Abir Dandis, the mother of the two girls who were murdered in the Negev town of Al-Fura’a last week, couldn't find a police officer to listen to her warnings, neither in Arad nor in Ma’ale Adumim. Both police stations operate in areas where Israel wants to gather the Bedouin into permanent communities, against their will, in order to clear more land for Jewish communities. The dismissive treatment Dandis received shows how the Bedouin are considered simply to be lawbreakers by their very nature. But as a resident of the West Bank asking for help for her daughters, whose father was Israeli, Dandis faced the legal-bureaucratic maze created by the Oslo Accords.

The Palestinian police is not allowed to arrest Israeli civilians. It must hand suspects over to the Israel Police. The Palestinian police complain that in cases of Israelis suspected of committing crimes against Palestinian residents, the Israel Police tend not to investigate or prosecute them.

In addition, the town of Al-Azaria, where Dandis lives, is in Area B, under Palestinian civilian authority and Israeli security authority. According to the testimony of Palestinian residents, neither the IDF nor the Israel Police has any interest in internal Palestinian crime even though they have both the authority and the obligation to act in Area B.

The Palestinian police are limited in what it can do in Area B. Bringing in reinforcements or carrying weapons in emergency situations requires coordination with, and obtaining permission from, the IDF. If Dandis fears that the man who murdered her daughters is going to attack her as well, she has plenty of reason to fear that she will not receive appropriate, immediate police protection from either the Israelis or the Palestinians.

Dandis told Jack Khoury of Haaretz that the Ma’ale Adumim police referred her to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Coordination and Liaison Committee. Theoretically, this committee (which is subordinate to the Civil Affairs Ministry) is the logical place to go for such matters. Its parallel agency in Israel is the Civilian Liaison Committee (which is part of the Coordination and Liaison Administration - a part of the Civil Administration under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories).

In their meetings, they are supposed to discuss matters such as settlers’ complaints about the high volume of the loudspeakers at mosques or Palestinians’ complaints about attacks by settlers. But the Palestinians see the Liaison Committee as a place to submit requests for permission to travel to Israel, and get the impression that its clerks do not have much power when faced with their Israeli counterparts. In any case, the coordination process is cumbersome and long.

The Palestinian police has a family welfare unit, and activists in Palestinian women’s organizations say that in recent years, its performance has improved. But, as stated, it has no authority over Israeli civilians and residents. Several non-governmental women’s groups also operate in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and women in similar situations approach them for help. The manager of one such organization told Haaretz that Dandis also fell victim to this confusing duplication of procedures and laws. Had Dandis approached her, she said, she would have referred her to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which has expertise in navigating Israel’s laws and authorities.

John Kerry revealed his long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East on Sunday, hinging on a $4bn (£2.6bn) investment in the Palestinian private sector.

The US secretary of state, speaking at the World Economic Forum on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea, told an audience including Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that an independent Palestinian economy is essential to achieving a sustainable peace.

Speaking under the conference banner "Breaking the Impasse", Kerry announced a plan that he promised would be "bigger, bolder and more ambitious" than anything since the Oslo accords, more than 20 years ago.

Tony Blair is to lead a group of private sector leaders in devising a plan to release the Palestinian economy from its dependence on international donors. The initial findings of Blair's taskforce, Kerry boasted, were "stunning", predicting a 50% increase in Palestinian GDP over three years, a cut of two-thirds in unemployment rates and almost double the Palestinian median wage. Currently, 40% of the Palestinian economy is supplied by donor aid.

Kerry assured Abbas that the economic plan was not a substitute for a political solution, which remains the US's "top priority".

Peres, who had taken the stage just minutes before, also issued a personal plea to his Palestinian counterpart to return to the negotiations.

"Let me say to my dear friend President Abbas," Peres said, "Should we really dance around the table? Lets sit together. You'll be surprised how much can be achieved in open, direct and organised meetings."

Thick locks hug the front gates of shuttered shops, now covered in graffiti and dust from lack of use. Only a handful of customers pass along the dimly lit road, sometimes stopping to check the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, or ordering meat in near-empty butcher shops.

