Israel forcing other nations to choose sides unwise

By withdrawing ambassadors from Norway and Ireland in response to the two nations' recognizing the Palestinian state, the Netanyahu administration might be able to maintain its strongman image domestically, thus strengthening the loyalty of rightwing electors in the elections to come, but the move comes at a high cost of its diplomatic flexibility in the international society.

With the UN General Assembly resolution on the May 10 resolution reaffirming the right of the Palestinians to self-determination and statehood, enhanced Palestine's rights within the organization, and urged it be accepted as a member with an overwhelming vote of 143 in favor and 9 against, the international consensus that Palestinian people's state should be recognized cannot be more evident. The bloodshed in Gaza in the latest round of Israel-Palestine conflict has stirred global people's conscience and further prompted several nations to recognize what has been fact for decades, which doesn't necessarily mean any antagonistic move to Israel or any denial of the Israeli people's right to develop.

However, if the Netanyahu administration, which is called by some as "the most rightwing administration in Israel's history", continues to pressure these nations to take sides, the latter would have to choose the righteous, not the rightwing. Thus Israel's already bad diplomatic situations, in which even the US had to unprecedentedly ban visas of some extremist Israeli settlers and the International Criminal Court prosecutor applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister, will only worsen further.

It's Israel that's part of the international community, not vice versa. If the Netanyahu administration insists on taking an ostrich policy against the Palestinian state that it has been fighting so long, at least it can avoid making the situation worse by forcing other nations to be ostriches like it is.