next election, prompt a shift to the
left in the Knesset.
The
election of right-wing Israelis has been fueled by the fear of continued
conflict with the Arab world. Could it be that, with a growing peace, fear will
recede and more moderate Israeli leaders will be voted into office?
Israel’s
hard-line, anti-Palestinian peace governments thrive on the continuation of
conflict. As long as there is conflict, these right-wing parties find
empowerment. Take away that conflict and you pull the rug from underneath them.
It is up to
the leaders of the Arab world to encourage this change as they forge ahead with
peace. As peace partners, the UAE and Bahrain have the ability to pressure
Israel to offer justice and fairness for the Palestinians, the sacred heart of
the Arab people.
If that
happens, Israel’s government could change, and that would be a good thing for
peace.
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Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago
City Hall political reporter and columnist.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1738971
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US Push To Get Sudan to Recognize Israel Faces
Setback
By Jared Szuba
Sep 23,
2020
A
delegation of top Sudanese officials returned to Khartoum from Abu Dhabi on
Wednesday, but there were no clear signs of progress toward the White House’s
goal of getting Sudan to normalize ties with Israel.
A statement
by Sudan's ruling Sovereignty Council said the talks focused on a number of
issues, including Sudan's planned removal from the US list of state sponsors of
terrorism, "stability in the region," and Sudan's role in achieving
peace between Israel and Arab countries.
Two sources
briefed on the meeting told Al-Monitor that members of the American delegation,
led by US National Security Council senior director for Gulf Affairs Brig. Gen.
Miguel Correa, were noncommittal amid a request for $3 billion in immediate
economic aid by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty
Council.
Instead, US
and UAE officials raised the possibility of several hundred million dollars in
future investment and business deals, which the Sudanese officials did not
immediately accept, according to the sources.
Why it
matters: The Trump administration is
hoping to clinch other regional states’ recognition of Israel ahead of the 2020
US presidential election. The UAE and Bahrain have already agreed to normalize
ties with the Jewish state, making them the third and fourth countries in the region
to do so, after Egypt and Jordan.
During a
meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Khartoum last month, Burhan
floated a request of some $3 billion per year over the next three years in
economic aid for Sudan, which is laden with massive debt and facing an internal
economic crisis.
Pompeo last
month had requested Sudan’s leaders normalize ties with Israel and said the
United States could quickly remove Sudan from the US state sponsors of terror
list as a result, though that had not previously been among the conditions
agreed upon by US and Sudanese officials for removing Khartoum from the
blacklist.
What’s
next: It’s not clear the Trump
administration has a plan to come up with the emergency cash that Sudan’s
leaders are requesting.
Recognizing
Israel is politically risky for Sudan's post-revolution transitional
government. Although Burhan and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok are said
to be open to establishing ties, they will likely require more tangible
guarantees of support as the country navigates a slew of crises along its
transition to democracy.
Despite a
push by Pompeo and members of the Senate, it’s unlikely a resolution to
immunize Sudan from future terror lawsuits in US courts will make it into
legislation by the end of September, as some US lawmakers have hoped.
Members of
Congress have sought to include a measure enshrining Sudan’s court settlement
to compensate victims of the 1998 Kenya and Tanzania bombings into legislation
to fund the US government by Oct. 1. But the House passed funding legislation
on Tuesday that did not include the “legal peace” sought for Sudan.
Meanwhile,
Israel’s new relations with the UAE and Bahrain are moving ahead, and the Trump
administration is looking to additional countries to normalize ties.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/09/israel-sudan-normalization-uae-talks.html
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Palestinian Security Forces Round Up Dahlan
Supporters In West Bank
By Daoud Kuttab
Sep 23,
2020
The
decision by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize relations with
Israel has prompted an internal political realignment in the Palestinian
territories, especially in the West Bank.
The two
gulf countries' decision to turn away from the Arab Peace Initiative has
brought Hamas and Fatah closer than ever to each other, at least for now, and
has increased the chances of general Palestinian elections. At the same time,
it has increased tensions within the ruling Fatah movement. Supporters of
exiled Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan appears to be taking the brunt of the Fatah
leadership's anger.
Dahlan has
been living in the United Arab Emirates since 2011. His ambition of one day
becoming the leader of the Palestinians has fed concerns of a coup.
When US
Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was asked if Washington supports the
replacement of President Mahmoud Abbas with Dahlan, the US official initially
answered in the affirmative, but later insisted that he meant to say the
opposite. The pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom, which had published the
initial statement, printed a retraction, but by then the damage to Dahlan and
his supporters was done.
The turmoil
has forced Dahlan and his supporters to come out of the shadows and declare
themselves.
Dimitri
Diliani, a Dahlan supporter in East Jerusalem, declared himself the spokesman
of a reformist wing of Fatah. Dahlan himself addressed Friedman's words,
insisting, “Whoever is not elected by his people will not be able to lead and
accomplish national independence. I … am convinced that Palestine desperately
needs to renew the legitimacy of all Palestinian leaderships and institutions,
and this will only be achieved through comprehensive and transparent national
elections. No one has yet been born who can impose his will on us."
