Meddling In The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
Mar 12th, 2010 | 9 responses
If there is one thing that Americans detest, it is a foreign country meddling in our internal affairs.
On the flip side, that is exactly what U.S. officials are doing in efforts to broker a peace treaty and create a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The most contentious issue currently is the Israeli government announcing plans to increase Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank at the very moment Vice President Joe Biden arrived in the country to jump start the peace negotiations. In undiplomatic language, Biden scolded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
My perspective of the Middle East region originally known as Palestine is from a historical prism. From the beginning of recorded time, the Jews and Palestinian Arabs have been at logger heads for what evolved into a turf battle. The Jewish authors in the first chapters of the Bible described their nemesis as a “donkey.” Later, the Jews were called “infidels.”
As a child in 1948 I admired the Israelis for defeating the surrounding Arab armies who attacked the day after Israel was declared a state by the United Nations and recognized by President Harry Truman against the counsel of his advisers that included Gen. George Marshall.
By the 1960s as a young newspaper reporter, the office jokes ran rampant about the inept Egyptian army that invaded and fled for their lives in what was known as the Six Day War. You know, “How many Egyptian soldiers does it take to …”
As the years rolled by, more wars with the same results or, at the least, a draw. I admired the sheer chutzpah of the daring raid on Entenbee and the tracking down and assassination of the Palestinians believed to have killed the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics even though in one case they killed the wrong guy.
Israel was always the underdog and as a white non-Jew American I rooted for them. Despite winning on the field of battle leaving essentially only Syria without a peace treaty and the Palestinians, the nation has become a bully.
Its politics is confrontational in which for them our town hall meetings of last August seem normal. The government is always a blend of multiple party factions uniting only when their national security is at stake.
In many respects, the best analogy I can muster is that the role of the Palestinians working, traveling or living in Israel is comparable to the tide of Mexicans working and residing in the Southwest United States without the rock, bomb and rocket throwing.
Historically, the Palestinians are the flotsam of humanity in the Middle East. No one wants them. Their only recourse is carving out a nation for themselves.
The current role of the U.S. government brokering a two-state solution is best described by Amjad Atallah, director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation and a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team from 2000-03. Writing an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times:
James L. Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, has made it clear that the Israeli-Arab conflict is a top priority for U.S. national security interests in the Middle East. And it should be. Nothing would help us more in every theater of operations than a U.S.-engineered resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In contrast to that assessment, however, other U.S. officials — including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — have said that although the United States wants an agreement, “we can’t want this more than the parties.” But, in fact, the U.S. may want an agreement more than this particular Israeli government.
Israel’s Likud leadership may have agreed to resume talks, but their actions seem designed to ensure failure. In addition to approving new settlements, Israeli officials have signaled that they want to reopen issues that have already been resolved in previous talks — such as where borders should be drawn — rather than taking up where things last broke off, as called for by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel’s Kadima party.
This is oddly similar to the Republican demand that Congress go back to the beginning on healthcare in the wake of Scott Brown’s election to the Senate. Revisiting issues that have already been settled is not part of an honest attempt to reach an agreement, but rather an effort to run out the clock on this president.
Again, from a historical perspective, I don’t fathom a peace agreement ever between the Israelis and Palestinians until both sides really want it. U.S. interference on either party’s side only worsens the deep-seated roots between the two antagonists.
I will take seriously these peace talks when Saudi Arabia enters center stage and takes a leading high-profile role in hammering out a solution as the U.S. has tried and failed. Even at that, I doubt they could keep the militants such as Hamas in line.
I have no qualms that the U.S. supports Israel on almost every front. The relationship could get grievous if Israel unilaterally attacks Iran to take out their nuclear missile arsenal. That would call Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bluff who is the only winner in this latest setback of talks between Israel and Palestinians.
9 Responses to “Meddling In The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks”
[i]Again, from a historical perspective, I don’t fathom a peace agreement ever between the Israelis and Palestinians until both sides really want it. U.S. interference on either party’s side only worsens the deep-seated roots between the two antagonists.[/i]
The same was said about the prospect of peace between Egypt and Israel. Carter forced the two sides to accept the Camp David accords, so peaCE is possible even with the Palestinians…
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/cam…
The Israelis and the Palestinians are both taking our money. In my mind, that means we should have some say with what they do with it. If they don't like our 'interference', they can stop cashing our checks.
We shouldn't be meddling, much less join the one-sided arm twisters trying to make Israel concede even more, as usual, rather than the other side, the party routinely in the wrong.
