A Vote for Status Quo in Israel

By the time you read this, Israelis would have already picked up their new leader. However, their vote is likely to change little on the ground.

If anything, things are likely to go from bad to worse if Israeli voters indeed pick up Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister, as opinion 
polls suggest.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been picked up by the ruling Kadima Party to succeed Ehud Olmert, is almost there right next to him. She appears to have covered a lot of ground over the past few weeks or so after her hardline posturing on Gaza.

In fact, all Israeli parties and their prime ministerial hopefuls have unabashedly played to the gallery in the run up to the polls.

The recent attack on Gazais indeed seen as part of the ruling coalition’s designs to ratchet up the war hysteria in the days ahead of the vote. The 22-day long war on Gaza gave enough ammunition to the so-called moderate Livni and her rival from Labour Party Defence Minister Ehud Barak to present themselves as the able leaders and defenders of the state of Israel. So if more than 1300 innocent lives were snuffed out in Gaza as part of their power games, so be it.

So whoever wins this election — Livni, Netanyahu or Barak – the status quo is unlikely to change in the near future. At least not for the Palestinians; and not for the Middle East at large. It is indeed unfortunate for the rise of Barack Obama in the United States and his keenness to find a solution to this historical conflict offer real hopes and prospects of bringing peace to 
the Middle East.

All these years, Israel has been complaining that it does not have a so-called peace partner in the Palestinians, which is nothing but obfuscation. Who needs peace and security more than the Palestinians, who have been wandering as refugees in their own land and all over the Middle East and beyond?

The Palestinians have been waiting for peace and freedom for nearly a century. And the entire Middle East and the Muslim world have been part of this agonizing wait.

If Israel and its leaders really want permanent peace and are indeed keen on a final settlement of their business with the Palestinians and Arabs, they have a historic opportunity to do so now.

By dispatching his envoy to the Middle East in his first week in office, President Obama has managed to persuade the Arabs that unlike his predecessor, he means business and isn’t interested in playing the kind of games successive US administrations have played all these years.

The Arabs, too, have made repeated offers of peace and better relations to Israel since they unveiled the Arab Peace Initiative at the Beirut Arab summit in 2002.

The question is, is Israel ready and willing for peace too? It takes two to make peace.