While many
of Dahlan’s supporters are based in Gaza or East Jerusalem just outside the
reach of Abbas’ security forces, some who live in the West Bank have been
feeling pressure to choose between Dahlan and the central leadership. In some
cases, Abbas’ security forces have arrested Dahlan supporters, including the
Sept. 20 detention of four Dahlan supporters and a member of the Fatah
Revolutionary Council, which acts as a sort of legislature for the movement and
elects the powerful Central Committee. The full scope of the arrest campaign is
unclear.
Jibril
Rajoub, the secretary of the Fatah Central committee, heads a Fatah delegation
that is carrying out negotiations in Istanbul between Fatah and Hamas to mend
the split and pave the way for general elections.
From
Turkey, Rajoub said that elections will take place based on proportionality,
insisting that everyone will be allowed to participate. “There will be no veto
on any individual or faction,” he said.
It was unclear whether Rajoub was sending a message to Dahlan, his
former deputy in the Preventative Security Service, or if it was a general
statement encouraging all Palestinian to participate.
While the
Fatah movement will find it difficult to win re-election, the possibility of a
reconciliation with Dahlan and his supporters as well as an agreement with the
imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti would certainly improve the chances of
victory for Fatah.
A recent
poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Studies and Research shows that
Abbas would lose to Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh in a head-to-head vote for
presidency, while other Fatah leaders such as Rajoub or Barghouti would do much
better. Dahlan’s chances of winning a presidential election are very low.
Not only do
the Palestinians need to reformulate their goals and liberational strategy,
they also need to prepare for a new era. The arrests of Dahlan supporters might
be the last, desperate acts of a leader who knows he is not popular.
Abbas, 84,
has repeatedly said he doesn’t plan to run for president. If he does not, then
the ruling Palestinian movement must get its house in order. Arrests and
blocking of factions and activists run contrary to the democratic electoral
process.
If an
election date is indeed set, the most important component of the elections will
be the internal struggles within the various Palestinian factions. The
democratic or top-down choice of lists will prove to be as important as the
general elections.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/09/pa-dahlan-abbas-israel-arrests-uae.html
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Other Nations Must Join ICJ Action On Behalf Of
Rohingya
By Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
September
23, 2020
The
governments of Canada and the Netherlands this month announced in a joint
statement that they would be joining The Gambia’s International Court of
Justice (ICJ) action against Myanmar for genocide against the Rohingya. The new
participants in the suit intend to focus on the sexual violence aspect of
Myanmar’s “clearing operations” in particular. This has been expected for some
time and there are a handful of other countries that are also considering
joining the suit.
What is
remarkable about this case, however, is that it took the small African nation
of The Gambia to initiate this process at all, while the countries that
typically like to portray themselves as the global enforcers of international
law, such as the US and UK, have been nowhere to be seen.
In a sense,
this is a good thing, both for the international community and for the notion
of international law itself. It is not healthy to always rely on just one or
two powerful sponsors. The potential for the politicization of these norms and
institutions of international conduct in that context is ever-present. So the
fact that small African nations can bring such significant legal action to the
fore, and that the legal movement started by The Gambia is now aided by
middle-sized countries that are beyond suspicion of playing power politics, are
both things that should be celebrated.
This is a
genuine community-led effort to find legal redress for a genocide and, if these
proceedings succeed, this should act as a solid deterrent against such crimes
against humanity in the future — at least when the perpetrators are not
themselves one of the great powers.
What is
disheartening, however, is what the lack of action by other countries says
about them. We can suppose that the current US administration would never join
in these sorts of actions because it is ideologically hostile to any kind of
international institutional order as a matter of principle. But where are the
likes of the UK, France and Germany?
The
Europeans continue, even in the wake of their handling of the 2015 refugee
crisis, to vocally pride themselves on their adherence to the notions of
international law and human rights. The EU as a whole also has an autonomous
foreign policy executive, which has been actively engaged in Myanmar’s supposed
transition to a democratic constitution, and substantial financial aid
continues to flow from Brussels to Naypyidaw in the name of the European values
of law and the human dignity of all. That is all well and good on paper, until
even the civilian government in Myanmar appears to be complicit in the genocide
of the Rohingya. Why is the EU continuing to fund Naypyidaw instead of
supporting The Gambia’s suit at the ICJ?
The action
taken by The Gambia is to be celebrated as a landmark in international law and
the history of human rights on our planet. The recent moves by Canada and the
Netherlands are also to be commended as a great example of what the West is supposed
to stand for, and a model to be emulated by every other country that likes to
claim it is civilized. Any countries that join these proceedings in the future
on a similar basis as Canada and the Netherlands should also be welcomed and
commended. But where is the rest of the international community? Where are all
the other countries that appeal to international law when they have disputes
with their neighbours or when they wish to claim more territorial waters, and
so on? And, most of all, where is the rest of the West?
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Dr. Azeem
Ibrahim is a Director at Center for Global Policy in Washington, D.C.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1739011
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URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/middle-east-press-israeli-hard/d/122930