“All the shops are closed. I’m the only one open. This used to be the best place,” said 64-year-old Mustafa Sunocret, selling vegetables out of a small storefront in the marketplace near his family’s home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Amidst the brightly coloured scarves, clothes and carpets, ceramic pottery and religious souvenirs filling the shops of Jerusalem’s historic Old City, Palestinian merchants are struggling to keep their businesses alive.

Faced with worsening health problems, Sunocret told IPS that he cannot work outside of the Old City, even as the cost of maintaining his shop, with high electricity, water and municipal tax bills to pay, weighs on him.

“I only have this shop,” he said. “There is no other work. I’m tired.”

Abed Ajloni, the owner of an antiques shop in the Old City, owes the Jerusalem municipality 250,000 Israeli shekels (68,300 U.S. dollars) in taxes. He told IPS that almost every day, the city’s tax collectors come into the Old City, accompanied by Israeli police and soldiers, to pressure people there to pay.

“It feels like they’re coming again to occupy the city, with the soldiers and police,” Ajloni, who has owned the same shop for 35 years, told IPS. “But where can I go? What can I do? All my life I was in this place.”

He added, “Does Jerusalem belong to us, or to someone else? Who’s responsible for Jerusalem? Who?”

Illegal annexation

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in 1967. In July 1980, it passed a law stating that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”. But Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and subsequent application of Israeli laws over the entire city remain unrecognised by the international community.

Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory – along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights – and Palestinian residents of the city are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Jerusalem has historically been the economic, political and cultural centre of life for the entire Palestinian population. But after decades languishing under destructive Israeli policies meant to isolate the city from the rest of the Occupied Territories and a lack of municipal services and investment, East Jerusalem has slipped into a state of poverty and neglect.

“After some 45 years of occupation, Arab Jerusalemites suffer from political and cultural schizophrenia, simultaneously connected with and isolated from their two hinterlands: Ramallah and the West Bank to their east, West Jerusalem and Israel to the west,” the International Crisis Group recently wrote.

Israeli restrictions on planning and building, home demolitions, lack of investment in education and jobs, construction of an eight-foot-high separation barrier between and around Palestinian neighbourhoods and the creation of a permit system to enter Jerusalem have all contributed to the city’s isolation.

Formal Palestinian political groups have also been banned from the city, and between 2001-2009, Israel closed an estimated 26 organisations, including the former Palestinian Liberation Organisation headquarters in Jerusalem, the Orient House and the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce.

Extreme poverty

Israel’s policies have also led to higher prices for basic goods and services and forced many Palestinian business owners to close shop and move to Ramallah or other Palestinian neighbourhoods on the other side of the wall. Many Palestinian Jerusalemites also prefer to do their shopping in the West Bank, or in West Jerusalem, where prices are lower.

While Palestinians constitute 39 percent of the city’s population today, almost 80 percent of East Jerusalem residents, including 85 percent of children, live below the poverty line.

“How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t control your resources? How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t have any control of your borders?” said Zakaria Odeh, director of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, of “this kind of fragmentation, checkpoints, closure”.

“Without freedom of movement of goods and human beings, how could you develop an economy?” he asked.

“You can’t talk about independent economy in Jerusalem or the West Bank or in all of Palestine without a political solution. We don’t have a Palestinian economy; we have economic activities. That’s all we have,” Odeh told IPS.

Israel’s separation barrier alone, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD), has caused a direct loss of over one billion dollars to Palestinians in Jerusalem, and continues to incur 200 million dollars per year in lost opportunities.

Israel’s severing and control over the Jerusalem-Jericho road – the historical trade route that connected Jerusalem to the rest of the West Bank and Middle East – has also contributed to the city’s economic downturn.

Separation of Jerusalem from West Bank

Before the First Intifada (Arabic for “uprising”) began in the late 1980s, East Jerusalem contributed approximately 14 to 15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). By 2000, that number had dropped to less than eight percent; in 2010, the East Jerusalem economy, compared to the rest of the OPT, was estimated at only seven percent.

“Economic separation resulted in the contraction in the relative size of the East Jerusalem economy, its detachment from the remaining OPT and the gradual redirection of East Jerusalem employment towards the Israeli labour market,” the U.N. report found.

Decades ago, Israel adopted a policy to maintain a so-called “demographic balance” in Jerusalem and attempt to limit Palestinian residents of the city to 26.5 percent or less of the total population.

