Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 4 april 2019
Palestinians are nowhere to be found in Israel’s election

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Things quickly went down- With the peace process in Palestinians reject. country,” he said.
Associated Press hill, and serious peace talks a deep freeze, it is perhaps The Israelis also point to Yohanan Plesner, president
JERUSALEM (AP) — In a never took place during no surprise that none of the the 2005 withdrawal from of the Israeli Democracy
charged election cam- Obama’s time in office. major Israeli parties are talk- Gaza, which cleared the Institute and a former law-
paign that has been heavy maker, said he did not think
on insults and short on sub- Netanyahu would give in to
stance, Israel’s conflict with the annexation calls.
the Palestinians has been “At the end of the day,
notably absent from the West Bank annexation
discourse. is the prerogative of the
Prime Minister Benjamin prime minister,” he said.
Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Netanyahu’s main chal-
Party has offered no plan lenger, former military chief
for what many believe is Benny Gantz, has given Is-
the country’s most existen- rael’s “peace camp” some
tial problem. His main chal- dim hope.
lenger in the April 9 vote His Blue and White party’s
speaks vaguely of “sepa- platform devotes just a few
ration,” while Netanyahu’s sentences to the Palestin-
hard-line partners speak ians, promising “an open
openly of the once unthink- horizon for political settle-
able idea of annexing all or ment” and pledging to
parts of the West Bank. Talk work with Arab neighbors
of a Palestinian state, the to find a way to “deepen
international community’s the separation.”
preferred solution for the It makes no mention of Pal-
past two decades, is non- estinian statehood, and
existent. says Israel will continue to
It is a far cry from past elec- maintain control of parts of
tions, when peace with the the West Bank and never
Palestinians was the central In this Saturday, March 16, 2019 file photo, an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man looks at an elections divide Jerusalem.
issue for voters. This appar- billboards of the Blue and White party leaders, alongside a panel on the right showing Prime Ghassan Khatib, a former
ent lack of interest reflects Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flanked by extreme right politicians, in a charged campaign on Palestinian negotiator,
widespread disillusionment insults and short on substance. Associated Press said the lack of interest on
in Israel over years of failed the Israeli side is harmful to
peace efforts. Throughout his tenure, Ne- ing about the Palestinians. way for Hamas to seize the Palestinians in the short
But it also is a testament tanyahu has repeatedly “The Palestinian cause power from Abbas’ forces term but much worse for Is-
to Netanyahu’s success in cast blame on the Pales- is totally absent in the Is- two years later. rael in the long term.
sidelining the issue. Capi- tinians, accusing President raeli elections, and when Ahead of the election, sev- “It means the end of the
talizing on internal Palestin- Mahmoud Abbas, who it comes, it comes only in eral religious and national- two-state solution,” he said.
ian divisions and promoting seeks a negotiated settle- a negative context,” said ist parties, along with indi- “The alternative will be an
sometimes contradictory ment with Israel, of incite- Ahmed Majdalani, a senior vidual members of Netan- apartheid system, and this
policies, Netanyahu has ment and promoting “ter- Palestinian official. yahu’s Likud party, have will cause huge damage to
succeeded in managing ror.” “This is worrisome, because openly called for annex- Israeli democracy and the
the conflict without ad- At the same time, he has it tells us that we are going ing parts or all of the West image of Israel.”
dressing the bigger issue maintained behind-the- from bad to worse.” Bank. These plans include a Yossi Beilin, one of the chief
of how two intertwined scenes security coopera- The Palestinians seek the range of proposals for the architects of Israel’s historic
peoples will live together in tion with Abbas’ forces West Bank, east Jerusalem Palestinians, including non- 1993 interim peace agree-
the future. Strong backing in the West Bank in a joint and Gaza Strip — areas voting residency rights, pos- ment with the Palestinians,
from the Trump administra- struggle against the Hamas captured by Israel in the sible citizenship or financial said Netanyahu’s policies
tion has given him an extra militant group. 1967 Mideast war — for an incentives to emigrate. have been “devastating”
boost. In the Hamas-controlled independent state. The so- It remains unclear how hard for peace prospects.
“The peace track is current- Gaza Strip, Netanyahu called two-state solution is these parties, all potential Yet he remains confident
ly in a coma,” said Shmuel has engaged in frequent widely backed internation- coalition partners for Ne- the two-state solution will
Rosner, a senior fellow at rounds of fighting, but is ally as the best way to end tanyahu, will push, though one day be adopted due
the Jewish People Policy also conducting behind- the conflict. Trump’s recent recognition to a lack of alternatives,
Institute. “There’s not much the-scenes negotiations If Israel continues to rule of Israel’s annexation of the and even believes that
hope for a viable solution with his bitter enemy in over millions of Palestin- occupied Golan Heights Gantz “for sure” will pursue
to be revived in the near hopes of maintaining calm. ians, the thinking goes, the has led to stepped-up calls a peace deal if elected.
future, so people can just The Trump administration Palestinians will eventually for annexing West Bank ter- Ironically, Trump’s peace
keep pushing it aside until has further sidelined the abandon their dream of ritory. plan, if released, may force
someday it comes back to Palestinians by cutting hun- statehood and instead de- Likud spokesman Eli Hazan Netanyahu’s hand, Beilin
haunt them.” dreds of millions of dollars mand Israeli citizenship and said he does not expect said. If elected, Netanyahu
Netanyahu took office in aid and recognizing Je- full equality. annexation to be on the will have a hard time resist-
in early 2009 and under rusalem as Israel’s capital, In such a scenario, Israel agenda. ing his close friend’s pro-
heavy pressure from then- prompting the Palestinians would no longer be able to He said the party “strongly posal while his hard-line
President Barack Obama to sever ties with the U.S. A be both Jewish and demo- believes” in the status quo. coalition partners oppose
reluctantly stated his sup- long-promised peace plan, cratic. “We are against the one- any concessions to the Pal-
port for an independent which the White House says Israelis accuse the Palestin- state solution and two-state estinians.
Palestinian state, albeit with will be released after the ians of rejecting generous solution. Both ways may “The impact of the plan
many conditions, which election, faces dim pros- peace offers, most recently lead to the end of Israel as might be very interesting,”
were rejected. pects, if it is even released. in late 2008, a narrative the a Jewish and democratic Beilin said.q