America Needs to Assert Itself Vis-à-Vis Israel
In their uphill struggle for a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace, President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are facing two major problems. The first is Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian territories. The second is Hamas’ coup, its violent actions, narrow-mindedness and obstinacy. Israel’s intransigence and Hamas’ current practices in Gaza are undermining the Palestinian national project for independence and statehood.
The ongoing Israeli occupation, belligerency and ugly policies practiced in the occupied territories were and still are the main reason for perpetuating the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Middle East’s continuing instability. As has been said many times before, the Palestinian public, shocked, disappointed, and frustrated by the nonimplementation of the Oslo peace accords, gave way to the strong showing by Hamas in the last Palestinian legislative elections held in January 2006, and its ascension to power.
Although many tend to dismiss the idea that Hamas and Israel’s intransigence toward the Palestinian national project feeds on each other, sadly this is the truth. The more intransigent Israel gets, the stronger Hamas grows, and subsequently Abbas gets weaker. Israeli policy makers are aware of this formula, and one way or another, the Israeli system of government and the machinery responsible for implementing its expansionist policies, are continuously hard at work, squashing any hope for peace, lowering expectations, tightening the siege on the Palestinian people, and making their lives unbearable. Such policies are weakening President Abbas, diminishing his credibility, and closing the horizon before any peace prospects.
The repeated message emanating from Israeli government officials, from Prime Minister Olmert’s coalition partners and from his opposition in the Israeli Knesset, is not to expect much from the proposed international peace conference in November. The Israeli message currently being circulated is “to lower expectations, and to have realistic goals.” In Israeli euphemism, this means that the conference called for by President Bush for November will not go anywhere. It means Israel, yet again, has turned its back on the Arab peace initiative, on relevant United Nations resolutions, and on all efforts exerted by the international community to achieve a just and lasting solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Wednesday, the issue is not what to expect or not to expect; it is whether Israel wants peace or not.
The failure of yet another international peace conference due to Israeli intransigence will mean further troubles for the US in the Middle East, a further decline in its credibility, more support for regional forces (extremists and otherwise) who do not believe peace with expansionist racist Israel is possible, and will subsequently lead to an inevitable increase in regional and world tensions.
In a nutshell, and from what Israeli leaders are saying, it can be concluded that Israel is not interested in achieving a just and durable peace with the Palestinian people. This is particularly so because a just and lasting peace has a price tag attached to it, and Israel so far does not think it is obliged to pay the price.
While Israel refuses to withdraw from the Palestinian lands it has occupied since June 5, 1967, rejects Palestinian and Arab proposals to find and implement an agreed upon solution for the Palestinian refugee problem, the United States on its part, and for the sake of its global interests and worldwide credibility, needs to have just and lasting peaceful solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and therefore is urgently requested to reassert its superpower status, not to take a no for an answer, and to make sure Israel complies with UN resolutions, accepts the Arab peace initiative and implements the two-state solution as envisioned by President George W. Bush.
The American dilemma in Iraq and what to do with Iran cannot be detached from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands. Whether American policy makers like it or not, America’s dilemma in Iraq is firmly linked to its “no questions asked” support to Israel, assisting it in maintaining its occupation of Arab land, and encouraging it to exercise its hegemony over the Middle East.
It is also very clear that America’s short- and long-term plans to safeguard its interests in the area and the region will be more difficult if it does not receive broad regional Arab support. This has a price. America’s traditional Arab allies, particularly in the Gulf, are keen on maintaining excellent relations with the US and the West in general. They want their needs and interests be adequately addressed. It is no secret that a significant part of their interest lies in finding a just and lasting peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause, culminating in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel since June 5, 1967, and finding an agreed upon solution for the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN Resolution 194.
— Walid M. Awad works for Central Media Commission, Ramallah, Palestine.
