25 March 2010
By Abdelbari Atwan
US President Barack Obama's administration and the Israeli Government, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, have failed to agree over settlement activity in occupied Jerusalem during a series of tense Washington meetings.
Netanyahu considers himself more powerful than the US President because of the support he enjoys within Congress and from the Jewish lobby, AIPAC [American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee]. Therefore, he appeared to disregard calls to rein in settlement activity and go back to indirect 'proximity' negotiations with the Palestinian side.
This arrogant stand on the part of the Israeli prime minister constitutes the greatest challenge, not only to President Obama, but also to the entire governing US establishment. This challenge makes it incumbent on the governing US establishment to confront the Israeli prime minister forcefully and effectively in a way that will serve the United States' internal and, particularly, external interests.
Successive Israeli governments have rebelled against the White House, but the resultant disagreements and crises have never been so serious that they were not ultimately overcome. The current crisis, however, is completely different in terms of its timing and the magnitude of dangers that it entails.
The United States is currently fighting two ferocious wars in the region, in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least about a quarter of a million US soldiers are taking part in these two wars. That Israel's settlement activities and acts of aggression have begun to impact negatively on the safety of US soldiers engaged in these conflicst was recently highlighted by the US head of Central Command, David Petraeus.
What we mean to say is that the United States cannot contain the current crisis using the same means that it has used to contain previous crises. In addition, Israel currently suffers a quasi international isolation and is greatly disliked by people in its allied countries in Europe.
Israel is no longer the only democratic state in the Middle East that represents the Western culture and abides by its laws. Rather, it has become a terrorist rogue state in the eyes of many people following the war crimes that it committed during its latest aggression against the Gaza Strip and after it used the passports of more than six Western states (Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Australia, and Italy) in assassinating martyr Mahmud al-Mabhuh. Al-Mabhuh, one of the founders of the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, in an allied and peaceful state, the UAE.
We do not know who will emerge as a winner in the current conflict between Obama and Netanyahu, between the president of a superpower and the prime minister of a small state that cannot survive without the former's support and backing. What we do know, however, is that the United States is the loser so far, only because this crisis and the way it has been handled has succeeded in humiliating the United States, damaging its international and regional standing.
What is certain is that the United States will not give up its Israeli ally because of the current crisis. On the other hand, Netanyahu will not make it easy for the United States to back down on its current stand on the need to halt or freeze the settlement activity to save what remains of the peace process, which has, in reality, already collapsed. Netanyahu announced that occupied Jerusalem is not a settlement, but an eternal capital for the State of Israel.
What is noticeable is the fact that the Arab states are standing by as spectators and not trying to help their US ally in this confrontation with Israel. But this is not a strange stand because these states have no weight and value and are accustomed to living on the sidelines and to receiving insults and slaps without demur.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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