Israeli Military Officers: Don't Punish Palestine for Joining the ICC

[bemildred]

If you thought it was a done deal that US aid to the Palestinians would by cut off in punishment of the Palestinian application to join the International Criminal Court, think again. Opponents of Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Kentucky) boneheaded proposal to punish Palestinians for embracing the rule of law just got some powerful reinforcements.

Yes, Virginia, the cavalry is here: Israeli military officers.

Defense News reports:

TEL AVIV - Israeli military officers and experts are warning against funding freezes and other punitive acts against the Palestine Authority (PA) that they insist will jeopardize security coordination with Ramallah.

Targeting PA President Mahmoud Abbas for what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has termed a "diplomatic assault" against [Israel] will harm Israeli security interests along with those of Ramallah, experts here insist.

"When radical Islam is spreading like a virus through the region and threatening our borders, now is not the time to provoke more radicalism and instability right here at home," an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer general said.
[. . .]
In a Jan. 8 interview, the IDF general officer, speaking on background on what he insisted were "purely operational considerations," said security coordination was essential. Without the US funding that pays for PA salaries, Israel has to deal with consequences of "an Iraq-like de-Bathification purge" of thousands of unemployed, highly trained security personnel.

As it now stands, PA forces "do the minimum, and often a lot more" to maintain stability, said retired Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, a former IDF chief of staff.

By making arrests, confiscating weapons and otherwise acting in coordination with the IDF and Israel's Shin Bet security service, Ashkenazi said PA forces help contain terror not only in the West Bank, but in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem where so-called lone-wolf operatives are influenced by "the level of fury in the Palestinian street."

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/28534-israeli-military-officers-don-t-punish-palestine-for-joining-the-icc

[shira]

1. They're assuming the PA will go under, Abbas will step down....

That simply won't happen.

Abbas will flinch first. He won't make it more than a week in the W.Bank if Hamas or IJ radicals run the show.

He knows that more than anyone.

==============

Although from their perspective, I definitely get it. They don't want to re-occupy the W.Bank.

[bemildred]

2. Yeah, what do those military professional guys know anyway?

Probably all sold out to the Palestinians like Chamberlain did with Hitler.

[shira]

3. In my last sentence I said I get where they're coming from....

They don't want to risk having to re-occupy the W.Bank.

Can't blame them. I don't want that either.

I just think Abbas flinches first. With the PA going out of business, Hamas will certainly take over. Abbas knows that. He also knows he would be forced to live in exile in order to avoid having Hamas hand his ass to him in the W.Bank.

He and his corrupt cronies would be giving up practically everything they have going for them - from money to power - as well as their lives.

That would happen even if Israel prevents Hamas from taking over. Abbas still loses everything.

[bemildred]

4. Well, you have a point about Abbas, but "past performance is no guarantee of future results".

Why risk it? If he does do it, who is going to stop him? If he doesn't get the money, how will he pay his people? If he doesn't have any people, how can he run the PA? What's he going to do, run drugs? I suppose you could try to appoint Dahlan or somebody, but how long would he last? A week? Why risk it for a bit of political theater?

[shaayecanaan]

6. i think that he has concluded

that he can push the envelope as far as he likes diplomatically without anything too serious happening. israel freezes tax revenues routinely, its nothing new. they cant go much further than that without upsetting the europeans. abbas will still get his eu funding. congress will need to find a veto proof majority to defund the pa which is unlikely.

remember that the status quo is a great deal for israel. they get to occupy the wb and have the americans and europeans pay for it, whereas the us has to pay out of its own pocket to maintain the governments in afghanistan and iraq.

[4now]

5. The world is waking up to Israeli apartheid

The world got to see Netanyahu behaving like a buffoon in Paris.

[shira]

7. The BDS anti-zionist definition of Apartheid....

BDS anti-Zionist definition of Apartheid...

The only system in the Middle East which is democratic and grants Arab citizens full equality under the law, including the right to become a Justice of the Supreme Court, an ambassador, a military officer or a Minister in the Cabinet., i.e. a form of “Racism.” Not to be confused with the widespread discrimination and exclusion of Palestinians on ethnic grounds in Lebanon, which is not “Apartheid.”