‘Time running out for Israel regime’

Question: Now first of all, it seems the United States government still continues to insist on continuing these so-called negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis. On the part of the Palestinians, it seems that there is no go-ahead with these negotiations because of the way Israel has been acting.
 
Larudee: Yes, there has been essentially no reason for these negotiations to take place from the beginning. There was no breakthrough, no initiative that would change anything for the Palestinians. The United States is not prepared to do anything to make these negotiations move forward.
 
I mean the United States is asking, as you said, the Palestinians and the Israelis to make tough decisions. But how many tough decisions has the United States made? It has made none at all. It hasn’t made any tough decisions with respect to Israel which is driving the entire US policy. So if it is not prepared to put the screws to Israel, the way it does to Palestinian Authority (PA), nothing is going to happen.
 
Q: Well, it’s quite clear that the US is pushing for talks for the sake of talks. Why do you think that is so?
 
Larudee: Well, because... [inaudible] don’t have talks happening at the same time. And it’s a replacement for actually doing anything. If you can’t do anything, then talk about doing something. It’s a distraction and it permits Israel to go ahead and confiscate more than 300 new [Palestinian] homes in East Jerusalem, and to declare that it is confiscating more land in the West Bank all the time and driving the Bedouin out of their lands in the Naqab desert in the south and so forth. Israel is proceeding with its original intention of more than 100 years ago to drive every single Palestinian out of Palestine and to replace them with Europeans or non-Palestinians anyway.
 
Q: I’d like to pick up on this point that you’re making as we look at activities taking place in the last few months or so, we’ve seen construction activity of illegal settlements increase. It’s at an all-time high. Gaza remains under siege. There have been more attacks on Palestinians both in the West Bank, as well as on Gaza. We’ve seen this escalation on the part of Israel, if anything, while these so-called talks have been continuing. What is pushing Israel to escalate with such impunity?
 
Larudee: Actually I think you hit on something. I think they are concerned that time may be running out. We know for example that the campaign is making some successes and that Israel is not well-regarded, if you will, in the West as it has been. It relies upon that.
 
    It relies on its ability to bend the will of the Western nations, Europeans, and the United States. And it’s not succeeding as well as it used to. Opinion is changing even among the Jewish community in the US and Europe. I think Israel is beginning to see the time is running out for them.
 
They recently budgeted 100 million shekels, that’s almost 30 million dollars to fight these volunteers on Facebook and on the internet to fight, to create what they call Hasbara, to make Israel look sweet and nice to the entire world. 100 million shekels for this purpose!
 
This is because they need to hang on to the minds of the people in the West as much as they can and they’re losing them. They will lose this battle no matter how much money they devote to it, because when you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.
 
Q: So basically you’re saying if change is going to come, it’s going to come from bottom upwards and not through governments and institutions.
 
Larudee: I think that’s largely true. The day may come when things go too far. For example, Israel was the main one agitating for increased sanctions with Iran and away from an agreement with Iran on nuclear program and they lost that one and they lost it in a big way. The American people said “no, we don’t want any more war and we want a negotiated settlement” and they lost that one.
 
So, I think that increasingly, they’re going to lose this thing and that is why they’re pushing so much harder than they have in the past. They want to finish their project of expelling all the Palestinians before this happens. That’s why they’re pushing the housing and expulsions so much.