The response by Israel to Spain's, Norway's, and Iceland's recent recognition of Palestine have been predictable. “A reward for terrorism" has been the criticism and Israel has halted the disbursement of Palestinian tax revenue.
Recognition by these member-states of the EU is not a reward for terrorism. It is a rebuke of Israel for its overreaching response to the acknowledged horrific Hamas attack of October 7. It has gone far beyond “an eye for an eye” to unrestricted warfare.
As I stated in my recent post, "The Palestinian/Israel Conflict - A Reality Check" the international community (at the least the western part) was behind Israel after the attack. And it understood why Israel had to make a military response.
But as the response turned into a new war and civilian deaths mounted, together with wide-spread destruction and a humanitarian crisis, the sympathy of the world, including a significant portion of the West's population, went to the suffering Palestinians.
What to do when you, either as an individual or a country, strongly support the state of Israel, but have serious problems with its actions. I must note that this is not just a problem of the current Netanyahu government. This is a problem that has existed with all Likud-leaded governments and they have been in power for all but 9 years since 1977.
The international community can no longer ignore what has long been clear - that the current and former Likud-led Israeli governments have and have had no intention to even minimally protecting Palestinians and their interests in the “occupied territories.” And they have intentionally made the two-state solution almost impossible geographically.
Israeli governments have long snubbed both the international community and international law in its continued occupation of and expansive settlement policies in the West Bank. Recognition is the one symbolic tool countries have to indicate the extent of their disapproval of Israeli government policy, of a country they otherwise wholeheartedly support. Would Israel rather countries take more direct action?