Much less should we respect any stupid attempt to make any silly “peace” people feel inflated about themselves, and rush to get another cheap Nobel Peace Prize, etc.. (Our current lib Dem crowd can't be trusted to be grown-up and to be real.)
“If there is one thing that Americans detest, it is a foreign country meddling in our internal affairs.”
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You mean Americans except for the Five on the Supreme Court, right? And Fox News [of Australian/Saudi ownership] who meddle, constantly injecting strife into our citizenry?
Of course we have been taking Israel's side and handing them buckets of money for a few decades but it is bad that we now are treating the other side like they are human. Am I reading this right or am I misunderstanding your statement.
We have pretty openly engaged in a lack of care about any Israeli wrong doing for decades, including their attack on our ship the USS Liberty. The fact that we are now finally calling them on their obvious flouting of US interests when we are largely disliked in the region because of our defence of them should be applauded because it is not an isolated incident. In fact you can almost predict when the next big ramp of aerial assaults and raids or suicide bombings will start, the moment the two sides say the word “peace” with a camera and microphone in the room. Then the extremists from both sides scurry off and quickly antagonise each other with insults and and attacks until both sides blames the other when in reality it is each others extremes that will need to be ignored and treated like criminals for this to move forward, only problem is the extremist movement in the current scenario is on the Israeli side and has been since W. seemingly let them off the leash and now they do not want to go back on. If Israel wants to act this way and you do not want us involved then obviously we need to cut all funding and stop all trade with both sides until they come to terms or exterminate one another. Otherwise…we are involved already and for the most part are funding it. “Do you want your funding? Then sit down and shut up!” should be all that need be said but pols have no guts when it comes to Israel because of course our media does not portray what is and has been going on over there for decades the way the rest of the world does which is why we are one of their last remaining allies on the subject. Sorry DLS this is a topic on which I have been seething for a decade or two. I am not fond of funding other nations in general but funding them while they show the contempt they do for US interests I find especially annoying. One of the reasons we are in Iraq in the first place is Israel its also why we discuss Iran and one of the reasons that the extremists hate us as well, the other is our support for Saudi Arabia and other unsavoury autocrats and dictatorships in the ME which we use to…wait for it…support Israel. How much money every year does our nearly bankrupt nation spend on Israel and its defence, and don't forget how much more we have paid in oil prices due to our preferred side of a conflict that has zero to do with us.
I have a plan for ME peace though and it would work like a charm. First move all the Israeli's and Palestinians to the US. We have plenty of crazy angry people here they will blend right in. After a few generations of looking at pretty people of other races and backgrounds most of them will be like the rest of us mutt's and will forget all that silly regional crap because they are to busy watching American Idol and working at WalMart. Then after everyone is moved out you turn the entire place into a giant glass desert, anyone that wants to live their then can feel free but they have to defend themselves. It is not a problem…God will take care of them. Give them one more chance to work it out if not neither side gets any of it, this rule works in kindergarten it works in prisons and it will work with the holy land as well. Third pull out of the entire region funding and all and let the people in those nations vote for or tear down their leaders as they damn well please because its their nations and none of our business. We can trade with them but its just business and therefore we should also sell to all sides…the American way
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I just think America is starting to grow a pair right as Israel is now openly flaunting what is in its benefactors best interests which is sanity and putting the interests of our nation ahead of theirs which is of course what our elected officials are supposed to do. I can sanely see a need to help defend those nations against outside interests as they breakdown into racial and historic boundaries(that were screwed up after WWI thanks jerks) but having seen a long running story in US wars post-WWII I think we need some cold hard physical evidence that could win over a jury. We have used that excuse to many times only for it to come out later that some of the groups we were sent to “root out” were being funded by the CIA or our allies intelligence agencies.
Speaking of which I assume you know the PLO was started by Israel and where as Arafat was not a valid partner for peace and I agree neither have the different Israeli with the exception of those like Rabin and we all know what the extremists did to him. Many of the “terrorists” and their family members are working for Israel for one reason or another and much like Britain used against the IRA groups sometimes use false flag incidents when they need a way to stir up public outrage or incite the other side, like sending out or allowing “off duty” anonymous paramilitary squads to hit the other side and calling them officially “local partisans.” Both sides are dirty in this one we have just been taking Israel's side for so long that this looks different.