To maintain this composition, Israel built numerous Jewish-Israeli settlements inside and in a ring around Jerusalem and changed the municipal boundaries to encompass Jewish neighbourhoods while excluding Palestinian ones.

It is now estimated that 90,000 Palestinians holding Jerusalem residency rights live on the other side of the separation barrier and must cross through Israeli checkpoints in order to reach Jerusalem for school, medical treatment, work, and other services.

“Israel is using all kinds of tools to push the Palestinians to leave; sometimes they are visible, and sometimes invisible tools,” explained Ziad al-Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER).

Al-Hammouri told IPS that at least 25 percent of the 1,000 Palestinian shops in the Old City were closed in recent years as a result of high municipal taxes and a lack of customers. “Taxation is an invisible tool…as dangerous as revoking ID cards and demolishing houses,” he said. “Israel will use this as pressure and as a tool in the future to confiscate these shops and properties.”

When the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations General Assembly in 1974, he said: "The roots of the Palestinian question do not stem from any conflict between two religions or two nationalisms; neither is it a border conflict between neighbouring states. It is the cause of a people deprived of their unalienable rights, driven out of their homeland, dispersed and uprooted and living mostly in exile and refugee camps."

In saying so, Arafat was addressing the world to take notice and be warned of the consequences that might stem from the loss of Palestinians' unalienable rights. He wanted the world to be fully aware that the loss of Palestine to the very well-armed forces of the Zionist state does not mean in any way, shape or form, the loss of the national identity of the Palestinian people and their struggle to attain their unalienable rights that are the absolute rights of every people in our world as decreed by the United Nations charter. Indeed, liquidating the Palestinian national identity was the second item on the Zionists' agenda after historical Palestine came under the control of the colonial Israeli occupation. Tel Aviv was adamant in refusing to address the issue of the Palestinian refugees for fear of having to deal with their unalienable rights guaranteed by the UN charter which politically created the Zionist state in 1949.

Status quo

In this context, let us ‘cut to the chase' and observe the status quo of the so-called ‘peace process.' The whole world, including Israel, has agreed that the only solution to the Palestinian question is the two-state solution, a Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel in tranquillity and peaceful co-existence. Such a lofty goal to ensure a just and ever enduring peace in the Middle East requires that the two states provide to their respective peoples the same UN-guaranteed unalienable rights. This crucial requirement of full equality in national rights regarding both the Israeli and Palestinian states does not even exist on the agenda of the so-called ‘peace process' making the process of reaching a final settlement totally unfeasible.

In fact, this process now stands between ‘a master race' with endowed divine entitlements such as ‘the chosen people of God' and an ‘inferior people' who must stay subservient to ‘the master race'. The very actions of the Israeli colonial rule in the Occupied Territories are based upon the apartheid system which has been inflaming the emotions of the entire Islamic world in addition to many others, including Jews inside and outside Israel. The establishment of a Palestinian state is far greater in scope and significance than the demarcation of boundaries that are shrinking by the day by Israeli annexations of Palestinians lands to build more colonies.

The so-called ‘peace process' was never meant to be taken seriously nor was it an intention of Israel to address the unalienable rights of the Palestinian people towards establishing their own democratic and independent state of Palestine within the framework of a two-state solution. The basic ideology of Zionism refers to all historical Palestine as ‘Eretz Israel' or ‘the land of Israel', said to be divinely promised only to the adherents of the Jewish faith, ‘the only true faith'! The same Zionist belief has been embraced as a scheme totally Judaising occupied Jerusalem to be "the eternal capital of the Jewish State".

Meanwhile, the peace process is asking the Palestinians and the Arab countries to recognise Israel as a Jewish state despite the fact that Judaism is a religion not a nationality. At this juncture, it is worth noticing that the real agenda of the current right-wing government in Israel will directly affect the very survival of the Zionist state. Many in Israel along with many Jews around the world, especially in America, are fully aware of the suicidal path being followed by the right-wing government of Israel. They are doing their best to prevent the right-wing politics in Israel from destroying the Zionist state and world Jewry with it. So, the so-called peace process, to the minds of the majority of Israelis, is meant to allow Israel time to carry through its Zionist agenda of completely Judaising historical Palestine including occupied Jerusalem. Any resistance against the process of Judaisation taking place under the guise of the peace process will be branded as a terrorist act against Israel as well as international security!

