Intl. pressure will make Israel change attitude: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ramzy Baroud, a journalist and activist from Seattle, to get his view on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim of readiness to engage in talks with the Palestinians in the West Bank.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Another offer by Israel to resume the peace talks. In what way do you think the Palestinians should respond to this, what’s been called, the PR stunt by Israel?

Baroud: Well, I wouldn’t call it an offer per se, I mean, we have to look at the context of which the statement was made, it was made during a meeting with four women, who have been on a hunger strike for 50 days, a kind of off and on in front of Netanyahu’s house. Finally, he meets with them, his wife Sara meets with them, and he makes the statement that I’m willing to go to Abbas right now and meet with him and achieve a desired peace. It was done within the context that he was trying to divert attention from the fact that these women are calling him to go to achieve peace and to resume the peace process that he has really brought to a hold over his insistence on continuing the illegal settlements, refusal to free Palestinian prisoners and so forth and so on. It was really more over distraction from the pressure that was placed on him by these four ladies who were camping in front of his house. In fact, his wife Sara said instead of camping in front of our house, why don’t you go and camp in front of Mahmud Abbas’ house, because he is the real obstacle to the peace process. As if poor Mahmud Abbas really has any control on even over his movement in and outside of the West Bank. This is the context. It’s really not a peace offer per se and of course it was correct to calling him on that.

Press TV: Of course generally speaking, how likely will Israel be held accountable for its crimes against Palestinians, Palestine is an official member of ICC?

Baroud: It’s really interesting, because I was looking at these emails that were released from Hillary Clinton’s computers the last patch of 7,000 emails. And according to newspapers, they say Netanyahu is the world leader who has mentioned the most more than former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others. And it was mentioned in the context that the Americas are just trying to kiss up to Netanyahu. And although it was very clear that Hillary Clinton had no lost love for Netanyahu. They don’t like the guy at all in fact, but they have to live up to the kind of pressures and expectations that are placed on them by the Israeli lobby in the US. So, in another words, if the United States, the supposedly the peace broker in the Middle East, is trying to live up to Netanyahu’s expectations and they are bending backward and in other word, then to appease Netanyahu, imagine other countries in the European Union who are always following the American line in the Middle East. I don’t really see that Israel is going to be held accountable to its crimes against the Palestinians any time soon as far as the Western governments, the UN and Western institutions are concerned. That said the only way that Israel can be held accountable is civil society action, the BDS movement, boycotting Israel, resistance in Palestine, these kind of clustered and unified efforts. The only way that gets Israel to listen is that Israel is hurting economically and the Israeli leaders are feeling a sense of international isolation; otherwise, business will continue as usual for Netanyahu.

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