Jerry – As a Jew with long standing ties to Israel I have to strongly disagree with your position. I have spent thousands of days in Israel since my Haifa bar mitzvah in 1956. I lived in Israel in the early 80″s and I am a dual citizen. My grandfather was even Irgun. I am in Israel at least twice a year and I have 35 relatives living there, mainly in the settlements.
One thing you learn being on site is the absolute dominence of Jewish Israel, economically, militarily and culturally. The power balance is totally one sided and thus Israel has little incentive to make any kind of deal. If you examine the offers made at Camp David and by Olmert you can see why they were rejected. For example, at Camp David, the offer was NOT 95% of the territory but only 70% with a vague promise by Israel to turn over the rest some time decades in the future. By keeping the Jordan Valley, Israel would have effectively quarantined the Palestinians into 3 West Bank Bantustans with everyone and everything entering or exiting Palestinian territory subject to Israel's approval. That's not a state – it's another open air prison.
Olmert's offer was even more clever. When I was in Israel for the elections earlier this year, Livni made a speech at a campaign rally that mentioned Olmert's offer included the deal killer of providing Israel with a 99 year lease on the Jordan Valley. It was technically Palestinian and so was included in the misleading 98% figure but once again Israel would control all egress and ingress for Palestine. The Palestinians would be demiltitarized (no biggie) but it went further in that Israel had to approve every gun and it must be provided by Israel. Furthermore, Israel would continue to control the west bank aquifer and the Israeli water company would be the sole authorized carrier. Palestine could not have an airport and again all visitors to Palestine would have to be approved by Israel.
Beware of the Hasbera without reading the small print. You are correct this is a difficult Gordian Knot to unravel but it has to be done, and done soon. The grand plan of Israel since the 1967 Allon plan is to grab most of Judea and Samaria and leave the Palestinians in stateless but autonomous little enclaves that most of the settlers call “reservations” (ie if that approach was good enough for America and the Indians, it's good enough for Israel and the Palestinians).
Go to the West Bank and see how the Ariel corridor has been lengthened via outposts all the way to Eli and Shiloh making an unbreakable line to the Jordan Valley locking Nablus from access south the Ramallah and the rest of the West Bank. The same thing is happening north of Nablus to cut off Jenin. In the central west bank, the municipal boudries of Ma'ale Adumim extend all the way to Jericho and with the tremendous building going on in the E-1 corridor to Jerusalem means the south west bank is totally cut off from the rest.
Jerry, you are absolutely naive to believe this is not part and parcel of the plans that have been around since 67. Go to some of these settlements, they will gladly show you maps of their intentions. There is no one in the Israeli government who is going to stop them, especially this Likud coalition. Defense Minister Barak stated it clearly, we have to do something or arparheid will be real. Did you see the latest Israeli poll of High School students, half of them advocate taking away all citizenship rights of non-Jews in both Israel proper as well as any potential west bank annexation.
This is what is coming. Believe me Israel is different now than in the past. It is losing it's soul, may G-d have mercy on us.
No matter what path modern Israel takes, it is their business, not ours (Americans). Palestine is in a terrible bargaining position. They need Saudi Arabia taking the lead role in the Arab League to represent Palestine to demand contiguous territory, guarantee water and power rights, and economic aid for refugees. Whatever the U.S. is supplying Palestine in aid and money should be a pittance to what the Arab League should be paying — assuming they think it is in their best interest.. Until then, the only recourse by Palestinians is suicide bombings and rocket launchings in the prolonged war of attrition. That is until both sides had enough and sanity prevails. — Jerry
” it is bad that we now are treating the other side like they are human”
It is bad that our government is playing the lefty Israel-bashing role and prostituting itself in the name of “peace,” no matter how superficial or phony.
That Israel is greedy, annoncing more settlement, actually is irrelevent. (I'm cynical about it, if you're curious; I figure, given its timing, that at least part of the motive behind the decision is for the Israelis to puff up their chests before the meet with the Arabs, trying to look stronger than they otherwise would.)
Why on earth would Israel make a peace treaty? They have too much too loose. Compromises will have to be made. Aid to buy weapons will be reduced or eliminated. It is very much in Israel's interest to make sure there is no peace treaty. This is prevented with ongoing stunts like the most recent. It is prevented by intentional provoking of the various Palestinian factions. There will always be some kind of reason NOT to sit at the table. Unfortunately for Israel, the US Congress has FINALLY figured this out. And they have figured out that Israel has no interest in being a cooperative partner with the US, or any other country.
This will end badly for Israel. Perhaps it was programed as the idea of a “Jewish State” itself is a tribal anachronism.