Israel and the US: Tiff or tipping point?
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - "Condemn" is not a word that rolls trippingly off the tongue of a
United States politician addressing anything having to do with actions, however
objectionable, by Israel.
So it was no surprise that close observers of US Middle East policy sat up a
lot straighter in their seats when Vice President Joseph Biden used the word
not once, but twice, during his visit to Israel last week in reference to the
Israeli Interior Ministry's announcement that it intended to build 1,600 new
housing units for Jews in an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
"I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new
housing units in East Jerusalem," said Biden, considered among Israel's
staunchest supporters during his
several decades in the US Congress.
"The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching
of [US-mediated] proximity talks [between Israel and the Palestine Authority,
PA], is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right
now," noted Biden.
In a remarkable show of displeasure, he subsequently kept Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu waiting 90 minutes before joining him for an official dinner
and, according to Israeli press accounts, gave top Israeli officials a private
tongue-lashing over how such actions by the Jewish state incited Islamic
extremism across the Arab world and beyond.
Forty-eight hours later, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, clearly
rejecting Netanyahu's apology over the unfortunate coincidence of the
ministry's announcement with Biden's arrival, joined the fray.
According to her spokesman, Philip Crowley, Clinton called the right-wing
leader on Friday morning "to reiterate the United States' strong objections to
Tuesday's announcement, not just in terms of timing, but also in its
substance".
"The secretary said she could not understand how this had happened,
particularly in light of the United States' strong commitment to Israel's
security," Crowley told reporters. "And she made clear that the Israeli
government needed to demonstrate not just through words but through specific
actions that they are committed to this relationship and to the peace process."
The rebukes, which some veterans of Middle Eastern diplomacy described as the
harshest directed toward Israel by senior US officials since the presidency of
George H W Bush almost 20 years ago, have revived questions over whether the
administration of President Barack Obama is prepared to get tough with the most
right-wing government in Israel's history, particularly over the issue of
settlements.
Early in its tenure, the administration demanded a halt to all new Jewish
settlement activity on Palestinian territory in order to get serious peace
talks with the PA underway.
That demand, however, was rebuffed by Netanyahu, who, encouraged by the
right-wing leadership of the powerful "Israel Lobby" in the US, countered with
a partial 10-month settlement freeze that explicitly excluded East Jerusalem
whose "annexation" by Israel in 1967 has been rejected by all other members of
the United Nations, including the US.
The administration's acquiescence in - indeed, praise for - Netanyahu's
"restraint" lost it a considerable amount of credibility, particularly in the
Arab world where hopes for a more even-handed US approach to the
Israel-Palestinian conflict had been running high, especially since Obama's
speech in Cairo last June.
This week's contretemps with Biden and now Clinton, however, has moved the
settlement issue - and particularly the fate of East Jerusalem, whose status as
the capital of any future Palestinian state is widely considered a
pre-condition for any viable two-state solution - front and center once again.
"It is now abundantly clear that with or without a formal declaration from
Netanyahu, getting events in Jerusalem under control - which includes a de
facto full-stop settlement freeze in Jerusalem - is no mere discretionary
gesture but a political imperative," according to Lara Friedman and Daniel
Seidemann of Americans for Peace Now (APN). "Failing that, this political
process will be stillborn."
But it is not only the peace talks, which Obama's special envoy, George
Mitchell, had labored long and hard to convene, that last week's incident has
put into question. In the words of one veteran US Middle East hand, Aaron David
Miller, it also raised new questions over "the degree to which Israel is
willing to take into account US interests".
Indeed, while Biden's mission was originally aimed at publicly reassuring
Israelis of Washington's "absolute, total, unvarnished commitment" to their
security, as he put it immediately after his arrival, the private message,
especially in light of the Interior Ministry's announcement, was that Israel
should reciprocate, according to an account published in the newspaper Yedioth
Ahronoth.
"This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden castigated
his interlocutors. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our
troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us
and it endangers regional peace."
The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim
world perceived a connection between Israel's actions and US policy, any
decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East
Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops
fighting against Islamic terrorism.
Any assertion, particularly
from a recognized "friend of Israel" like Biden, that Israeli actions against
Palestinians have a negative impact on the US position in the larger region -
let alone the safety of US troops - has long been anathema to Likudist
neo-conservatives and the right-wing leadership of the Israel Lobby.
But, as Biden himself said in his departure speech in Tel Aviv on Friday,
"Quite frankly, folks, sometimes only a friend can deliver the hardest truth."
Washington's harsh condemnation of Israel's behavior comes just days before the
lobby's biggest event of the year in the US - this weekend's annual meeting of
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The meeting's organizers and Netanyahu, who will address the conference, had
hoped to focus on the necessity of confronting the "existential threat" posed
by Iran. But they may now find themselves in a more defensive position
regarding settlements, East Jerusalem and Israel's alleged failure to take
account of the implications of its actions on US interests.
Indeed, Israel's actions had the virtue, according to former Israeli peace
negotiator Daniel Levy, of clarifying the strength of the settlement movement
in Israeli politics.
"The momentum they can now generate ... is stronger than Israel's demographic
concerns, is stronger than fear of Israel acquiring an international pariah
status, and as was proven this week, is stronger than the needs of the
US-Israel relationship," he wrote in The Guardian of London. "America's vice
president has just seen this dynamic first hand and up close."
That clarity could spur Washington to take stronger action in concert with its
Quartet partners (the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations),
which met in New York on Friday and joined the US in condemning the latest
settlement announcement.
"Perhaps America will present Israel with a real choice and with consequences
for recalcitrance," Levy wrote. "Thus far, that has not been the case." But,
"in the absence of decisive American leadership, Israel is likely to dig itself
deeper into a hole, burying the last vestiges of home for pragmatic Zionism".
Miller is even more skeptical. While the latest provocation "managed to elicit
Washington's strongest words about Israel in years," he wrote in Politico
Friday, "... for this very busy president, the Arab-Israeli issue now has
little to do with his stock at home".
Still, Clinton's strong public backing for Biden and her own dig at Netanyahu
on Friday hint of a tougher public stance. Another hint could come when she
keynotes the AIPAC conference.
Jim Lobe's blog on US foreign policy can be read at http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/.
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