نتنياهو الفلسطيني

Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 in Davos

فيلادلفيا ــ في يناير/كانون الثاني، يذهب الناخبون الإسرائيليون إلى صناديق الاقتراع للإدلاء بأصواتهم في الانتخابات التي تبشر بحصول بنيامين نتنياهو على فترة رئاسة أخرى. والواقع أن قِلة من الاحتمالات قد تكون أكثر بغضاً من هذا الاحتمال في نظر اليسار الإسرائيلي، أو إدارة الرئيس الأميركي باراك أوباما، أو أغلب الزعماء الأوروبيين، أو حتى العديد من اليهود الأميركيين.

ولكن لا أحد ينظر إلى احتمال قدوم حكومة أخرى على رأسها نتنياهو بقدر من الألم أعظم من ذلك الذي يشعر به الفلسطينيون. فعلى مدى التاريخ الطويل المعذِب من الصراع العربي الإسرائيلي لم يلعن الفلسطينيون أي رئيس وزراء إسرائيلي ــ ربما باستثناء آرييل شارون ــ بقدر ما صبوا لعناتهم على نتنياهو. والسبب بسيط: فهو واحد منهم.

Netanyahu, el palestino

Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 in Davos. Photo: WEF/flickr

FILADELFIA – En enero, los votantes israelíes irán a las urnas para una elección que promete darle al primer ministro Benjamín Netanyahu una renovación de su mandato. Difícilmente pueda hallarse perspectiva más odiosa para la izquierda israelí, para el gobierno del presidente Barack Obama en los Estados Unidos, para la mayoría de los líderes europeos y para muchos judíos estadounidenses.

Pero los que más la detestan son los palestinos. En la larga y dolorosa historia del conflicto árabe-israelí, a ningún primer ministro israelí han denigrado tanto como a Netanyahu (a no ser quizá Ariel Sharon). La razón es sencilla: Netanyahu es uno de ellos.

Por supuesto que no lo es en sentido literal. Pero, a diferencia de otros primeros ministros de Israel (una vez más, con la posible excepción de Sharon), Netanyahu adoptó para sí la estrategia política de “sumud” (firmeza) de los palestinos.

La filosofía de sumud hunde sus raíces en la fe inquebrantable de los palestinos en que la causa que defienden es justa y los métodos que emplean, apropiados. Esta creencia se manifiesta en la cultura palestina en formas tanto pasivas como activas; demanda obstinación y admite la crueldad, la violencia y la duplicidad.

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Boko Haram and Nigeria’s Pervasive Violence

Image by Radio Nederland Wereldomroep/Flickr.

International security experts are watching Nigeria’s radical Islamist movement Boko Haram with concern. The militant group has destabilized northern Nigeria and attracted the attention of other jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliates gaining strength in neighboring northern Mali. Boko Haram is highly diffuse. It has an important Islamic revival dimension, but also has political and criminal elements. Little is known about its leader, Abubakar Shekau, including his age, where he was born, or if he can speak English. The movement has issued no formal manifesto. Nevertheless, its various factions do share a common agenda of imposing and rigorously enforcing Islamic law in northern Nigeria; some even want to impose it throughout the country in areas where Christians are the majority. The group is bitterly hostile to the Christian-led secular government in the capital of Abuja, which it accuses of exploiting the poor. Its methods are violent and deadly, ranging from targeted killings to mass deaths resulting from car bombs.

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Pacific NATO?

NATO Ministerial meeting. Image by Secretary of Defense/Flickr.

The Atlantic Alliance is about to enter a tumultuous period of change both in Europe and the wider world. How we all conceive of our place in that world will be critical to the Alliance.

This dawning reality was brought home to me Friday when I had the honor of debating NATO’s emerging security challenges with the Norwegian ambassador to NATO and his colleagues on the Norwegian Permanent Delegation. Given changing energy patterns and the melting of Arctic ice, Norway will find itself on a new ‘front-line’ as the High North becomes a source of exploitation and friction. Moreover, with yesterday’s re-election of Shinzo Abe as Japan’s prime minister and the possibility of renewed tensions with China, a most profound question was also apparent: what, if any, is NATO’s Pacific role?

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A Dead End? The Northern Limit Line and the Future of Inter-Korean Relations

Image by Jon Pavelka/Flickr.

Following her election as South Korea’s first female president on December 19, 2012, Park Geun-hye identified North Korea as one of the main challenges facing her administration. Her approach to relations with the North will likely be different from her predecessors as she seeks a middle ground between Lee Myung-bak’s principled engagement and the unconditional engagement of the Sunshine Policy era. In particular, Park has spoken extensively about the need to establish a trust-based relationship with North Korea. Her success in establishing a trust-based approach will, in part, depend upon the effective management of issues relating to the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the maritime boundary between the two Koreas in the West Sea. However, Park’s diplomatic efforts are likely to be compromised by Pyongyang’s continued refusal to recognize the NLL. And while this dispute requires an urgent solution, reaching a mutually acceptable agreement over how to define the sea boundary between North and South Korea is likely to remain a challenge for the foreseeable future.

But why has this issue been so difficult to resolve? One of the main difficulties has been in how to best approach management of the NLL. Toward the end of his term in office, President Roh Moo-hyun sought to address the NLL issue when he visited North Korea as part of the second inter-Korean Summit. President Roh proposed a “West Sea Peace and Cooperation Special Zone” that would allow free access for fishing vessels from both Koreas and the development of a special economic zone in the North Korean port of Haeju. But while the proposal was identified in the Joint Agreement at the end of the summit, no concrete procedures were established and follow-up discussions failed. One of the major sticking points was Pyongyang’s insistence that waters south of the NLL fell under North Korean territory.