Het Israelisch Expansionisme 72

'Kosovo and the question of Palestine
Ali Abunimah,
The Electronic Intifada,
25 February 2008

Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence has produced a range of reactions among Israeli and Palestinian observers that reveal their anxieties about their respective situations.An editorial in the Israeli daily Haaretz called on the Israeli government to immediately recognize Kosovo, arguing that "the struggle of the persecuted Kosovar people for independence is reminiscent of the struggles by other nations for the right of self-determination." Of course Haaretz was not talking about the Palestinians, but about the "State of Israel, which was established in the wake of the Jewish people's struggle for self-determination" ("Recognize Kosovo," Haaretz, 18 February 2008).By identifying Israel with the supposed underdog, ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Haaretz implicitly recognizes that there are indeed some striking similarities though not ones it would acknowledge. Kosovo, like Israel, was illegally severed by force of arms from another country against the wishes of the majority population of the whole territory. Both entities came into being and can only survive with the sponsorship and support of the Great Powers of the day who sustain them in violation of international law because it suits their imperial interests. Furthermore, both entities are animated by a virulent ethno-nationalism that is fundamentally incompatible with the values of freedom, tolerance and democracy that they claim to have come into being to uphold. In this sense, Kosovo is the latest in a collection of Western-backed pseudo-states that also includes the Kurdish entity in northern Iraq.Haaretz's desire to recognize Kosovo flows not merely from selfless concern for the oppressed, but is also explicitly opportunistic. First, doing so would please Washington (Israel's main sponsor), and second it provides a "unique opportunity" to "prove that the Jewish state is not an enemy of the Muslims" -- though Haaretz was careful to note that Albanians in Kosovo are 'good' Muslims "who ha[ve] not identified with extremist Islamic tendencies and ha[ve] kept a distance from Israel's opponents in the Arab world."A radically different Israeli view by Haaretz columnist Israel Harel echoes the position expressed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 1999 when NATO forces bombed Serbia and then occupied Kosovo under the pretext of protecting ethnic Albanians in the province from abuses and ethnic cleansing by Yugoslav authorities. (These reports were greatly exaggerated to justify the war. By contrast massive ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Serbs by Albanians since 1999 and NATO inaction to stop it is well-documented.)For Harel, Israel should identify with Serbia. "Muslims of Kosovo constitute an absolute majority of the population," Harel worries, "and the same is true for the Galilee Arabs," his dismissive term for Palestinian citizens of Israel living in their native towns and villages in the north of the country. Lamenting Israel's failure to "Judaize" the Galilee, he repeats right-wing claims that the Palestinians inside Israel are an ungrateful fifth column receiving too many resources from an over-generous and "impotent" Israeli state. Ignoring the decades of racial, legal and economic discrimination, land confiscation and forced displacement that Palestinian citizens of Israel have suffered and continue to endure, he charges that "Israeli governments have resigned themselves to the blatant, unconcealed separatist actions of the Galilee Arabs" ("Kosovo is already here," Haaretz, 21 February 2008).'

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