The American celebrations of Independence Day on July 4 included exciting and colourful two-hour evening events held at famous public parks with fireworks, professional dancers performing beautifully, as well as military units and thousands of spectators — all recorded on television nationwide. Many were wearing shirts or vests with American flags. The joyful event in Washington, held next to the United States Congress was recorded on television and beamed nationwide. But for a small group of Arab-Americans at the celebration, they all wondered when the Palestinians would have a similar opportunity to celebrate their independence, promised by the United Nations in 1948.
The disappointing view here, and most likely elsewhere, has been that the potential for a two-state solution to decades of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is “steadily eroding”, according to a Washington Post report the following day.
The report was highlighting a mild statement from the lackadaisical Middle East Quartet, the sponsor of a peace process that has yet to score any achievement in this respect. Members of the Quartet are the UN, the United States, Russia and the European Union. Although the Quartet mentioned several good points, it failed to advocate any follow up, since Israel’s appalling record this week.
More alarming has been a statement from the White House to Congress, which revealed an offer “to substantially sweeten a decade-long military aid package for Israel”, reported the New York Times, adding, it was “the latest turn in months of fitful negotiations that have proceeded despite deep divisions over the Iran nuclear deal”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to accept the deal and is counting on the next American president for a better one. Needless to say, both the Democratic and Republican presumptive nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been supportive of Israel in their ongoing election campaigns.
US President Barack Obama is willing to give more money to Israel despite, for example, Netanyahu and his ultra-right Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman approving construction plans last Sunday for some 800 new housing units in occupied East Jerusalem and the illegal West Bank colony Maale Adumim. For the record, Lieberman is also an illegal colonist in the West Bank.
The proposed new US military aid to Israel, which will begin in 2018, amounts to $40 billion (Dh147.12 billion), and is described as “the largest pledge to military assistance to any country in US history”.
What is noteworthy vis-a-vis US relations with Israel is the revelation that Trump’s son-in law, Jared Kushner, an American Jew, has been described as “a de facto campaign manager” who has lately helped in drafting a few of Trump’s policy speeches. More surprising has been Kushner’s silence about Trump after an image was posted on Twitter of Hillary with a six-pointed star and a pile of cash, which had previously appeared on a website known for anti-Semitism. A six-pointed star is called the Star of David, which is also used by Israel, but Trump claimed the star is also used by US sheriffs.
An unexpected gesture, meanwhile, emerged this week when members of the Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy urged people of all faiths to appeal to Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza, since in a few weeks, it will be the 10th anniversary of the commencement of the blockade.
This move came at a time when Aaron David Miller, a senior former US State Department official who had participated in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, said in an article that “a new escalation is much more likely than any progress towards peace”. He noted Netanyahu saying that Israel will “forever live by the sword”.
George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com
