International Boycott of Israel Gaining Traction Worldwide

EDINBURGH, 25 July (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – The international community no longer buys the Israeli stance on the ongoing conflict with Palestine, Maya Wind, an Israeli peace activist living in Jerusalem, told RIA Novosti on Friday.

“The Israeli government, the Israeli media and the Israeli mainstream discourse is full of discussion about this global campaign and how, increasingly, Israel is being de-legitimized in our actions and in our occupation over the Palestinian people… It is no longer accepted within the international community,” Wind stressed.

“This is part of a pattern and cycle of violence. But what has changed is that the international boycott is really gaining traction worldwide,” she elaborated.

Retired British Navy Submarine Commander Feargal Dalton added, “With my military background I can say the highest cause of conflicts around the world is acquisition of resources… People often dress them up as sectarian or ethnic, and there are elements of that, but look at the situation with Israel and Gaza and it’s clear for Israel this is a land grab,” Dalton told RIA Novosti.

“They want the land because they want to expand. We can dress it up as some ethnic, religious conflict, but the nub of it is about resources,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu excluded the possibility of a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and with it any chance of peace, a former CIA officer told RIA Novosti on Friday.

“Netanyahu has excluded the possibility of a two state solution, so now that is gone,” Robert Baer, a CIA officer of 21 years who was stationed in the Middle East, said.

“With continued settlements there is nothing in this to suggest we are ever going to have any sort of peace. It’s a new world. You can displace the Palestinians and say, this is no longer your country,” Baer stressed.

The comments come on the 18th day of an Israeli offensive in Gaza that has so far claimed more than 800 Palestinian and 35 Israeli lives. But Baer told RIA Novosti that public perceptions of the conflict in the West failed to deal with realities on the ground.

“People just don’t deal with the facts. In the US people believe that it is always the Jewish population who are the victims,” Baer said.

“It’s so emotional here, so based on Christianity and entertainment and film and the rest of it that we don’t deal with the facts. I think what is very clear at this point is that there is just horrible cruelty on both sides. It’s another civil war and it is one the Palestinians are going to lose,” Baer added.