Out of the Israeli brutality against civilians on board the flotilla in international waters, new realities emerged that may lead to radical solutions if the major players in the International Quartet acted wisely and boldly, and if the regional powers led by Egypt and Turkey understood well the opportunity to support Palestine without one-upmanship.
Israel has lost its mind in recent times as it is under extreme pressure that has shaken its confidence in its ability to plan strategies and draw in American support for them, as usual.
Iran, meanwhile, is concerned by Turkey’s growing role, in particular when the flotilla, which exposed the Israeli brutality, sailed to Gaza in a bid to break the blockade under Turkish auspices, and humanitarian arbitrariness. This means that Turkey decided to reclaim the Palestinian cause from Shiite Iranian confiscation for the sake of the Sunni leadership. It also means that the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is engaging Iran on two fronts, one involving endorsement in the nuclear issue in order to allow Turkey into the talks among major powers in the Iranian issue. And the second front involves extracting the banner of the Palestinian cause from the Shiite powers represented first by Iran and second by Hezbollah.
In truth, Egypt’s entry into these developments is remarkable and extremely noteworthy, whether in the current and near terms, or at the level of the balance of power in the region, as the Palestinian cause has become one of the instruments of political acumen and regional popular fervour.
Egypt opened the Rafah crossing ‘until further notice’, a measure that will benefit it both regionally and locally. For instance, Egypt paved the way for an Arab role on par with the Iranian-Turkish rivalry in what relates to the Palestinian cause. Also, Egypt is assessing whether the Rafah crossing into Gaza is also a crossing for it into voiding a domestic power crisis.
While Hamas might be the party that benefited most at present from the botched military assault against the Freedom Flotilla, Hamas will be more and more under scrutiny because the illegal Israeli blockade was in retaliation against Hamas’s failure to restrain itself as a ‘government’, and its failure to restrain other Palestinian factions.
Moreover, the Palestinian National Authority (PA), too, will be under further scrutiny. If it should succeed in exploiting the international public opinion, which is angry at Israel’s continued impunity, the PA might be able to rally concrete support around it, based on the strategy of enabling the Palestinians to build institutions up to establishing their independent state. Even the public opinion, in particular the Arab opinion, is under scrutiny. It is about time for it to refrain from emotional arbitrariness, to shoulder its responsibility in cautioning leaderships regarding the perils of their destructive games, and to become a truly constructive public opinion that is coherent, aware and persistent.
The main members of the Quartet, which consists of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, are required today to play a different role than the previous ones characterized by hesitation and ornamental stances, and sometimes insulting stances because of their short-sightedness.
Today, the United Nations and its Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon must not suffice themselves with statements of condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli violations of international laws and norms, and of its disregard to repeated demands for lifting the blockade on Gaza. Today, it is time for greater boldness on the part of the United Nations in order to reassert the purview of international law and legitimacy, without hesitation, apology, fear or ambiguity. If Judge Richard Goldstone’s report had fallen into the maze of politics and had thus lost its prerogative for immediate accountability, then the tragedy of the flotilla must present an opportunity for a new way for the United Nations to deal with violations against humanitarian and international laws.
In fact, an independent international investigation is necessary, especially when the Israeli internal investigations have always proven that they are a function of political calculations and balances, under the guise of national interests and security.
The United Nations must equip itself with a comprehensive dossier on the various Israeli violations, in order to reassert itself firmly and reliably when it challenges Israel and its impunity. This is a moral obligation on the United Nations and the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The European Union in turn has a higher degree of responsibility, as it is required to take a serious stance toward Israel, in support of the United Nations and international legitimacy, and also in the context of holding Israel accountable for its violations, including the forgery and fraud in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai earlier this year.
The means to protest this and which the governments and peoples of the European Union possess are numerous, including the means to break the blockade on Gaza as well as economic measures against Israel itself. The European aid to the Palestinian National Authority is generous and worthy of gratitude. However, if this aid aims at deflecting blameworthiness and avoiding bilateral and collective sanctions against Israel for fear of the latter and its lobby which threatens consequences for such sanctions, then it is better to reconsider. This is because the EU’s seat in the Quartet places responsibilities on the former’s shoulders that go beyond purchasing absolution by means of financial assistance. It is the duty of the European Union not to forget the moral, political, legal and legitimate element in this issue. In other words, it is the duty of Europe to stop hiding in plain sight.
