Netanyahu, in International Isolation

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, is being isolated by internal and international forces. Public relation campaigns launched worldwide by the foreign ministry of Israel to create a positive image have all failed, despite enormous efforts expended also by Zionist lobbies that spent enormous amounts of money. The ugly image of Israel, caused by the racist/colonial policy imposed by colonial settlers and the Israeli military forces on the Palestinians in their occupied land can never be cleared or hidden any more. Israeli Institute for Democracy recently issued a report stating that “the bad image of Israel in Europe persists in spite of the huge amount of money spent in campaigns to project a positive image. We have to ask why it is so.” Researchers in the same Institute believe that the bad image was precipitated by an international campaign to strip Israel of its legitimacy, thus, greatly increasing the numbers of “the enemies of the Zionist state around the world” due to Israel’s labels against these “anti-Semites”!
The most revealing example of Israel’s isolation is the bad relation between Netanyahu and President Obama. Jeffery Goldberg, an American journalist and a Jew who is very close to the White House said in an article on Haaretz that “the minute President Obama heard Netanyahu’s declaration to build new settlements in the Area E1 near Jerusalem, the President did not even comment and told his aides that he has become used to Netanyahu’s self-destructive behavior”. Obama, Goldberg said “considers that every decision to build new settlements on Palestinian lands leads to the ultimate complete isolation of Israel”. In words attributed to the American president: “Israel will shortly find itself, when votes are counted in the United Nations, very alone, isolated and hated by the world community”.
In line with the same pattern of thought, General Danny Rothschild, the former chief of the Israeli National Council, wrote in a study published by Israel’s Jerusalem Center for Studies: “We cannot but notice the present impression that is held in USA that Israel now has become a liability endangering America rather than a strategic ally”. He described the image that is being given to the present Israeli Government in Europe and America as being very brutal and though, he said “not all the criticisms levied against the government are all true all the time, the government, nevertheless, has failed in its task to project a positive image for Israel around the world”.
An internal report by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, published recently, predicted that the European countries will put tremendous pressure on the upcoming Israeli government to force it to resume negotiations to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians. According to the report, “the Europeans’ opposition to Israeli settlements will greatly increase and shall go beyond verbal condemnation”. “Diplomatic European sources confirm the intention of the European Union to push for the establishment of a Palestinian State on the territories of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital including mutual exchange of territories between the two states”, the report said. Echoing the same note, Yediot Ahronot wrote that “The Europeans are considering convening a regional peace conference inviting Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf States to attend which will put a great pressure on Israel to attend and if Israel refuses, it will prove that Israel is rejecting peace in the Middle East”. The Israeli newspaper underlined the foreign ministry’s assessment in the same report pertaining to the European Union’s condemnation of building new settlements by noting that “the unbalanced tone of this declaration has been illuminated by the fact that the report has lacked, this time, the previous notation that has always completely ignored the issue of settlements focusing only on “direct talks as the only way to achieve peace”.
The year 2013 is slated to be the year of the final decision to be reached as regards the Iranian nuclear issue. It is also the time where the relation between President Obama and Netanyahu is expected to be severely tested. David Makovsky is a fellow researcher in the Washington Institute for Middle Eastern Studies and thinks that that it is impossible to form a strictly right wing government in Israel which would cause extreme problems for Obama. But this, he says, may usher an opportunity to arrive to better understanding between Israel and the United States, yet “it will not be easy to do because of the past. Obama’s way in dealing with Netanyahu was filled with mutual mistrust, extreme dislike and complete disregard to what the other cares for”. Israeli political analyst Sima Kadmon, in his article ‘Israel after the Election: Isolation’ said the Europeans know very well that the American support for Israel has greatly been weakened and that the Egyptian officials who are closely attached to the United States, will also get the same message. He perceives an imminent consequence awaiting Netanyahu: “A world that has lost patience with him”.