This is why, the peace process has turned the Palestinian people into prisoners abused and robbed on a daily basis in the name of ‘peace-in-the-making' that will never be realised at the hands of the present Israeli government. The ugly fact of the peace process is that it has been transformed into a daily swallowing up of pieces of Palestinian lands to feed the hungry process of Judaisation of historical Palestine which cannot be finalised without the total transfer of all the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories from their historical homeland including occupied Jerusalem.

Israel believes that using the chaos of the Arab Spring and the divisions in Palestinian ranks besides attacking Gaza would prevent the formation of a unity government in Palestine. A new government would have put more pressure on Israel to initiate concrete measures towards reviving ‘the peace process'. Netanyahu is also taking advantage of the weakness of the Palestinian National Authority, which has reached a dead end in negotiations

The new slaughter in Gaza by the present right-wing Israeli government is seen by many observers (including Israelis) as an attempt to win a cheap and heinous victory at regional and international levels. It is also seen as a purposeful attempt to cover up the extreme shortcomings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who failed to extract an American commitment from President Barack Obama to militarily deal with and put an end to the nuclear programme of Iran.

A majority of the Israeli public (58 per cent) opposes a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran without the full backing of the American government. Yet 48 per cent of Israelis support Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Ehud Barak who both advocate a pre-emptive Israeli strike against Iran. With the backdrop of Netanyahu's failure in his talks on the issue with Obama, the right-wing Israeli government instigated the current slaughter in Gaza in the hope first to attain a cheap victory that would bring back the Israeli public's trust in the invincibility of the Israeli military establishment.

Such a victory may have been planned by installing the Iron Dome batteries to destroy incoming rockets, this time inferior homemade ones fired by small Palestinian groups who do not have "advanced" rockets like Hamas. The Iron Dome was declared successful in this current crisis, yet it is a self-defeating scheme that will never succeed in facing the advance of Iranian rockets estimated to be in the tens of thousands.

Observers also noticed that Netanyahu's attempt to win a cheap victory also stems from the fact that Hamas has decided that this is not the right time to retaliate with its superior rockets. Netanyahu knows that, thus he took advantage of the situation with Hamas being out on the sidelines trying to calm things down. The right-wing Israeli government does not want the Israeli public to start contemplating the dire effects of an Islamist iron fence being established around Israel. Therefore, a mini-crisis in Gaza could take attention away from this issue. Another reason behind the current strikes is that Israel believes that using the chaos of the Arab Spring and the divisions among Palestinian ranks on top of attacking Gaza would prevent the formation of a unity government in Palestine which would have instigated more pressure on Israel to come out with concrete steps towards reviving ‘the peace process'.

Netanyahu is also taking advantage of the extreme weakness of the Palestinian National Authority which reached a dead end in ‘the peace process' without having a valid alternative in hand to keep the trust of the Palestinian public. Stalling for sometime to complete the Judaisation process of historical Palestine is the only Israeli policy available today. Gaining from the complete paralysis of the Arab world to pursue the Judaisation of Palestine without having to face the wrath of the Arab and Islamic worlds is the basic strategy of the Israeli government under Netanyahu's leadership.

The slaughter in Gaza is giving the Israeli colonial/apartheid regime the military power to systematically assassinate Palestinian activists without facing legal action for its crimes. Meanwhile, Netanyahu seems to be preparing himself and his right-wing party to face the possible "wrath of Obama" — as some American journalists put it — in case he wins a second term. The alliance reached by Netanyahu with the Republican Party to prevent the American president from attaining a second term is going to haunt the Israeli prime minister and his Likud party after a Democratic win next November.

Therefore, only a big victory for Netanyahu in the next Israeli elections may shield him from such ‘wrath'. The Israeli prime minister is trying to portray himself in this Gaza crisis as a leader with an iron fist "who would never compromise the safety and security of the state of Israel under any circumstances". By launching a military strike against Gaza without the full participation of Hamas and its ‘advanced' rockets against the raids gives Netanyahu the high stature he seeks to win a big victory against his opponents in Israel. Finally, many Israeli military experts foresee a major operation against Israel coming from the Sinai Peninsula by fighters who are not even Palestinians. While the current killings in Gaza are designed to increase the popularity of Netanyahu, they are also going to increase the chances of such an operation recurring, according to the same Israeli experts. They expect a number of Israeli casualties as a result of these operations and some in Israel want it to happen in order to put the full blame upon Netanyahu's head who is playing with the blood of innocent souls in Gaza and in Israel.

