On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by his racist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, will visit the French capital to deliver a speech about Israel's economic prowess, before ambassadors from the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), on the occasion of the Jewish state's membership in this organization. The OECD, headquartered in Paris, was established in 1961 as an extension of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, which had been created in 1948, to set down the Marshall Plan after World War II. The OECD includes free-market countries and has established related agencies, such as the Development Assistance Committee, the Atomic Energy Agency, the International Energy Agency, and the International Financial Working Group to Combat Money Laundering. Israel was accepted as a member in the organization in 2007, or one year after its barbaric war on Lebanon, when it killed people and destroyed infrastructure, and achieved only death and destruction. Now, Israel is celebrating its new membership in an international economic club to which “democratic and free-market states” belong. The question: why does the free world continually reward Israel by receiving it in a club of democratic states that profess progress and modernity, while it carries out brutal policies toward the Palestinian people? The entire world asks Netanyahu to halt settlements. He does not pay attention, and continues in his policies. The entire world asks him to remove checkpoints on Palestinian territories and lift the siege of Gaza. He does not answer. Gaza is still under siege, and the Palestinian people are still under occupation, and suffer from poverty, unemployment and a deteriorating political, economic and social situation that is getting worse day by day. And the “free” world congratulates Israel by bringing it into the OECD. The Arabs have no reaction to this reward. As long as Israel continues to receive rewards from the west, why should it listen to US President Barack Obama or French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who clearly expressed to Israeli President Shimon Peres his disgust with Netanyahu's policies, which do not take into account the advice of friends? Away from the limelight, Sarkozy told his friend Netanyahu several times that it was in Israel's interest to respond to the demand of the White House and the European Union about halting settlements, lifting the siege and ensuring the best possible life for the Palestinian people. However, the west has never and will never use sanctions against Israel; on the contrary, it is always prepared to reward it, despite the EU's policy banning this. Israel continues with the siege of Gaza and the Palestinian people, and will not be punished because the Jewish state is sacred for the west, which holds the Palestinian people responsible for the crime of the Holocaust, as if it is responsible for this ugly crime that was committed by Europe against the Jewish people. Today, Israel is celebrating its new membership in a long-standing, international development organization, and the average Arab asks why Israel is being rewarded, for doing nothing in return, while the west is deciding as quickly as possible to punish this or that state, which, like Israel, does not listen or accept the advice of the west. In reality, the west has a big responsibility and it is not enough for friends of Israel like the US and France to say that “they are speaking frankly to our Israeli friends.” This has brought no results, because Israel launches war and conducts policies heedless of the “frank advice from friends.” Today, the new American administration headed by Obama has begun to see America's strategic interest in various areas, from Afghanistan to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, as pushing Israel toward peace with the Palestinians. It is time for western countries to truly pressure Israel. Words and advice alone will not suffice. Rewards for the Jewish state should cease. The EU has the widest economic cooperation with Israel and it is totally incapable of getting anything from its Israeli partner, because it has never once been punished for any illegal act against the Palestinians. The future will be bleak as long as Netanyahu continues with his policies while Arab countries remain impotent without a vengeful vigilance towards the west; this encourages the Jewish state to continue with its hostile policies. These threaten the peace and security of the world, in the absence of a real desire for peace with the Palestinian people.
