U.S. policy on Israel-Palestine: More of the same
By Max J. Castro
majcastro@gmail.com
Last week’s summit between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a glaring demonstration of how little has changed in U.S. policy toward the central conflict in the Middle East — the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. According to one commentator, along with the Israeli and American flags on display in Washington last week, the White House should have raised another flag: the white flag.
When Barack Obama won the presidency, there were hopes for a new, more even-handed U.S. approach. And, earlier in the administration, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, seemed willing to stand up to the right-wing Israeli Prime Minister. Netanyahu’s announcement of a major increase in settlement construction — illegal under international law and opposed officially by the United States — on the occasion of Vice President’s Joe Biden’s visit to Israel had been a brazen slap in the face of Israel’s one real friend in the world.
The action drew a rare private rebuke from Secretary Clinton expressed in a tense telephone call to Netanyahu. It also earned Netanyahu a cold shoulder from President Obama on the Israeli Prime Minister’s next visit to Washington. The U.S. also showed its displeasure by not permitting photographs of the two leaders together and other subtle diplomatic messages.
The reaction of hardcore pro-Israel supporters in the United States to these mild gestures from Washington was ferocious. Some accused the Obama administration of mounting a frontal assault on Israel. Republicans hoping to attract American Jews, who traditionally vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates, tried to take advantage of the situation. With elections looming in November, the Obama administration caved in.
This time there were more photographers than at the World Cup. No mention was made of settlements or other thorny issues. Nor was the deadly attack on the Flotilla brought up. This time the cold shoulder was replaced by a warm embrace. There was much talk of unbreakable ties and unshakeable commitments. The theme of the meeting could have been that of Obama making up to Netanyahu for the United States having the temerity to disagree with some of Israel’s policies.
None of this bodes well for American attempts to broker a peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu’s coalition government, dominated by extremists such as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, has no interest in ever allowing the formation of a viable Palestinian state. Instead, Lieberman and others want to make the 20 percent of Israeli citizens who are Arabs to sign a loyalty oath to Israel or lose their citizenship. The dream of a Greater Israel, which would mean expelling the Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank, is still alive among the most extreme factions of the Israeli political spectrum.
In the meantime, Netanyahu must humor the United States by making vague promises to work for peace with the Palestinians as he did last week in Washington. After all, the United States gives Israel $3 billion a year, supplies it with the latest military technology and — through governmental and non-governmental organizations — enables it to build settlements and separation walls. Moreover, except for the United States’ veto in the UN Security Council, exercised countless times on behalf of Israel in contrast to votes of the other four permanent members of the Council, Israel would be virtually a pariah state.
Like Cuba policy, U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is as much about domestic politics as it is about geopolitics. The election of Obama produced a marked improvement in the image of the United States in Muslim countries. Recently, the U.S. image among Muslims is again on the decline. The United States will be unable to improve its image in the Muslim and Arab world — or broker Middle East peace — until its policy ceases to be held hostage to the most reactionary forces in this country’s pro-Israel interest groups.
