On April 8, eleven members of congress released a statement opposing the Israeli government’s potential annexation of the West Bank. The action comes amid reports that the country’s new coalition government will move forward with a unilateral annexation plan.
Israeli media reported on Monday that Netanyahu and Gantz agreed on a plan to begin formally annexing parts of the West Bank, as early as this summer. “The coronavirus pandemic has been the biggest gift to Netanyahu,” Palestinian political analyst Dianna Buttu told Mondoweiss. “If there’s any time to go forward with annexation, it’s now, when everyone is focused on something else.”
James Zogby writes, “Welcome to the world ushered in by the “Deal of the Century.” It is a world not unlike the one that confronted Arabs in Balfour’s World War I era -– the injustices it will bring forth and the struggle for justice it will give birth to will continue.”
When the subject came up at recent debate, Pete Buttigieg seemed to distance himself from his previous position on conditioning aid to Israel. However, now that many believe the Trump administration has effectively rubber-stamped Netanyahu’s annexation plans via its new “peace plan”, Buttigieg is running away from the issue entirely.
The morning after President Donald Trump committed to recognizing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank during the release of his much-awaited Middle East peace plan, Palestinians protested the deal that would annex the Jordan Valley, the breadbasket of the West Bank, by motoring trackers through an Israeli checkpoint.
Nour Joudah writes, “the debate, the conversation, the driving force for peace and justice in Israel-Palestine cannot be about salvaging a territory of fragmented Bantustans, pieced together with a highway and tunnel.”
Benny Gantz support for annexing the Jordan Valley shows that the left is completely feckless in Israeli politics, and the only liberal hope is in Palestinian politicians. American liberal Zionists should accept that the two state solution is dead, and they should abandon the ideology that created apartheid: Zionism.
The Democrats who say that we only need to get rid of Netanyahu for Israel to be great again should be aware of the long history of plans by the Labor politicians to annex the Jordan Valley, lately endorsed by Netanyahu’s “liberal” rival, Benny Gantz. Annexation is the buzzword.
Benny Gantz, the leader of the “centrist” Blue & White party and main challenger to the premiership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed on Tuesday to annex the Jordan Valley if he wins the Israeli elections on March 2.
The assault on BDS in the US and the rise of Democratic Party organizations to support Israel are evidence of the progress on the Palestine issue in the U.S. in the last decade. At last the matter is politicized. Some Democratic pols openly support Palestinian rights. This is where the struggle really needs to be, in Washington; and we can thank Benjamin Netanyahu and Bari Weiss for the damage they’ve done to their own cause.