Israel's right-wingers are living in denial

[Israeli]

The political right is engaged in one of humankind’s most primitive defense mechanisms, and the Israeli public is paying the price.

By Carlo Strenger

Israel’s political class has largely chosen to ignore the U.K. parliament’s ringing endorsement to recognize Palestine as a state last week. It seems Israel’s leaders hope the rising wave of European determination to stop Israel’s creeping annexation of the West Bank will simply go away.

Doing so is a remarkable instance of one of humankind’s most primitive defense mechanisms: denial. In denial we simply screen off awareness of any unpleasant fact, with the tacit belief that it will go away. Israel’s political right has been quite adept in making use of this.

Its reaction to the European Union’s growing determination to no longer accept Israel’s annexation of the West Bank has shown various levels of immaturity, ranging from the mild to the truly pathological. Lieberman has reacted to EU criticism by telling it to solve its own problems before lecturing Israel – a masterpiece of diplomatic finesse, if there ever was one.

Naftali Bennett has been even more remarkable: When the EU passed a law that doesn’t allow cooperation with Israeli organizations in the occupied territories, he called for the severing of ties with the body. This is a truly fitting reaction from Israel’s economy minister, and a stunning exhibition of political and psychological immaturity, given that the EU accounts for about half of Israel’s foreign trade.

Continued @
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/.premium-1.621862

[azurnoir]

1. seems a combination of temper tantrum and growing reliance on the US for 'protection'

more from the article

So let me spell out the reality in very simple terms. As far as the EU is concerned, the West Bank does not belong to Israel. The Knesset has, therefore, no mandate about whether to annex the West Bank, or to “give” the Palestinians a state, any more than it can make decisions about southern Italy.

Israel’s political right generally complains that such a position denies Israel’s right to exist. This kicking and screaming simply disregards the fact that the EU’s position is exactly the same with respect to Russia and Ukraine: Russia has no legal say over Ukraine, period. Nobody denies Russia’s right to exist, but the EU has been imposing ever-stronger sanctions on Russia because of its military involvement in Ukraine. So Israel is not even being singled out unfairly. The fact that Ukraine is already a sovereign state, whereas Palestine isn’t, makes less of a difference to Europe than Israel’s rightists would like to believe.

[Israeli]

2. Not much the US can do about the EU ...

and to be honest azurnoir ....I think Obama probably in private smiles to himself when he sees the European Union’s growing determination to no longer accept Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.

[azurnoir]

3. True that the US is only useful when it comes to the UN and countries dependent on US aid Egypt

comes to mind as an example. As for Obama I hope you're right

[DetlefK]

4. US = good cop, EU = bad cop.

[oberliner]

5. Their tea partiers are almost as crazy as ours

And with their coalition government system, they seem to get a lot more power.

Though I'm not sure any of them can hold a candle to Rush Limbaugh in his prime.