{"id":38684,"date":"2019-04-04T01:23:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T01:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38684"},"modified":"2019-04-04T01:23:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T01:23:00","slug":"palestinians-largely-ignored-in-run-up-to-israeli-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38684","title":{"rendered":"Palestinians largely ignored in run-up to Israeli election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nJERUSALEM:\u00a0In a charged election campaign that has been heavy on insults and short on substance, Israel\u2019s conflict with the Palestinians has been notably absent from the discourse.<\/p>\n

\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s ruling Likud Party has offered no plan for what many believe is the country\u2019s most existential problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHis main challenger speaks vaguely of \u201cseparation,\u201d while Netanyahu\u2019s hard-line partners speak openly of the once unthinkable idea of annexing all or parts of the West Bank. Talk of a Palestinian state, the international community\u2019s preferred solution for the past two decades, is non-existent.<\/p>\n

\nIt is a far cry from past elections, when peace with the Palestinians was the central issue for voters. This apparent lack of interest reflects widespread disillusionment in Israel over years of failed peace efforts.<\/p>\n

\nBut it also is a testament to Netanyahu\u2019s success in sidelining the issue. Capitalizing on internal Palestinian divisions and promoting sometimes contradictory policies, Netanyahu has succeeded in managing the conflict without addressing the bigger issue of how two intertwined peoples will live together in the future. Strong backing from the Trump administration has given him an extra boost.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe peace track is currently in a coma,\u201d said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. \u201cThere\u2019s not much hope for a viable solution to be revived in the near future, so people can just keep pushing it aside until someday it comes back to haunt them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNetanyahu took office in early 2009 and under heavy pressure from then-President Barack Obama reluctantly stated his support for an independent Palestinian state, albeit with many conditions, which were rejected.<\/p>\n

\nThings quickly went downhill, and serious peace talks never took place during Obama\u2019s time in office.<\/p>\n

\nThroughout his tenure, Netanyahu has repeatedly cast blame on the Palestinians, accusing President Mahmoud Abbas, who seeks a negotiated settlement with Israel, of incitement and promoting \u201cterror.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAt the same time, he has maintained behind-the-scenes security cooperation with Abbas\u2019 forces in the West Bank in a joint struggle against the Hamas militant group.<\/p>\n

\nIn the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Netanyahu has engaged in frequent rounds of fighting, but is also conducting behind-the-scenes negotiations with his bitter enemy in hopes of maintaining calm.<\/p>\n

\nThe Trump administration has further sidelined the Palestinians by cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and recognizing Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital, prompting the Palestinians to sever ties with the US. A long-promised peace plan, which the White House says will be released after the election, faces dim prospects, if it is even released.<\/p>\n

\nWith the peace process in a deep freeze, it is perhaps no surprise that none of the major Israeli parties are talking about the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Palestinian cause is totally absent in the Israeli elections, and when it comes, it comes only in a negative context,\u201d said Ahmed Majdalani, a senior Palestinian official. \u201cThis is worrisome, because it tells us that we are going from bad to worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Palestinians seek the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip \u2014 areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war \u2014 for an independent state. The so-called two-state solution is widely backed internationally as the best way to end the conflict.<\/p>\n

\nIf Israel continues to rule over millions of Palestinians, the thinking goes, the Palestinians will eventually abandon their dream of statehood and instead demand Israeli citizenship and full equality. In such a scenario, Israel would no longer be able to be both Jewish and democratic.<\/p>\n

\nIsraelis accuse the Palestinians of rejecting generous peace offers, most recently in late 2008, a narrative the Palestinians reject. The Israelis also point to the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, which cleared the way for Hamas to seize power from Abbas\u2019 forces two years later. Ahead of the election, several religious and nationalist parties, along with individual members of Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party, have openly called for annexing parts or all of the West Bank. These plans include a range of proposals for the Palestinians, including nonvoting residency rights, possible citizenship or financial incentives to emigrate.<\/p>\n

\nIt remains unclear how hard these parties, all potential coalition partners for Netanyahu, will push, though Trump\u2019s recent recognition of Israel\u2019s annexation of the occupied Golan Heights has led to stepped-up calls for annexing West Bank territory.<\/p>\n

\nLikud spokesman Eli Hazan said he does not expect annexation to be on the agenda. He said the party \u201cstrongly believes\u201d in the status quo. \u201cWe are against the one-state solution and two-state solution. Both ways may lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nYohanan Plesner, president of the Israeli Democracy Institute and a former lawmaker, said he did not think Netanyahu would give in to the annexation calls. \u201cAt the end of the day, West Bank annexation is the prerogative of the prime minister,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nNetanyahu\u2019s main challenger, former military chief Benny Gantz, has given Israel\u2019s \u201cpeace camp\u201d some dim hope.<\/p>\n

\nHis Blue and White party\u2019s platform devotes just a few sentences to the Palestinians, promising \u201can open horizon for political settlement\u201d and pledging to work with Arab neighbors to find a way to \u201cdeepen the separation.\u201d It makes no mention of Palestinian statehood, and says Israel will continue to maintain control of parts of the West Bank and never divide Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\nGhassan Khatib, a former Palestinian negotiator, said the lack of interest on the Israeli side is harmful to the Palestinians in the short term but much worse for Israel in the long term.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt means the end of the two-state solution,\u201d he said. \u201cThe alternative will be an apartheid system, and this will cause huge damage to Israeli democracy and the image of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM:\u00a0In a charged election campaign that has been heavy on insults and short on substance, Israel\u2019s conflict with the Palestinians has been notably absent from the discourse. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s ruling Likud Party has offered no plan for what many believe is the country\u2019s most existential problem.\u00a0 His main challenger speaks vaguely of \u201cseparation,\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}