Israel
The annual $3.8 billion, more money than the U.S. gives to any other country, will fund the continuing Israeli military occupation of Palestinian lands, now in its fifth decade.
Israel exercises complete control over every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. That includes borders, airspace, ingress and egress of people and goods, and the seashore and waters off the coast of Gaza. The occupation violates fundamental human rights of the Palestinians.
Two years ago, 60 Israeli youths signed an open letter to Netanyahu announcing their refusal to serve in the Israeli military because of the dehumanization of Palestinians living under occupation. In the occupied Palestinian territories, they wrote, “human rights are violated, and acts defined under international law as war-crimes are perpetuated on a daily basis.” The signatories cited “assassinations (extrajudicial killings), the construction of settlements on occupied lands, administrative detentions, torture, collective punishment and the unequal allocation of resources such as electricity and water.”
Flavia Pansieri, former United Nations deputy high commissioner for human rights, said last year that human rights violations “fuel and shape the conflict” in the occupied Palestinian territories, adding, “[h]uman rights violations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are both cause and consequence of the military occupation and ongoing violence, in a bitter cyclical process with wider implications for peace and security in the region.”
As I said before: Israel can be a force for good in the region, it should remain there, and exist. But instead of the slow crawl occupation that is going on today, it should annex all what is known as Palestine, then give full and equal rights to all citizens. Israel then would cease to become a Jewish state.
It is unrealistic to continue to wish to be a “blah state” in today’s world; it is untenable in every part of the globe. Look at Poland: a country which is 99% white, and 99% Catholic. Even Poland today is not unified, cannot claim homogeneity they used to.
Yeah some new citizens of Israel might cause trouble, attack here there etc. But Israeli public and the elites must “grin and bear it”. After all, Israel took the land from the original owners, caused death, suffering, innumerable pain on these people. The least they could do is suffer a little.