The last thing the region needs right now is a radicalized Israel. This hostility toward Arabs has to stop.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is not considered credible. He has lost status with Arabs with his radical treatment of the holy places and the Palestinians.
7 October 2015
By Muhammad Waqas
It was perhaps inevitable (click here) that the situation in the West Bank and the old city of Jerusalem would deteriorate quickly; raising questions among Palestinians and Israelis alike whether a third intifada was in the making.
Daily provocations of worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque by radical Jewish settlers and right-wing Israeli officials have been going on for months even when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured the world that his government was not about to change the status of Muslim shrines in the Noble Sanctuary. In response to these provocations Palestinians rallied to defend the mosque and clashed with Israeli soldiers who used brutal force to quell them. It was a matter of time before violence erupted and people were killed on both sides. And as if Netanyahu wanted things to boil over he resorted to collective punishment; banning Palestinians from entering the holy city for two days and ordering his troops to use whatever means to confront what he called “Palestinians terrorism.”
The stage is set for a new intifada, whether Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Netanyahu wanted it or not. On the ground the ingredients for a new uprising are there; economic stagnation, political deadlock and public despair. Under Netanyahu, the peace process is comatose while the most extreme government in Israel’s history is pushing through with plans to empty East Jerusalem of its Arab residents and partition the West Bank by building walls, highways and fattening settlements. It is an understatement to say that the two-state solution is dead. In the absence of an effective US role, Netanyahu is changing the status quo of both East Jerusalem and what remains of the West Bank. And why not? There is no one to stop him....
Prime Minister Netanyahu is not considered credible. He has lost status with Arabs with his radical treatment of the holy places and the Palestinians.
7 October 2015
By Muhammad Waqas
It was perhaps inevitable (click here) that the situation in the West Bank and the old city of Jerusalem would deteriorate quickly; raising questions among Palestinians and Israelis alike whether a third intifada was in the making.
Daily provocations of worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque by radical Jewish settlers and right-wing Israeli officials have been going on for months even when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured the world that his government was not about to change the status of Muslim shrines in the Noble Sanctuary. In response to these provocations Palestinians rallied to defend the mosque and clashed with Israeli soldiers who used brutal force to quell them. It was a matter of time before violence erupted and people were killed on both sides. And as if Netanyahu wanted things to boil over he resorted to collective punishment; banning Palestinians from entering the holy city for two days and ordering his troops to use whatever means to confront what he called “Palestinians terrorism.”
The stage is set for a new intifada, whether Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Netanyahu wanted it or not. On the ground the ingredients for a new uprising are there; economic stagnation, political deadlock and public despair. Under Netanyahu, the peace process is comatose while the most extreme government in Israel’s history is pushing through with plans to empty East Jerusalem of its Arab residents and partition the West Bank by building walls, highways and fattening settlements. It is an understatement to say that the two-state solution is dead. In the absence of an effective US role, Netanyahu is changing the status quo of both East Jerusalem and what remains of the West Bank. And why not? There is no one to stop him....
