Speak up on annexation
With the world’s attention riveted in past weeks on COVID-19 and protests over racism sweeping many countries, it’s no surprise that other issues haven’t been getting the attention they deserve.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started to find his voice on one of them this past week: a plan by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to formally annex much of the West Bank, thereby destroying whatever faint hope remains for a political settlement in the Middle East.
It’s hard to imagine making the situation between Israelis and Palestinians much worse, but Netanyahu’s promise to start the process of annexing Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley on July 1 would do the trick.
Even staunch friends of Israel, including scores of the generals and commanders who have defended it their entire lives, condemn Netanyahu’s plan as a “catastrophe” in the making.
Canada has long argued that the only path to peace in the Mideast, however difficult it now seems, lies in a so-called two-state solution that would see a Palestinian state created alongside Israel.
Outright annexation of much of the West Bank would effectively end that possibility, so one would expect that Canada would join with other long-standing friends and supporters of Israel in loudly warning Netanyahu from taking such a course.
Until this past week, however, the Trudeau government was conspicuously quiet on the issue, so much so that a group of 58 former Canadian diplomats and politicians, including four former Liberal ministers, signed a letter urging the prime minister to find his voice.
They reminded Trudeau that annexing West Bank lands would violate international law, and warned that such actions have “fateful results: war, political instability, economic ruin, systematic discrimination and human suffering.” And they called on the prime minister to “protect Canada’s good name in the international community by speaking loudly and clearly” as countries like France and Britain have done.
That prompted Trudeau to do what he should have done earlier — speak directly to the issue and uphold Canada’s commitment to international law. “We deplore such actions,” he said, adding he had given that message directly to Netanyahu and his coalition government partner, Benny Gantz.
That goes some way in the right direction, but it’s disappointing that Trudeau seems to be taking a softly-softly approach on the issue at a time when Israel’s friends should be warning it in the strongest terms not to go down this road.
Consider what some 220 retired Israeli generals and security leaders, members of Commanders for Israel’s Security, have to say about the plan. Having fought on the front lines for decades, they warn it could lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, creating a power vacuum to be filled by the likes of Hamas.
That, in turn, could lead to a renewal of the intifadas of the past — violent resistance to Israeli occupation, in place of the uneasy de facto peace that prevails there now. “Unilateral annexation has the potential to ignite a serious conflagration,” say the generals.
Other long-standing friends of Israel caution that support abroad could be badly undermined, especially in the U.S. Congress where both Democrats and Republicans have voted billions in aid. Democrats warn annexation could cause “longterm damage” to the U.S.-Israel alliance.
At the same time, it could well undermine Israel’s efforts to cultivate closer working relations with Sunni Arab states like Saudi Arabia. They’ve been far more focused on potential threats from Iran and see Israel as an ally in that cause. Up-ending the fragile peace in the West Bank could end all that.
No doubt Netanyahu has his own domestic political reasons to forge ahead with annexation. But other countries, including Canada, owe it to Israel to warn in the strongest terms that he is leading his country down a destructive path.