Shlomo Ben Ami: “The US abstention from the UN was a way of twisting Israel's arm”

By chance, Shlomo Ben Ami (Tangier, 80 years old) gave this interview in London, as soon as he left a theater where he saw a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's classic

An Enemy of the People.

“The Israeli left is today a doubly orphan. In Israel he has become the

enemy of the people

. It is one of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's great victories. And, on the other hand, our colleagues on the international left have not been able to empathize even with the October tragedy [the Hamas attack, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis],” laments the last Foreign Minister of a Labor Government. in that country, and one of the Israeli ambassadors in Spain who left the best memories.

“It has been such a sudden outburst against Israel that it almost gives the impression that it was latent. Nothing like this had ever happened. That is Hamas's great victory. And what prevents us from stopping this current against us is Netanyahu's extremist government,” he laments.

Great connoisseur of previous peace processes - and, therefore, of the intense and conflictive relationship that for decades has linked the United States with his country - his analysis of what happened earlier this week at the UN Security Council It is clarifying. The decision by President Joe Biden's Administration to abstain—allowing a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to go ahead—has been a severe blow to Netanyahu's government. And, without a doubt, Ben Ami points out, it has been much more relevant than other similar abstentions in previous years.

“It is part of a bottom-up strategy, to send signals to Israel that things can change, and that began with that comment by Biden leaked to the press according to which he no longer considered Netanyahu an asset for the United States, but rather a burden.” , recalls the politician and historian, who constantly returns to the place of his training, the university city of Oxford. “But it is not so much a change in strategy with respect to the Middle East as a way of twisting Israel's arm,” he clarifies. “To tell him that he cannot continue on the path he is following. They are fed up with Netanyahu. And Netanyahu's response also reveals his conviction that Washington wants to overthrow him."

Netanyahu has become a danger to Western objectives

President Biden had a strategic vision for the Middle East, Ben Ami points out, which involved achieving a stable US alliance with Israel and the Arab countries to confront the threat from Iran. Hamas' success has been to lead Netanyahu into a war without clear political objectives that has placed his country outside the new Western axis of recent years, which is basically the same one that has supported Ukraine against Russia and China.

“Netanyahu has become a danger to Western objectives in this new cold war that exists between the United States and China and Russia. “Israel is not where it belongs,” laments Ben Ami. Biden, he remembers, is a “gentle Zionist,” who has professed a great love for Israel for years. The decision to corner his ally in the UN Security Council, despite having been measured and limited and sticking to abstention, has some personal drama for the American president.

But the turbulent and firm relationship between the two countries for decades has always had a clear limit: not to put itself before American geopolitical interests or the objectives of the president in power. And Netanyahu, hand in hand with an extremist government coalition, has even managed to divide a Jewish community, the American one, which had never before wavered in its support for Israel.

“Today the Jewish community in the United States is also in a before and after. There is even a new current among its intellectuals, called

diasporism

, which seeks to create a new ideology that ends its dependence on Israel. (...) What happened now was unthinkable. Because until now they lived in a kind of medieval Spain, before the expulsion: an integrated community, with intellectual, academic and economic contribution. That was North American Judaism, which this war has managed to alter,” laments Ben Ami, who knows in depth the history of Spain and the Jewish community.

The veteran politician does not believe, out of exquisite respect for the Government of Pedro Sánchez, that in the current situation a unilateral recognition of the Palestinian State is of any use. But he admits that, even in times as dark as the current one, it is essential to begin building a future vision of peace that Netanyahu, focused on his own political survival, does not contemplate.

Israel today finds itself in a situation of isolation that will mark this era. The extremism of those who govern the country has delegitimized its international image, the former minister laments; and his actions put Biden in a very complicated situation, who cannot face an electoral process with the baggage of the failure of his strategy for the Middle East. The Democratic leader, therefore, needs to “save face” in the new international scenario.

“It would also be enormous blindness on the part of Israel to ignore the enormous currents of alienation that are emerging in the United States. In the Democratic Party, for example, or among youth. Netanyahu is guilty of the fact that the country has embraced the most extreme factions of American society, such as evangelicals or Trumpism,” he points out.

The United States Government was careful not to vote in favor of last Monday's UN resolution. He abstained, and even immediately added the comment that the text was not binding, Ben Ami recalls. But it was a clear sign that Washington was willing to go further, especially as long as Netanyahu remains at the head of Israel.

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