Harsh decision

It was disturbing to watch at the White House the arrogant Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, shake hands with the seemingly weakened American president, Barack Obama, in a futile bid to improve ties between them.

Adding irresponsibility to the mix was the American president’s admission that he would not be focusing during the remainder of his term in office on resolving the Israeli occupation of Palestine, now an area less than 20 per cent of the original state, until 1948 a British mandate.

Obama’s public statement omitted any mention of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank or Israeli brutality against Palestinians; more than 60 were killed, some of them youngsters fighting Israeli settlers with knives.

He strikingly underlined that “Israel is one of my foreign policy priorities that has expressed itself not only in words, but in deeds.”

Most offensive in Netanyahu’s opening remarks was his declaration that he backed the vision of “two states for two peoples”, yet maintained that any Palestinian state must be “demilitarised” and recognise Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, a condition that Palestinians have long rejected.

More than 20 per cent of Israel’s population are Palestinian Arabs and recent polls reveal the growth of the Arab population while the number of Jews is markedly decreasing.

The Israeli leader bragged before the American president that he was interested in taking practical steps to calm tension with the Palestinians, but he did not reveal any of these steps nor, for example, has he ever identified Israel’s final borders.

An Israeli commentator recently suggested an attractive Israeli first step that would include withdrawal from Arab East Jerusalem, a suggestion that undoubtedly would be welcome by the Palestinians since their objective is to establish their capital there. 

On the other hand, the Arab governments offered in 2002 the Arab Peace Initiative, whereby all Arab states will recognise Israel, provided it pulls back to the l967 armistice line.

But since Obama revealed that he is not keen to pursue an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement, under the disappointing and weak excuse that there is not enough time to negotiate such a pact before his term ends next year.

Also unfortunate for the region is Israel’s surprise pursuit, revealed by Netanyahu, of a new US-Israeli military assistance agreement that would preserve Israel’s qualitative military edge; the current agreement expires next year.

Obama noted at the beginning of his meeting with Netanyahu on Monday that he made military aid to Israel a US foreign policy priority.

“And I expressed this not only in words but also in deeds.”

He bragged: “We had more security cooperation than any administration. We make sure that our ally, Israel, cannot only defend itself but also work with us on security threats.”

In turn, Netanyahu told the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defence committee two weeks ago that his goal at present is to convince Obama that US military assistance has to be increased from the current level of $3.1 billion a year to “the sum of $4 billion plus”.

Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the Washington-based US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation, stressed that “President Obama should not acquiesce and give Netanyahu this or any prize as long as US support is complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and human rights abuses against Palestinians. It’s beyond time to cut off this gravy train which has only ensured blood — mostly from Palestinian victims — will continue to be shed in Israel/Palestine.”

Dana Millbank, a popular Washington Post columnist, writing last Tuesday under the headline “Bibi (Netanyahu) keeps driving the wedge”, quoted Brian Becker, national coordinator of the anti-war ANSWER Coalition, as saying: “There has been a sea change in US attitudes towards the Israeli government and its policies and towards US aid towards Israel.”

He added that Israel’s “terrorism has meant that many people, including a large sector of the Jewish American community, are now critical of Israel instead of giving a blank [cheque] to Israel”.

The bottom line is that it will be harsh on the Palestinians and all others in the Middle East to wait for at least two more years for serious peace negotiations to resume if Obama definitely abandons his promising drive for a peace settlement when he made his first trip to Jerusalem in March 2013.

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.