Meanwhile, Russia is more evasive and equivocal towards the obligations of its membership in the Quartet. At times, Russia hides behind the ‘sacrifice’ of its role which was on par with that of the United States during the Cold War, and its acceptance instead of the American leadership when it comes to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And at other times, Russia gets involved in this issue on the basis of the needs of its regional relations with countries, organizations and factions.
In truth, Russia is fully capable of curbing war in the region, as well as the peace prevention tactics led by Iran and its allies.
Russia’s duty today is thus to put pressure on Iran to stop using the Palestinian cause in Palestine and Lebanon for purposes that benefit the Islamic Republic in its regional and domestic standing, in a manner that fuels the possibilities of conflict, and on the basis of a strategy aimed at preventing the peace process from collapsing.
Russia considers itself to be a party in the peace process through its membership in the Quartet. If Iran is hindering peace, then Russia must use its influence unequivocally to stop that, as the bilateral relations between the two countries definitely allow Moscow to exert political and economic pressure.
In the meantime, the administration of Barack Obama is in the forefront of those required to put pressure on Israel today. What happened in international waters when the Israeli navy attacked the convoy of the peace activists, including Islamists, is that this unleashed global fury not only against Israel but also against the sponsors of the pampered state, i.e. the United States of America.
The international public opinion did not buy the Israeli justifications. Anger will grow, and will hinder other strategies pursued by the United States such as its bid to impose additional sanctions on Iran because of its violations of international resolutions and of the treaty on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Breaking the illegal blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza has become a nightmare to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defence Minister Ehud Barak that goes beyond the technicality of breaking the blockade. This would be defeating Israel and forcing it to do something it does not want to do: this time, through humanitarian activists and politicians in the aftermath of international pressures on Israel during the New York nuclear conference which pushed it to the edge.
What will happen in the upcoming days and weeks might indeed lead to the lifting of the blockade. However, this will not take place in a manner that opens crossing points to the flow of arms and fighters smuggled into Gaza. If that is what is in the minds of those who will attempt to capitalize on the peace flotilla to achieve their agenda, then those will not only be disappointed, but will also be harming and offending the Palestinians under occupation and under siege. Should they attempt to do so, they would be pulling the rug from under the feet of a unique opportunity to rally international support for lifting the blockade and for putting serious pressures on Israel.
Barack Obama’s serious pressure on Israel, for instance, must translate into a serious plan for measures towards achieving peace. But in order for him to do so, it is useful for the Arab countries to be aware of how to exploit the international window of opportunity in a constructive manner, both politically and at the level of the public opinion, and this requires reining in all forms of one-upmanship.
Egypt is currently in the forefront, and it is extremely necessary for it to take measures towards Gaza that are adequately responsible. Egypt is the key to Gaza, in addition to benefit of Egypt’s bid, on par with Turkey, to pressure the Palestinians in Gaza in earnest to give both impetus and opportunity to Barack Obama to put pressure on the Israelis.
Meanwhile, the Turkish leadership led by Erdogan is playing the Islamic card and rallying behind it the Arab Sunni public opinion in order to tell Iran and the Arabs: there can be no solutions in the region without Turkey, and I am the leader.
In this round, Turkey perhaps has managed to dwarf the Iranian role and its proxies within 24 hours, when it seized the Islamic and Arab public opinion and told Israel: do not test Turkey’s patience.
But patience is basically an Iranian language, and the battles of patience are raging within Turkey between the Islamists and the military and within Iran between the government and the opposition. As for the Arabs, their ‘Jacobean’ patience is of another kind. For this reason, the battle for the leadership of the Palestinian cause remains between Turkey and Iran, until the day comes when the Arabs will awaken from their deep slumber.
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