The best that President Bush can find to say about the so-called “security wall” Israel is building to separate itself from the Palestinians is that it is “a problem”. And even that is hardly a condemnation of Israel’s illegal action, because what he really means is that it is a problem for his administration. The White House clearly cares nothing for the physical division of Palestinian communities, nor the way in which the wall by embracing disputed Israeli settlements annexes further swathes of Palestinian territory.
So when the US this Tuesday vetoed the Arab-sponsored UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s construction of the wall, Bush knew that it was going to give him further problems. Yet Washington remains wedded to the slavish support of an aggressive Zionist government in Israel, despite not only the damage it is doing to its Middle East policy but also the shift in public opinion on this matter among US voters. US presidents approaching the hustings for their second term invariably do the electoral mathematics around the powerful lobby groups on Capitol Hill. Among the most powerful, best funded and most proactive is the Zionist lobby.
Yet because of its involvement in Iraq, the Bush administration is finding itself in an increasingly schizophrenic position. It must by now have dawned on Bush’s people that their job in Iraq is being made immeasurably more difficult by their support for Ariel Sharon’s oppressive policies toward the Palestinians. The attack yesterday on a convoy of US diplomats visiting the Gaza Strip, though immediately condemned by Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei, is symptomatic of the fury felt throughout the Middle East at Washington’s ill-informed intervention in the region.
If the US could seek to deal evenhandedly with both the Palestinians and Israelis, they could cut the ground from beneath the feet of the extremists — not just in Palestine, but also in Iraq, as the US is being characterized as the oppressor in both countries. As it is, the Bush administration appears wedded to the worst of all policies, designed to make ever more enemies. Indeed, it may now be impossible for it to row back from its fatal commitment to Israeli Zionist interests. Only a new incumbent in the White House would stand a chance of putting forward a less partial Middle Eastern policy.
The irony is that, as we reported in our news columns yesterday, a survey of US voters has indicated that an overwhelming majority supports an impartial approach to the Palestinians and Israelis. So although Bush and his aides may be calculating that their support for Zionist ambitions will improve his chances of re-election next year, the policy could in fact backfire.
