Amid reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry is applying mounting pressure
on Israel to make significant concessions to the Palestinians, there is an
increasingly common refrain that has seeped into our political dialogue which
needs to be exposed for the fallacy that it is.
Israel, we are told by
various pundits and politicians, has no choice but to go along with American
demands.
After all, our relationship with Washington is our greatest
strategic asset and we cannot allow anything to get in its way. Hence, whatever
America wants, the Jewish state must more or less accept.
Needless to
say, such an approach is not only short-sighted and misguided – it is oblivious
to history and perilous to our destiny. And the sooner we expose it for the
misleading oversimplification that it is, the better off we will all
be.
To begin with, Israel is not a vassal state, an American overseas
territory or a serf that must cower before his feudal overlord.
We are a
sovereign independent nation with our own national and security interests, and
while we must surely take into account what our friends and allies have to say,
we cannot and must not lose sight of our right and obligation to determine our
own fate.
Say No? - Read the Rest
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