RIPPLES FROM DOHA

FOCUS GEOPOLITICS

- Vappala Balachandran

As Israel continues to intensify its ground offensive in Gaza there are indications that the Israeli attack on the Hamas office in Doha on 9 September is heavily recoiling on the Netanyahu government.

Wes Streeting, UK’s Health Secretary warned on the same day that the “Netanyahu government’s handling of the Gaza war is leading Israel to pariah status.”

This was on the eve of Israeli President Herzog’s visit to the UK to express solidarity with the British Jewish community, which, Herzog’s office alleged, “is under severe attack and facing a wave of antisemitism.” However, Streeting insisted that Herzog “needs to answer the allegations of war crimes, of ethnic cleansing and of genocide that are being levelled at the government of Israel.”

“4-972 Magazine,” an Israeli Left-Wing periodical said in a survey in December 2014 that over 70 per cent of Israelis were worried about international isolation. Israel, which is heavily reliant on foreign trade and investment, always wishes to be part of the Western democracies as it has less resilience, unlike Iran and Russia, to “cope economically, militarily, and psychologically with sanctions and global disapprobation,” as the magazine “Foreign Policy” said recently.

Significantly on 8 September British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at 10 Downing Street. The PM is reported to have promised “to recognise a Palestinian State ahead of the UN General Assembly later this month unless Israel changes course.” Spain, Ireland and Norway have already announced recognition while Belgium, Australia, Portugal, Canada and Malta have stated plans to go with Britain and France in recognising Palestinian statehood joining more than 140 countries.

Los Angeles Times (11 September) said that American credibility in the Gulf States was the first casualty when Is-