Under pressure at home, and facing scrutiny abroad, Tel Aviv may well use an old ploy to hold off its troubles: start another war, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem Facing a host of growing domestic, regional and international crises, Israel is trying rather desperately to overcome its various predicaments, possibly by looking for an exit in launching an all-out war against the Gaza Strip, or in waging regional war, possibly targeting Hizbullah in Lebanon. The Israeli press this week quoted high-ranking officials as saying that the likelihood of an all-out Middle East war was increasing. Haaretz newspaper quoted Major General Eyal Eisenberg, head of the army home command, as saying that such a conflict could potentially include the use of weapons of mass destruction. Speaking to the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Eisenberg suggested that the Arab Spring could turn into what he called a "radical Islamic winter". Indeed, Israeli media and officials have voiced growing alarm at the possibility of Islamic groups, especially the anti-Israel Muslim Brotherhood, gaining pre-eminence in the upcoming Egyptian elections. Israel has been studying several scenarios pertaining to its future relations with the "new Egypt", including mobilising the powerful American Jewish lobby to pressurise Congress and the American government to link any economic and military aid to Egypt to retaining good relations between the largest Arab country and the Jewish state. Israel has also been disquieted by reports of some sort of strategic cooperation between Turkey and Egypt, the two most powerful Muslim states in the Middle East. Reports from Ankara and Istanbul suggest that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss strategic cooperation with Egypt at all levels during his upcoming visit to Cairo. These reports coincided with the latest deterioration of relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv following the release by the United Nations on Friday, 2 September, of the Palmer Report, which effectively absolved Israel from blame for its bloody attack on a Turkish aid ship carrying solidarity activists and humanitarian materials en route to the besieged Gaza Strip. In that murderous attack, which occurred in international waters in May 2010, crack Israeli marines, whom the report said employed excessive force, killed nine Turkish nationals. Israel has never agreed to apologise for the high-seas act piracy, arguing that issuing a formal public apology would signal weakness to its enemies. The Palmer Report also concluded that the devastating Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has injured and indeed killed thousands of civilians and pushed the coastal enclave's 1.7 million inhabitants to the brink of a humanitarian disaster, was legal. The report infuriated the Palestinians, who called it "scandalous and only worthy of contempt, and nothing but contempt." However, the strongest reaction to the brazenly pro-Israeli report came from Ankara, which demanded the Israeli ambassador to Turkey leave the country within 48 hours. Turkey also decided to downgrade security ties with Israel. In the past, Israel utilised its domestic allies in Turkey, especially within the powerful Kemali military establishment, as well as the less conspicuous but notoriously influential Free Mason clique, to combat and eradicate any anti-Israeli tendency on the part of the Turkish government. However, with the advent and consolidation of Erdogan's quasi-Islamic Justice and Development Party, Turkey began edging away from Israel rather steadily in what most experts suggest is a natural response to growing anti-Israeli sentiment permeating through Turkey. The devastating and Israeli blitzkrieg against the Gaza Strip in 2008-09, which killed and maimed thousands of Gazans and destroyed the territory's civil infrastructure, dramatically tarnished Israel's standing in Turkey, prompting Turkish leaders to accuse Israel of waging state sponsored terror and of committing war crimes against a besieged, helpless people. One senior Israeli columnist, Akiva Eldar, scoffed at those Israeli pundits who argue that the current crisis with Turkey will evaporate soon and that Israel's international connections are guaranteed to convince the Turks to refrain from any escalation. Writing in Haaretz this week, Eldar argued that the crisis in relations with Turkey was a red alert for the multi-front attacks Israel is facing on the diplomatic, security and economic fronts, and which affect hundreds of thousands of Israelis. Eldar added that, "Turkey's threat to confiscate Israeli goods is only the first step. In the first quarter of the year, Turkey imported $0.5 billion in goods from Israel -- only two other countries import more." With the Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu now resigned to the great likelihood that Israel has no chance of stopping UN recognition of a Palestinian state, Israel's only hope is to enlist the support and backing of a "moral minority" that would face the estimated 140 states expected to endorse and support the Palestinian UN membership bid. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets this week, which organisers said was the biggest social protest in Israel's history. The protesters berated Netanyahu for pushing Israel to the abyss. But the protests have so far failed to make a dent in Netanyahu's defences. Recognising that the world and Israel is in a state of violent upheaval, the Israeli prime minister said it was "impossible to meet all demands". "I am well aware of the people's economic difficulties. I know how hard it is to buy or rent a home. I know that even though the wages of Israelis have risen, ultimately not much remains, and some times there is nothing left over. We know that the cost of living in Israel is very high." It is uncertain what steps the Israeli government, the most hawkish and extremist ever, will take to wrest Israel out of the overwhelming political, social and economic quagmire it faces. However, it is unlikely that Netanyahu and his jingoistic colleagues in government will bring themselves to recognise the true root cause of all problems facing the Zionist state: the occupation.
