Maybe this is pre-election politicking, but Ehud Barak said some things in an interview with Haaretz this week that are remarkable to American ears, but probably not to anyone in I/P, I've excerpted some of them below [italics are the interviewer's comments/questions]. The whole interview is worth reading.
“We have been ruling another nation for 47 years. We are ignoring the fact that the situation has changed in the international arena. The leaders and the people themselves don’t remember the circumstances and the struggle under which the State of Israel emerged. There are no leaders or publics in the world who remember the Holocaust as a personal experience. What they’ve seen for decades is the reversal of the image that accompanied Israel. It’s not David and his slingshot being threatened by Goliath.
“What registers in the consciousness is the Palestinian youth who is symbolically using David’s weapon against Israelis who are armed to the teeth inside tanks, and with missiles and so forth. That image is becoming embedded in the public consciousness abroad. In the 21st century, there is no chance of maintaining over time a situation that will be accepted by the international community in which Israel continues to rule those millions of people and does not allow them to vote for the Knesset.”
When will the day come when the world will treat us as it treated F.W. de Klerk in South Africa?
“It will come. It will come. It’s a slippery slope, and on that slippery slope we are marching in the direction of one state for two nations. The feeling that’s taking shape internationally is that Israel doesn’t really have the intention – that the critical mass of the Israeli leadership has reached the conclusion that there is no reasonable two-nation solution that can guarantee Israel security, and that it has no alternative but to continue holding on to the entire territory and grant them autonomous rights. And [we think that] because we have no alternative, the world will be compelled to accept that.
....
“In the case of de Klerk, that moment arrived via economic pressure – he simply could not withstand the pressure and the sanctions. That’s what brought about their awakening. I saw them close-up – we had deep relations of friendship with the South African leadership. They were people of a very high level, intellectually and otherwise, and they had wonderful explanations. They said, ‘The Americans are preaching morality to us? Well, they committed genocide, all they have left are pangs of conscience.’ Or they said, ‘We gave the blacks everything, the possibility to work, and comparatively they are living better than in their deserts, we gave them opportunities and they developed.’”
Those are the same stories we are telling ourselves about the Arabs.
and ....
During the Netanyahu years, we’ve seen not only stagnation but tough threshold conditions. What do you think, for example, about Netanyahu’s demand that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recognize Israel as the Jewish state?
“Since when do you make the whole root of legitimacy conditional on the dialogue with the Palestinian partner, on the question of whether he is ready to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people? Zionism was founded so that we would decide, not look elsewhere for recognition. Did we ask for recognition from the Egyptians? From the Jordanians? From the Syrians? In the end it looks like trickery trying to tug on some sort of emotional heartstring in us.”
I would hasten to add that Barak has an agenda (aw shucks, who doesn't), much of the interview focuses on the controversy surrounding his sudden acquisition of substantial wealth.
Some other tidbits below the fold:
All in all, some interesting things being said in the region. Hassan Nasrallah told his Hezbollah militia that Islamic extremists damage Islam more than "even those who have attacked the messenger of God through books depicting the Prophet or making films depicting the Prophet or drawing cartoons of the Prophet." Of course, Hezbollah's patron, the Iranian regime kicked off the modern tradition of pronouncing death sentences on people they deem to have offended Islam. Then again, Hezbollah is actively battling the ISIS militants Nasrallah is denouncing here. Oh yeah, blasphemy laws are alive and well in many other jurisdictions..
Or maybe Nasrallah is upset with ISIS since they are alleged to have published guidelines for sexual relations with slaves including (among other barf-worthy nonsense):
Question 5: Is it permissible to have intercourse with a female captive immediately after taking possession [of her]?
"If she is a virgin, he [her master] can have intercourse with her immediately after taking possession of her. However, is she isn't, her uterus must be purified [first]…"