‘Nothing new’

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, offered “nothing new” in his diatribe last Tuesday at his third appearance before a joint session of the US Congress, blasting ongoing negotiations in Europe between the so-called P5+1 group of nations — United States, Russia, Great Britain, France, China and Germany — and Iran over the latter’s alleged nuclear ambitions. 

This sharp evaluation was offered by President Barack Obama at a press meeting 10 minutes after Netanyahu expressed his loud outrage over the ongoing negotiations with Iran; he did not offer any alternatives for dealing with Iran, but still received loud applauses at the Republican-dominated session.

Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden who was travelling overseas, did not attend the congressional session, assumedly because of the severe public exchanges over Netanyahu’s address to Congress and the ongoing negotiations with Iran.

The invitation to Netanyahu was secretly issued by Republican House Speaker John Boehner. 

The Israeli prime minister, whose relationship with Obama has been cool, is running for elections in two weeks’ time.

American presidents shun meeting with foreign leaders lest this would imply US support for their candidacy.

Moreover, about 60 of Obama’s fellow Democrats in the US Congress boycotted Netanyahu’s address, while two senior US officials, Susan Rice, national security adviser, and Samantha Powers, US’ ambassador at the United Nations, spoke at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

The Israeli prime minister wants the US to maintain its restrictions on Iran.

“If the world powers are not prepared to insist that Iran change its behaviour before a deal is signed, they should at the very least be prepared to insist that Iran changes its behaviour before the deal expires,” said Netanyahu.

But what he seems to forget is his stance vis-à-vis the Palestinians. He walked out of the peace negotiations with the Palestinians last year despite the months long efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry and Martin Indyk, now vice president and director for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and a former ambassador to Israel.

Here is what Diana Bhutto, a former adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has to say: “US officials should not be honouring Netanyahu and flattering him with standing ovations. They should be moving to cut off aid to his government over its grave human rights abuses and prosecuting him for war crimes committed during last summer’s brutal attack on Gaza, which killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including more than 500 children.”

Additionally, the Israeli leader would do well to give serious attention to the Arab Peace Initiative, first endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 at a summit of the 22 member states in Beirut, Lebanon.

The proposal calls for normalising relations with Israel in exchange for complete withdrawal from the Israeli-occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, and a just settlement of the Palestinian refugees based on UN Resolution 194.

Missing from the US-Israel exchanges this week were Israel’s nuclear objectives, a point that Netanyahu forgets to mention while he is lambasting the Iranians for their reported nuclear ambitions.

Another immediate issue the Obama administration needs to focus attention on is Israel’s refusal to transfer all the tax revenues it is collecting on behalf of the Palestinian Authority after the Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court, a step that will be validated on April 1.

The move will give ICC jurisdiction to investigate crimes allegedly committed against Palestinians and the conduct of Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

The World Bank warned that the war in Gaza contributed to a reversal of seven years of growth in the Palestinian economy. 

One can only hope, under these circumstances, that the upcoming Israeli elections would bring a more reasonable Israeli leadership. Or else, the war mongering could be devastating. 

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.