The Arab world, especially the Palestinians, ought to start thinking about a new interlocutor if they want a peace treaty with Israel. The United States administration, whether run by President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton — the likely winner of next year’s presidential election — is disappointingly distancing itself from what it takes to facilitate a decent and long overdue Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement.
The price that Palestinians and Israelis have paid for an unfair United Nations Partition Plan in 1948 has proven a failure, highlighting a five-decade bloody conflict, for which, both sides have paid a high price. Resolving the problem by establishing a one-state solution, favoured by many Palestinians and Israelis, is very unlikely to be fully accepted by Israel, now that the relationship between them is very sour — almost lethal.
The top American leadership is seemingly disqualifying itself — thanks to the corrupting Zionist lobby in the US. To cite but one recent example, the liberal Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reported earlier this week that more than $220 million (Dh809.16 million) was being pumped by some 50 non-profit American organisations in recent years into the illegal Israeli colonies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. This region, now less than 20 per cent of Palestine, is where the Palestinians are hoping to establish an independent state, along with occupied East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Yet, some 600,000 illegal Israeli colonists are now illegally living in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank
Haaretz explained that the tax-deductible status of the funds means that the US government “is incentivising and indirectly supporting the Israeli [colony] movement”, even though Washington opposes construction of colony homes and views it as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.
Simultaneously, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin arrived in Washington for a cordial meeting with Obama and a public address the following day at the Brookings Institution. After the two exchanged pleasantries, Obama unexpectedly condemned Palestinian violence and said Palestinian President Mahmoud “Abbas needs to condemn it and end the incitement”. He added that there was a “need to find mechanisms for Israelis and Palestinians to have a dialogue”, but admitted that “although the prospect of peace seems distant, we still need to try”.
This ‘Israel Day’ in Washington was preceded last week by another similar occasion where insult was further added to injury when both Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s front-runner in the US presidential election next year, and Secretary of State John Kerry went overboard in affirming their attachment to Israel, speaking publicly at the Brookings Institution and its Saban Center — a think tank established by Haim Saban, an Egyptian Jew who is now settled in the US.
Here is how Philip Weiss, founder and co-editor of Mondoweiss.net, began his report on Hillary’s “pandering on Israel”, which “included more pandering on Israel than any speech I’ve heard from any American politician”. He continued:
“It was endless. Israel is a brave democracy, a light unto the nations, a miracle, its ‘prowess in war’ is ‘inspiring’, and we must take the US-Israeli relations to the ‘next level’.” And, she promised, that on her first day as president, “I would extend an invitation to the Israeli prime minister to come to the United States, hopefully within the first month ... to work towards strengthening and intensifying our relationship on military matters, on terrorism and on everything else that we can do to cooperate on that [and] will send a strong message to our peoples as well as the rest of the world. So that is on my list for the first day”.
A couple of days earlier, in a lengthy “rhetorical” speech at the Brookings Institution, at a session administered by Martin Indyk, a former ambassador to Israel, Kerry spoke about the close relationship with Israel. He noted that “since 2009, we have provided $20 billion in foreign military financing to Israel, more than half of all the military assistance we have given worldwide”. He continued: “Over and above that, we have invested some $3 billion in the production of Iron Dome and other missile defence programmes and systems. And we saw how in Israel’s last conflicts with Hamas, (the Palestinian militant group), lives were saved in Israel because of that assistance. We have given privileged access to advanced military equipment such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East to which the United States sold this fifth-generation aircraft. And earlier this year, the president authorised a massive arms resupply package, featuring air-to-air missiles and other advanced munitions.
Diplomatically, our support for Israel remains as rock solid as we continue to oppose any effort to delegitimise the Jewish state or to pass biased resolutions against it in international bodies. I have personally been on the phone lobbying, whether it’s a human rights commission or council or individuals, UN ... you name it. We are constantly fighting that battle ...”
Kerry went on and on, but Israel has not yielded to any pressure, American or otherwise, to arrive at a settlement with the Palestinians. Obviously, the world will have to look for other avenues or else, the final step may be disastrous.
George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He is a former editor-in-chief of the Daily Star.
