Israel rapidly losing support in world: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Richard Silverstein, a journalist and political commentator in Seattle, about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decrying latest remarks by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who has called for a probe into the Tel Aviv regime's "extrajudicial executions" of Palestinians.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Well it looks like Israel basically hates the light of scrutiny, doesn’t it?

Silverstein: Yes it does. It has killed 141 Palestinians over the last two months in what is called the new Intifada and Sweden has rightfully called Israel to account and demanded that there be international pressure on Israel to stop these killings. Even if you use Israel’s judgment on who has been killed, at least one third of those 141 Palestinians had nothing to do with any attacks on Israelis and were killed by security forces either deliberately or accidentally but nonetheless were unarmed and uninvolved in any hostilities.

And what Sweden is going for is totally legitimate and Israel is losing support in the international community rapidly and I predict over the coming months and perhaps years or so more EU countries are going to be taking the similar kind of stand to Sweden’s and Israel is going to be losing gradually what little support it does have outside of Israel itself.  

Press TV: Do you think we will see Israel being held accountable for its crimes against the Palestinians?

Silverstein: Well I do feel that that will happen, although I think it is going to take quite a long time. There is a lot of inertia in the international system against holding Israel accountable, bringing it to The Hague before the international Criminal Court or other types of judicial actions but that is coming. I think that international legal human rights activists are pressing cases around the world and I think eventually it will be held accountable for war crimes.  

Press TV: Why do you think this Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been resolved so far, it is decades that it is going on?

Silverstein: Israel has a very powerful an effective foreign policy apparatus. It  exerts a lot of impact in the United States and in Europe as well, it is able to manipulate levers of guilt in Europe especially in countries like Germany over what happened in the holocaust and there is a lot of … support in the United States for Israel because of the Israel lobby.

So it is very hard to lose grip of such impact in these countries but Israel, its actions in the Middle East are so reprehensible and extreme that they will not be able to stand this gradual change in international opinion that will either force resolution of the conflict or bring Israel before the International Criminal Court and have its leaders held accountable and perhaps even sent to prison at some point.

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