The rising tide of anti-Israeli sentiment

Tantawi  (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The recent turmoil in Cairo surrounding the Israeli embassy to Egypt represents not only a turn of public Egyptian sentiment against the state of Israel and their foreign policy but also a larger shift in attitudes in the Middle East towards the increasingly isolated state of Israel.

The United States is not taking this lightly and according to Haaretz, a senior source in the United States relayed that the new American Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has given a “forceful message” to the Egyptians.

After reportedly failing to respond to incoming calls for over two hours, Panetta spoke to the head of the Egyptian Supreme Military Council Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and warned of “very severe consequences” and “no time to waste” in resolving the issues with the Israeli embassy.

 
According to another source cited by Haaretz, this time a senior Israeli source, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak both attempted, and failed, to speak to Tantawi.

The same Israeli source told Haaretz that the Egyptians were essentially giving the senior Israeli government officials the run-around by saying that “they were not able to track him down in order to connect the call.”

To circumvent the Egyptian reluctance to speak with Israeli officials, Defense Minister Barak simply called upon his American counterpart Panetta and instructed him to discuss the issues with Tantawi, which Panetta did.

One must wonder if Barak instructed Panetta to make the forceful, and arguably threatening, remarks to Tantawi or if Panetta decided to take such an aggressive stance on his own.

The protests against the Egyptian relationship with Israel and the utter lack of change post-Mubarak was described as “severe” by Haaretz likely because it resulted in the hasty evacuation of Israeli diplomats from the embassy with the help of Egyptian commandos. Meanwhile, an Israeli Air Force jet ushered more than 80 Israeli nationals, including the families of diplomats, from Cairo.

No Israelis have been reported injured, while hundreds of Egyptians were hurt during the demonstrations and the police crackdown that ensued. Very little is being said about this and even less criticism is being leveled at the complete failure of a revolution that occurred there or the dictatorial military regime that remains.

Like me, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees links between the incident at the Israeli embassy in Cairo and the “stalled Middle East peace process.” Of course, I would not go out on a limb and call what the state of Israel has engaged in over the past decades as anything remotely resembling a peace process.

Apparently Netanyahu also realizes that there could be dire consequences if they do not attempt to rectify relations with Turkey and Egypt.

Netanyahu made it clear that he plans to uphold the peace treaty with Egypt and thanked Egypt and the United States for their help. He called the treaty with Egypt “an anchor” in Israeli policy in the Middle East and characterized the shifting currents in the Middle East as an “earthquake of historical proportions” according to Haaretz.

Netanyahu then claimed that the likes of this shift have “not been experienced since the turmoil Europe experienced after WWI while also mentioning that Israel has to “defend its interests in the region.”

The implications of this latter statement could be far-reaching as they include the “struggle for peace with the Palestinians” and the need for security assurances in order to carry out direct talks, which he claims are the only way to achieve peace.

Netanyahu then claimed that Israel “did not choose this route,” essentially ignoring the years of disproportionate attacks on Palestinians, the apartheid wall erected to isolate the real Semites in a ghetto and the racist regime that has bred so much discontent with the Arab population.

To those who claim that Israel is not a racist state, how exactly can you explain the existence of “Jewish only” roads and the license plate system that harkens back to the measures rolled out during Hitler’s regime in Germany to identify targeted groups like Jewish people and homosexuals?

Personally, I can’t delude myself to the point to reconcile these blatant instances of racism and pretend that Israel is a shining beacon of democracy and peace in the Middle East. It is simply not true.

Netanyahu also claims that Israel is going to “work to lower the flames and perhaps even return the relations to normalcy.”

I wonder how Netanyahu would react if the immensely powerful Turkish navy actually escorted a humanitarian flotilla to Gaza. Would he still “work to lower the flames”? I seriously doubt it.

Netanyahu has said that Israel is going to try to “prevent Turkey ties [sic] from deteriorating further.”
What exactly this would entail he did not make clear, nor did he say if Israel would take the small step required in simply apologizing for the murder of nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara last year.

The military dictatorship currently in place in Egypt has already voiced their undying support for the international treaties to which they are a signatory, the same treaties which Western nations knowingly defy on a regular basis. While also reinstating emergency laws and vowing to fight against further protests, something which the military regime has shown themselves to be quite fond of.

It appears to me that the anti-Israeli sentiment is only growing and unless Israel starts making some serious changes in their policies, it will only continue to rise until it creates a serious problem the likes of which we have never seen.