Chutzpah, and How!

The Israelis have raised chutzpah to entirely new soaring and unprecedented heights. They are requesting permission to annex the West Bank! They want the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank to be retro-actively legalized. That would effectively make the West Bank part of Israel. You have to follow this very carefully in order to properly understand the logic of this request and the unbelievable chutzpah involved.


Start with the finding of the World Bank that the Palestinian economy is not sufficient to sustain statehood. If they do not have an economy sufficient to become a state there will presumably not be a Palestinian state, at least not in any foreseeable future. If there cannot be a Palestinian state Israel might as well claim the West Bank as not, especially as they have already established many completely illegal settlements there and basically would now have to merely extend Israeli law to that territory. The only problem with this, from the Israeli point of view, is the presence of 50,000 or more Palestinians. As the Israelis want the land and the water but not the Palestinians their plan to take the West Bank has not as yet happened.

But consider what has happened up until now. Why is it the Palestinians do not have a viable economy? Could it possibly have anything to do with the already substantial encroachment by Israel on the West Bank? They have constructed more and more illegal settlements on Palestinian land, have destroyed Palestinian homes, orchards, fields, herded a million or more into the little sliver of land called the Gaza Strip where they have not permitted them to create much of anything by not allowing them building materials and other vital products. And in this process Israel has managed to locate Palestinians in separate parcels here and there, making it virtually impossible for them to ever have a viable country of their own. Ignore for a moment the fact that Israel has murdered Palestinian leaders and even children at will, arrested and tortured, made it extremely difficult for Palestinians to even travel easily from one place to another, bulldozed Palestinian homes, and on and on, all in violation of international law and the sanctions of the U.N.

In short, Israel has rather systematically destroyed any chance for the Palestinians to have a viable economy, and thus a state of their own, and now they think they should be entitled to keep the spoils gained through their illegal and brutal treatment of them. This is akin to murdering your parents and then asking for mercy because you have become an orphan. The Israelis have never lacked for chutzpah, but this is such an outrageous proposal they should be forced to give up the settlements, pay big-time reparations to the Palestinians, and be forced back to the previously agreed upon borders. They should also apologize to the entire world for their brazen criminality and lack of human decency. However, with American support for any atrocity they commit, that, of course, is not going to happen. Why the U.S. has supported them in their criminal enterprise year after year I do not know (actually I think I do know but it is too disgusting to contemplate).

As far as I know virtually the entire world is opposed to the Israeli expansion and behavior in general. Without U.S. support they would have little choice but to curb their excessive colonialism. But the U.S., the only nation that could actually do something about it prefers to aid and abet them at every turn. Mitt Romney, that wizard of foreign policy, who insists Obama has not done enough for Israel, is meeting with Netanyahu at the moment. Will he stop them before they kill again? Of course not, he will just continue outsourcing U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East to Israel and trying to encourage a war with Iran.

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

Benjamin Disraeli