Israel is already facing a
third intifada, influential columnist Thomas Friedman claims in an
article published on Wednesday
Writing from Ramallah, Friedman
states, "Being here, it’s obvious that a Third Intifada is underway. It’s
the one that Israel always feared most — one propelled by nonviolent resistance
and economic boycott."
Friedman contends that the leaders of this
uprising are the European Union and other global opponents of the Israeli
occupation of the West Bank. It’s becoming a real source of leverage for
the Palestinians in their negotiations with Israel."
US Secretary of State John Kerry already exposed this threat when
he recently warned that a campaign to boycott and delegitimize Israel threatens
to gain momentum if peace talks fail.
Friedman also noted that Israel is
correct to see some boycott campaigners as finding a new guise for anti-Semitism. However, he emphasizes that
ignoring foreign trends and opinions by continuing building in the settlements
is not the way to go about things.
Moreover, Friedman remarks that
current calls by Israel for measures of security may be falling on deaf ears as
this intifada employs a "strategy of making Israelis feel strategically
secure but morally insecure." He brings up how historically when Israel
felt its security threatened, the Israeli public felt no regret fighting back
as in response to rocket attacks from Gaza after
unilateral disengagement. However, in situations where Israel has achieved
security, as in after pushing Egypt out of Sinai and surrounding the
'third army' in 1973, Egyptian diplomacy moved Israel to feel morally insecure
with its gains.
Friedman warns, "This
incessant trashing of Kerry by Israeli ministers, and their demand that
Palestinians halt all “incitement” — but that Israel be free to keep building
settlements in their face — is not winning Israel friends in Europe or America.
It is only energizing the boycotters."
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