Do We Need Tough Love from Hillary?

Counterpoint to:

Try tough love, Hillary
"Nobody's been more solidly pro-Israel than Hillary Clinton. But to be effective, she must become a tough taskmaster. That is in the best long-term interest of Israel."

Roger Cohen
The New York Times
December 1, 2008

Columnist Roger Cohen, writing in the New York Times, believes that the next US secretary of state should apply pressure on Israel, and should do so as a friend. Israel, he implies, is incapable of doing what is good for it and therefore needs a friend, such as Hillary Clinton, to force it into acting in its best interest. She must be "a tough taskmaster", opines Cohen.

To some of us this attitude may sound extremely condescending, yet it is not new. The United States has applied pressure on Israel on numerous occasions in the past, and there are some prominent Israelis who share Cohen's view that this is what we now need. 

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Allowing hostile activists into Israel

In April 2003, a 22 year-old British photography student, Tom Hurndall, a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was shot in Gaza by a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and subsequently died. Simon Block has made a two-hour feature television film about Hurndall, whom he describes as a peace activist. It tells a sad story.

But it is also tells a controversial story, because it exposes the hostile political activism of foreign nationals who come to Israel. 

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A very one-sided view

Counterpoint to:

A last chance for peace in Israel? 
"It's a sign of how desensitised Israel has become to the violence committed in its name that the potential indictment for war crimes of Livni's main rival, Shaul Mofaz, was barely an issue."

Johann Hari
The Independent (London)
September 22, 2008

Here are four interesting stories. If you bear with me, I will link them later.

The first story is rooted in the Taba negotiations when, in January 2001, the Palestinians rejected peace proposals from President Clinton and from Israel.  Two years later Yasser Arafat lamented his mistake in offhandedly rejecting the offers, but in the intervening time he and his people had launched one of the worst waves of violence and terror Israel had ever witnessed. It became known as the second intifada. 

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Made-to-measure 'collective punishment'

Counterpoint to:

Israeli collective punishment of people of Gaza must be ended

There is little doubt that Israel's economic strangulation of Gaza, constitutes collective punishment and is illegal under international humanitarian law."

Philip O'Conor
The Irish Times (Dublin)
August 21, 2008

Philip O'Conor, writing in The Irish Times, alleges that Israel is guilty of collective punishment. What picture comes to your mind when you think of collective punishment? George Mason University Law Professor Michael Krauss, responds powerfully:

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An irrational neighbor

CounterPoint to:

Palestinians' self-inflicted wounds

"Israeli oppression has helped fracture Palestinian society and turn some of its groups into desperados who fight one another to maintain a modicum of control over their increasingly restricted and empty lives."

Rami Khouri
The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

"These are grim days for the Palestinians," writes Lebanese political analyst Rami Khouri, "but not unusual ones for the Arab world as a whole. The sight of clan-based political groups in Gaza killing each other is sadly familiar in many parts of the region."

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