Fresh from attacking Qatar without any consequences, the insolent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his plan to colonise the rest of Palestine plain while officiating a major illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank: “There will be no Palestinian state. We will safeguard our heritage, our land and our security,” media reports quote him as saying.
As far as an insolence-and-audacity combo goes, this is hard to beat, coming as it does from an alleged war criminal.
The International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court, in the genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel, made it crystal clear: Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal under international law. So has the UN.
Yet rogue state Israel has ignored them all, knowing fully well that there will be no consequences for any and all of its actions. And its allies in Washington, Brussels and London will send out their well-rehearsed nonsense of diplomatic support: Israel has a right to defend itself. Never mind if the Zionist regime, led by genocidal Netanyahu, is on a rampage of slaughter and massacre of Palestinian women and children.
The Sept 9 attack on Qatar is part of Netanyahu’s plan to fulfil Theodor Herzl’s Zionist dream of a state entirely for the Jews, with the “sovereign right” to control immigration.
This was made explicit by the Viennese journalist as early as the late 19th century. Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian historian, quotes Herzl as writing in his diary in 1895 in his book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, thus: “We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us.
Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” To Netanyahu, there is no going about “gently” in occupying Palestine. He has made this clear to the media, at the UN General Assembly and international forums. And by bombs and bullets in six countries.
It is for this reason we are surprised that Qatar is surprised that Israel attacked the sovereign state. Shouldn’t the Arab nations with strong ties to Israel see this coming? They will be next. Netanyahu’s “Greater Israel” idea isn’t about just annexing Palestine; it is about the conquest of the rest of the Middle East.
Be that as it may, we are glad that Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani called the deadly strike an act of “state terror” in an interview with CNN on Wednesday. “He needs to be brought to justice,” said al-Thani, referring to Netanyahu.
To Qatar’s and other international leaders’ criticisms of Israel’s attack on Doha, the Israeli leader responded with his trademark impudence: “I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or bring them to justice.” Because if you don’t, we will, he added. Now, who is the terrorist?
Netanyahu, who is bent on ethnically cleansing the Palestinians and others in the Middle East or Hamas? The latter is an armed resistance group democratically elected by the Palestinians fighting cruel Israeli occupation.
International law gives Hamas the right to end the occupation, even by armed resistance. What the Arab nations should tell Israel is this: bring Netanyahu to justice or we will.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
