Israeli politicians reacted to sanctions by states including the United Kingdom, France, and Canada on the country’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank with self-righteous anger.
asserted
politicians → react → anger
But what is the latest example of Israel’s international isolation brought on by its treatment of the Palestinian people has not been influential in swaying the electorate in the run-up to October’s elections, analysts tell Al Jazeera.
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analysts → bring → Jazeera
Responding to the UK Foreign Minister Ed Miliband’s accusation that Israelis were ethnically cleansing the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Gideon Saar accused his counterpart of spreading “outrageous lies” and attempting to interfere in the election through foreign pressure.
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Saar → respond → pressure
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Israeli President Isaac Herzog also condemned the measures, branding them a “gross interference in the democratic elections” of Israel.
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Herzog → dismantle → Israel
But, in reality, the majority of Jewish Israelis have supported their country’s genocidal war in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.
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majority → support → Bank
A poll from August, published as the death toll for Palestinians killed in the West Bank had already reached 76 this year, showed that more than half of Jewish Israelis supported retaining the illegal settlements as part of any future agreement on a Palestinian state, while nearly 40 percent supported annexing the territory in defiance of international law.
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percent → publish → law
“People just don’t care that settlements are illegal,” Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg said.
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Goldberg → care → ?
”Ed Miliband expressed a number of laudable sentiments when announcing the measures,” Goldberg said, referencing the UK foreign secretary’s references to his own Jewish heritage when announcing the cessation of trade with Israel’s illegal outposts.
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Goldberg → express → outposts
“But we’re at the stage where Israelis aren’t even interested in the truth so much as they are the sentiment.
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they → ’re → truth
Little political impact
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes into the elections at serious risk of losing, with many polls predicting that a coalition of parties opposed to him could win the majority in Israel’s parliament.
uncertain
coalition → go → parliament
But it will not be issues like the settlement-related sanctions that will lose him votes, analysts said.
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analysts → relate → votes
Public backing for the “government and opposition blocs are pretty hardened, and nobody is going to switch from one side to the other over sanctions arising from [the settlements],” Michael Koplow, chief policy officer at the Israeli Policy Forum, said.
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Koplow → harden → Forum
He added that the sanctions were unlikely to weigh as heavily with the electorate as “this government’s record and the related feelings people have about Netanyahu”.
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people → add → Netanyahu
“When people were asked what would determine their vote, security came first,” Israeli sociologist Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani said.
“I think there are several mechanisms operating simultaneously,” he added.
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he → ask → vote
First, he said, is the normalisation of the settlements.
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normalisation → say → settlements
In Israeli public discourse, the occupied West Bank is increasingly referred to by the biblical name “Judea and Samaria” – a shift he said was becoming institutionalised.
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he → refer → name
“Second, external sanctions don’t necessarily translate into domestic political costs,” Shenhav-Shahrabani said.
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Shahrabani → translate → costs
“And perhaps most importantly, politically foreign pressure can be absorbed into an existing Israeli narrative [of anti-Semitism] rather than [changing how the issue itself is understood].
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issue → absorb → Semitism
No criticism of the voters
None of Israel’s most prominent politicians has criticised the government for its support of the settlements in defiance of international condemnation.
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None → criticise → condemnation
Yair Lapid, a former prime minister and one of Netanyahu’s leading opponents, has, instead, focused his ire on the countries condemning Israel.
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Lapid → lead → Israel
“Imposing boycotts and sanctions on Israel is a grave mistake,” he said.
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he → impose → Israel
Another of Netanyahu’s principal rivals, Gadi Eisenkot – whose Yashar Party manifesto does not mention either the West Bank or Gaza – has declined to speak on the sanctions directly.
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manifesto → mention → sanctions
Netanyahu has also yet to comment on the sanctions publicly, despite his Likud party having championed settlement expansion for decades.
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party → have → decades
“The sanctions haven’t particularly hurt Netanyahu, at least not as far as we can see in terms of direct influence on … polling,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a pollster and public opinion researcher based in Tel Aviv.
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Scheindlin → hurt → Aviv
Instead, the focus has been on other elements of an eventful electoral cycle, including the emergence of new challengers to Netanyahu on the right.
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focus → include → right
“We aren’t seeing any real backlash from the sanctions,” Scheindlin said.
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Scheindlin → see → sanctions
“Instead, it’s just getting filtered through what people already think of him – his critics dislike him even more, and his supporters basically say, ‘Well, the world hates us no matter what.'”
asserted
world → filter → us
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