Playing with the blood of Palestinians does not gain anyone anything, except heinous criminality of the meanest kind. Creating a crisis in which many innocent souls perish does not always fulfil the planned scenario of its instigators.

Many a time a fabricated crisis aimed to shed blood took its instigators to where they dreaded to go, especially in this current slaughter in Gaza. After all, "the law of reciprocity" was revealed in the first place to Prophet Moses who declared: "Who lives by the sword, shall perish by sword". And "the law of reciprocity" is an absolute law, a divine law that can never be stopped from being invoked.

No matter how truthful and brilliant a message can be, its success always depends on the messenger who transmits it. And so are causes in our world which have utterly failed in spite of their validity because the transmitters were not up to the task to creatively project to others their righteousness. Indeed, we see great religious thoughts that were and still are being misused by non-spiritual minds that turned them into pure unadulterated evil. The number of innocent souls that perished in the name of religion that is supposed to save them as a primary goal is almost beyond any calculation. Therefore, it is always the messenger together with the message that makes the difference.

Our focus here is Palestine. The validity of its righteous cause is beyond question, but the immense abuse it had experienced at the hands of the Zionists/ Israelis and even some Palestinians and Arabs is also beyond question and doubt. Yet, the Palestine cause has never witnessed a public relation campaign that reached a creative level bonding with millions of hearts and minds across the world like the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC). The organisation has been raising public awareness about the occupation of Palestine and the legitimate daily struggle of the Palestinians which, slowly but surely, is causing Israel to lose favour and even its legitimacy as a state among law-abiding nations.

Because of the many campaigns of the PSC, Israel has increasingly become one of the most hated states in our world, similar to apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. This civil Palestinian organisation has been turning an ever-growing number of Jewish and Israeli minds and hearts to support the basic rights of the Palestinian people. One of its latest general achievements was a vote of support by the British Trade Union Congress (TUC), representing 6.5 million workers in the United Kingdom. TUC voted on September 14, 2011 "to support Palestine and review links with organisations complicit with Israel's occupation". Such a development calls for appreciation of the organised efforts of the PSC which is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation with members from many communities across the world who have come together from all faiths and political parties, student organisations and trade unions to work for justice for the Palestinian people. Indeed, the PSC with a head office in central London is opposed to all forms of racism, including anti-Jewish prejudice and Islamo-phobia. PSC has an executive committee of 20 members in addition to two members representing the PSC's trade union advisory committee. The organisation depends on volunteers to manage and run specific campaigns and branches across the world in addition to producing publications. As an example, some of its activities included during October, 2011, the "Negev Bedouin Story" event held in Oxford highlighting the plight of thousands of Bedouins facing transfer from their lands by Israel. Another event held in Cambridge focused on ‘Israel's Hidden Victims' while a day of films was dedicated to Palestine in Southampton entitled ‘Gazawood'. The ‘ Revolutionary Change in the Arab World: What Prospects for the Palestinians?' was the main focus of an activity held in London. A major campaign of PSC is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) drive against Israel, primarily initiated by a grassroots movement that grew in the Occupied Territories. Omar Barghouti, a fellow Palestinian and a leader of the movement managed, together with his colleagues, to found the BDS (which has spread across the world) as early as 2005 with a campaign of and a call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights.

Boycotting products

A truly global movement against Israeli apartheid is rapidly emerging in response to this call. "Don't collaborate with Israeli apartheid" was an appeal from Palestinian civil societies to European and American universities, academies, students and people of conscience. All the time, BDS activists are urging unions to review relations with the Israeli trade union (Histadrut) and all western companies to stop their dealings with Israeli commercial enterprises which are exploiting Occupied Territories.

In addition to such activities, a number of resources are made available to volunteers to run the various campaigns all over the world drawing attention to the illegal status of the Israeli colonies and calling for a boycott of their products.

