Israel Votes

Israel is now voting and many outside that country await the outcome with interest. Meaningful comment cannot happen until we know what that outcome is, but this background observation is important.

It is the inability to come to a reasonable settlement between the Jewish state and its Palestinian co-inhabitants of what was once Palestine which is the root cause of all the turmoil in the Middle East, the rise of Isis, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and all the other destabilizing elements, the effects of which permeate all the western world and beyond. Without this endless conflict Iran would not have engaged in the process of learning how to build a nuclear bomb. It is unlikely there would have been 9/11 and all that has flowed from it.

So all countries should care about the outcome. And to whomever forms the next government the message should be conveyed loud and clear. Israel’s right to exist will be protected and its need for security recognised, but no longer can obdurate obstruction to any meaningful peace process, nor settlement building, nor a nihilistic attitude to Palestinian hopes and aspirations, be accepted as the way things in future will be done.