“No one likes us, we don’t care.” It could be rousing on the stadium terraces of south London, because the signature chant for Millwall soccer membership, however as a nationwide technique it’s a catastrophe. Even so, Israel has grow to be a Millwall among the many nations, apparently unbothered by and impervious to the condemnation of a watching world – condemnation which this week gained critical momentum.
As one nation after one other pointed an accusing finger in direction of Israel, repelled by the hunger, devastation and bloodshed it has introduced down on Gaza, Israeli officers provided the now-familiar center finger in return. When Keir Starmer introduced Britain’s intention to recognise a state of Palestine, it was swiftly brushed apart by the deputy mayor of Jerusalem as “much ado about nothing”.
There was a equally dismissive response to each France’s earlier pledge to make the identical diplomatic transfer and Canada’s announcement on Wednesday that it might observe go well with. Typically, the register is studied insouciance, a shrug of the shoulders; typically it’s anger. However the message is constant: we received’t budge. Because the Israeli ambassador to Canada put it: “Israel will not bow to the distorted campaign of international pressure against it.”
But for all of the Shakespearean references, the “diplomatic tsunami” which Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics warned of for a few years, and which now appears to have arrived, just isn’t nothing. What’s extra, and beneath the Millwall bluster, there are indicators that Netanyahu is aware of it.
Greater than 140 of the 193 member states of the UN had already recognised Palestine, however that membership will quickly embrace main western powers: the shift by France, the UK and Canada means no fewer than three members of the G7 are actually on board. This similar week noticed a particular convention convened on the UN in New York, the place 125 nations urged Netanyahu to decide to the institution of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, as they sought to resurrect the long-moribund two-state answer.
All this diplomatic exercise has prompted a sequence of objections from Israel and its defenders. First comes the declare that Israel’s critics are appeasers. Witness Netanyahu’s tweeted riposte to Starmer, which included the road: “Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails.” Netanyahu typically likes to invoke Winston Churchill and right here he’s once more, casting himself because the Best Briton with Starmer as Neville Chamberlain, whereas his overseas minister is filled with discuss of Munich and 1938. As if there’s any analogy between Nazi Germany grabbing a piece of Czechoslovakia and Palestinians searching for self-determination of their historic homeland. It’s a line of argument insulting in its ignorance.
Subsequent comes the cost that the likes of Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney are “rewarding terror”, handing Hamas a prize for the murderous sequence of atrocities it staged on 7 October 2023. However that’s an odd solution to learn what simply occurred. This week’s New York declaration, which was signed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and the Arab League, explicitly condemns “the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians” on that day, the primary such official denunciation by the Arab states.
Furthermore, the doc is unambiguous that “Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority”. The identical message comes by loud and clear within the declarations made by Starmer and his counterparts: it’s the PA, at present led by Fatah, that they envisage because the recognised authority of a Palestinian state. The leaders may be faulted for failing to elucidate how this imaginative and prescient of theirs can be realised, however the imaginative and prescient itself is simple – and there’s no place in it for Hamas. Arduous to spin that as a “reward”.
Extra forceful is the objection made by these campaigning for the discharge of the 20 Israeli hostages nonetheless believed to be held alive in Gaza. They argue that Starmer erred badly in suggesting that the UK wouldn’t go forward with recognition of a Palestinian state if there have been quickly to be a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. That, the campaigners argue, in impact incentivised Hamas to refuse to do any deal – which must embrace the liberating of at the very least some hostages – in order that UK recognition goes forward as promised.
Starmer’s defenders consider this line of argument rests on a misunderstanding of Hamas. That group just isn’t , they are saying, in a Palestinian state on the West Financial institution and Gaza, dwelling alongside Israel. Hamas just isn’t within the two-state enterprise, however quite seeks to rule over a single, jihadist state throughout the whole land, from the river to the ocean.
Certainly, provided that the worldwide group supported the precept of Palestinian independence earlier than 7 October, to desert it afterwards would itself be to reward Hamas, permitting that group to derail the two-state answer which it has been decided to sabotage because it first despatched suicide bombers on to Israeli buses greater than 30 years in the past.
Extra highly effective nonetheless is the cost that these bulletins and declarations are displacement exercise, gestures that reveal nothing a lot as the assorted governments’ impotence. There’s something to that: diplomatic recognition won’t feed a single little one in Gaza. When Starmer’s varied calls for on Netanyahu are blithely ignored, it would solely promote the British PM’s weak point. In a method, the transfer this week tacitly recognises that actuality. It’s predicated on the notion that Israel continues to behave in ways in which make a two-state answer much less viable. Beforehand, Starmer had all the time stated he wished to attend till UK recognition might play an element in an unfolding, significant peace course of. Now he has acknowledged that there isn’t a such factor, that he risked holding on to a card that was turning to mud in his palms. Higher to play it now earlier than it turns into solely nugatory. As Wes Streeting put it, the UK ought to recognise Palestine “while there is still a state of Palestine to recognise”.
The hope in London, Paris and elsewhere is that, when the Gaza struggle ultimately ends, the parameters of what ought to observe will have already got been staked out. However, in fact, Netanyahu just isn’t listening. He made the choice way back that Israel can ignore everyone – that the EU and the UN, together with each international establishment from the World Well being Group to the BBC, can all be written off as hopelessly biased, if not bigoted – with just one exception: the US. Over the previous decade or extra, he has gone additional, writing off half of the US too, selecting to disregard all Democrats and focus solely on the Republican get together. As long as Israel has the GOP’s backing, it’ll be high-quality.
That has all the time been a reckless technique and this week confirmed the hazard of it. For one factor, Israel wants the assist of a couple of nation. The EU and UK might not match the US as arms suppliers, however, economically, Israel wants them as buying and selling companions, on beneficial phrases. Apart from, the US Republican get together just isn’t an entirely dependable ally: a considerable wing of the Maga motion is hostile to Israel. (This week, Marjorie Taylor Greene grew to become the primary US lawmaker to accuse the nation of genocide.) And Trump himself doesn’t solely share Netanyahu’s sweeping disregard for worldwide opinion. He disdains it, however he additionally seeks its approval: he desires that Nobel prize.
Steadily, the Israeli public is coming to see the value of the pariah standing that Netanyahu has all however cultivated. A small portent is contained within the bother at present greeting Israeli vacationers in Greece. That could be one of the simplest ways to grasp the vehemence with which Israeli officers sought to dismiss Starmer et al this week, insisting in loud, livid statements that they weren’t bothered in any respect. Rising numbers of Israelis know they don’t have the luxurious of being Millwall: perhaps nobody likes them – however various them care.
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Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist
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