Don’t be fooled by Netanyahu’s upcoming charm offensive

Despite the expectations that the upcoming Israeli coalition government will increase its oppressive acts against Palestinians, my expectations are the exact opposite. But this should not allow anyone to be fooled.

The hard right coalition government that Benjamin Netanyahu will form will most certainly begin a charm offensive in an effort to regain the international support that the Israeli leader has lost in his attempts to scaremonger Israelis to vote for him.

On the eve of the Israeli Knesset elections and based on unfavourable public opinion polls, Netanyahu vowed that his new government would not support an independent state. Six years earlier, the Israeli prime minister had agreed conditionally to support an independent Palestinian state.

Many didn’t believe him then and his words before the vote confirm that. Any possible revisiting of the issue of Palestinian statehood now will be yet another attempt to fool the world community.

So it begins

In an interview with MSNBC, Netanyahu appears to have begun to pivot: “I don’t want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution. But for that circumstances have to change.”

At least the last part of this statement might be true. The circumstances that Netanyahu wants to change require demographic change as well as a substantial settlement increase.

Not only is this used car salesman, Netanyahu, expected to try again to sell the same old worn out promises to the world, but he might even sweeten the deal with various issues. Confiscated Palestinian tax funds earmarked for Palestinians and held by the Israeli treasury because of Palestine’s decision to join the International Criminal Court. It wouldn’t be a big surprise if we hear that the Israeli leader will return these funds so that we can praise this man’s great “philanthropic generosity” towards Palestinians.

Even the illegal siege on Gaza might be eased as a “gesture” of goodwill so that Palestinians and the world would clap for this “benevolent” occupier.

Not only is this used car salesman, Netanyahu, expected to try again to sell the same old worn out promises to the world, but he might even sweeten the deal with various issues.

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Some will argue that Netanyahu, like any politician, had to veer right in order to win the elections and that now he will pivot back to the centre. The question that will be asked is which statements are reflective of the real Netanyahu.

For Palestinians, the issue has long been clear even if the peace process was given one chance after another while Palestinian lands were gobbled up for exclusive Jewish settlements.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not going to be resolved by a simple play on words – by saying one thing and meaning another or by confidence-building measures and gestures here and there.

What is needed is a concerted non-violent effort that will include tangible pressures that make the occupying power of Israel end its 47-year illegal occupation.

Escalation of BDS

The status quo can’t – and should not – be allowed to prevail. The only acceptable counter to the continuation of the current situation needs to be two fold. The world community must censor Israel through the escalation of the boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel ends its illegal occupation.

Palestinians, on the other hand, must make the occupation as costly as possible to Israel. Suing Israel for its war crimes in the Hague must be coupled with an end to the security cooperation. The latter would result in the erosion of the Oslo Accords which divided Palestinian lands occupied in 1967 into Areas A, B & C. The largest section is kept under total Israeli security and administrative control whereby Palestinians have been denied physical access in some areas and total access for development purposes in all these areas.

Attempts by Israel and its leader to wash away the racist rhetoric and the clarity of its opposition to a peace resolution can’t simply be achieved by verbally reversing these statements. An Arab proverb says that a believer is not stung from the same source twice.

Palestinians have been stung from the same source many times. The time has come to end the charade called the “peace process” and begin a proactive nonviolent strategy that is aimed at ending the occupation and establishing a democratic and independent Palestinian state.

The world community will surely understand now that Netanyahu’s sweet talk was nothing more than dust in the eyes and that the way to peace is clear. End the occupation and allow for an independent Palestinian state.

Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist, is a former Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.