Again, ‘it is the messenger together with the message', that can fulfil noble goals. When the messenger and his colleagues in the PSC reach a high-level in the service of their righteous cause, they are literally able to budge immense rocks with the BDS campaign against the colonial Israeli rule in occupied Palestine. Indeed, we are truly blessed to have the likes of Omar Barghouti and his companions in the PSC who work tirelessly towards bringing justice to the Palestinians.

Is it the age of the greys? asks Israeli journalist Eitan Haber as he laments the current leadership in Israel and its policies. “The crisis we have in Israel is not political, social or economic; neither is it a matter of national security,” he says, “the real crisis lies in the lack of leadership”.

He goes on to say that demagoguery is the current popular belief characterising the present leadership that dismisses the right and the left in Israel, leaving the shelf empty with no qualified national leaders in sight.

He then asks with barely concealed ridicule: “What are we going to do?” Only to answer that “if we do not import leaders, like Bill Clinton, we will be stuck with what we have. Maybe after Netanyahu when elections draw nearer or by divine intervention, this age could become the age of the greys”, meaning the age of colourless and clueless leaders who lack principle and vision.

The popularity of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the polls does not exceed 30 per cent while fluctuating a little according ‘to the deal of the day’. During the past two and half years, his popularity hovered around 25 per cent among the population who supported his performance.

Compared to Ariel Sharon whose popularity never dipped below 50 per cent and Ehud Olmert, whose popularity ratings were around 40 per cent, Netanyahu has the lowest popularity ratings as prime minister.

Sever Plocker of Yediot Ahronot sees the fluctuations being caused by the ongoing conflict between “the old Bibi” (Netanyahu’s nickname) and “the new Bibi”. So when the ‘new Bibi’ has the upper hand, his popularity shoots up, but when the ‘old Bibi’ is in control, a separation takes place between the prime minister and his public.

The Israeli public with all its various factions is sending a clear message to Netanyahu saying: “Set aside your foolish beliefs and listen to us”.

Plocker also explains that “when Netanyahu supports the principle of a two-state solution, his support shoots up in the opinion polls and hence his support for a recommendation by the Quartet on the Middle East to resume negotiations as well as his move to negotiate the release of Gilad Shalit with Hamas. And when he adopted economic policy in contrast to the policy of the ‘old Bibi’ his popularity went up”.

Racist proposals

Now with the end of the Knesset recess, Netanyahu is getting ready to face several proposals of racist nature stipulating that (a) Israelis who served in the military be given preference in filling jobs in public departments, (b) a declaration of loyalty to a ‘Jewish state’ is required as a condition to obtain an Israeli citizenship and (c) the Israeli interior minister be authorised to withdraw the citizenship of anyone who works against the state of Israel, a loose measure that threatens unjust encroachment on individual and collective freedom.

In this context, Israeli observers and analysts believe that all the above will give Netanyahu a headache. Neve Gordon, professor of politics, recently described the Israeli government as being “afflicted with confusion” with the opposition putting the responsibility on Netanyahu because “he completely lacks political vision”.

Professor Denis Charbit blames Netanyahu “because he does not have the intelligence of previous prime ministers which made him fail to sign any peace agreement [with the Palestinians]”.

Dan Sheldon of the Union of Jewish Students recently warned Netanyahu in the midst of a wave of social protests that “the public demonstrations taking place in Israel, Mr Prime Minister, shall also remove you. The new rabbit which you are riding now to cut down indirect taxes points to the hysteria afflicting you. It is too late ... nothing will stop these demonstrations ... go see the president with your resignation in hand ... your way of degrading the public demonstrations will only increase your isolation. Nothing whatsoever would save you from your end as a prime minister”.

Indeed, in spite of Netanyahu’s calls for a resumption of negotiations with the Palestinian National Authority, he absolutely does not want to see a two-state solution implemented. All his efforts seek to delay and prevent such a solution from ever seeing the light of the day. He has managed to survive due to the steady support he receives from the American Congress that has been carrying on with a policy contrary to that being promoted by the White House.

This is why, Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations at New York University, recently said that Netanyahu’s continuous policy of belittlement and scorn poses a direct threat to Israeli security. In Ben-Meir’s words: “Delaying and preventing a political settlement between Israelis and Palestinians is being viewed by Netanyahu and his group as a victory”. This is nothing, he concluded, “but self-deceit that would lead to self-defeat which will put in dire danger the very survival of Israel as a state”.