This is all taking place despite enormous pressure and
condemnation from Western countries, who are not happy with the escalation of
Israeli plans to expand settlements or to build up Jerusalem neighborhoods that
challenge the viability of a future Palestinian state. Britain, France, Germany,
and Portugal are about to formally
condemn Israel over its East Jerusalem building plans, and the 14 non-American
members of the United Nations Security Council are going
to do the same. Even the United States seems to have lost
its usual patience with the Israeli government, deeming the new building
announcements part of a "pattern of provocative action" that endangers the
peace process and the two-state solution. Israel seems hell-bent on isolating
itself over the settlement issue, and appears determined to move ahead with
plans for both the West Bank and East Jerusalem no matter the cost.
It is easy to chalk this up to Israel's fury with the
Palestinian Authority's statehood bid at the United Nations, as the E1
announcement came the day after the vote, amidst stated determination on
Israel's part to punish the Palestinians for pursuing unilateral moves outside
of the Oslo framework. "We felt
if the Palestinians were taking unilateral action in the UN, we had to also
send the message that we could take unilateral actions," Israeli ambassador to
the US Michael Oren said
this week, making the connection
explicit.
Yet, this does not account for the scope of the recent
Israeli announcements, or for the seeming recklessness of drawing real anger
and censure from Israel's Western allies immediately following American and EU
support during Operation Pillar of Cloud in Gaza. There is indeed something
else going on here, and it has nothing to do with the Palestinians and
everything to do with the political jockeying taking place on the right of
Israel's political spectrum before Israelis go to the polls on January 22 to
elect their next government.
When Netanyahu created the joint list between Likud and
Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu, the thinking
behind the move was to create a right-wing monolith that would not only
handily win the election, but also present rightwing voters without a real
alternative. Not only was the plan to keep Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu voters,
but to recapture the erstwhile Likud voters who had cast their ballots for
Kadima in the past two elections and would now, with Kadima's imminent
disappearance, have nowhere else to go.
For Netanyahu though, the joint list was also about
eliminating any challenges to him from his right flank. Following the debacle of
his short-lived unity government with Kadima and the call for early elections after
the fighting and unresolved impasse over Haredi and Arab military service,
Netanyahu was afraid that Lieberman was going to outflank him on the right by
appealing to nationalist issues. Netanyahu assumed that by co-opting Lieberman,
he would have no real rightwing challengers sniping at him.