The international community’s pandering of Israel has indeed helped it in waging war but not in making peace. Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal’s statement that Israel is a “spoilt child that gets away with anything without being questioned, held accountable or punished” neatly sums up the situation. Calling on the international community to get tougher with Israel, especially on settlements, the prince did not name names, but there is no prize for guessing the No. 1 pamperer.
President Barack Obama knows that whatever Middle East plan he has will succeed or flop depending on Israel’s willingness to accede rights stolen from the Palestinians. However, it is clear by now that Israel will not be making any concessions, either to the Palestinians or to the US. Benjamin Netanyahu knows Obama and a pro-Israel Congress will not be willing to push US’ key regional ally.
Israel has been allowed to say “no” to the United States without suffering any consequences. The Palestinians thus feel betrayed by the Obama administration that has backed down from its own insistence that Israel halt construction in occupied territory. Who can criticize Palestinians when they say it is pointless to go through the motions of yet another series of negotiations with an Israeli government more hawkish than its predecessors and with a US administration as accommodating of Israeli wishes as any in recent US history?
When Israel’s electorate voted last year, it installed a right-wing governing coalition beholden to parties opposed to a Palestinian state. This makes it impossible for Netanyahu to accept the settlement freeze even as a tactic. It is highly unlikely that he could conclude a deal acceptable to the Palestinians.
When other countries violate international law, if war crimes are committed, said Prince Saud, they get punished, except for Israel. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Liberia’s Charles Taylor, and Radovan Karadzic, the ultranationalist leader of the Bosnian Serbs, are all examples of what happens when leaders believe they are above the law and are unaccountable for their actions.
Was not Israel’s 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip last year a war crime? Was not an attack that killed 1,400 Palestinians — more than 400 minors among them — a crime against humanity? Yet Israel has been allowed to get away with murder.
Prince Saud’s comments on the Palestinian problem came four days after King Abdullah held talks with President Mahmoud Abbas on the same issue, and ahead of yet another expected trip to the region by US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell. The US seems to be operating on the assumption that the Palestinians are ready for any kind of peace — with a leadership politically dependent on the US and one that is ready to suppress opposition elements seeking to confront Israel.
As Israel’s encroachment in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has continued apace, the Palestine Authority remains helpless. In the eyes of the Palestinians, the Obama administration’s retreat on the settlement issue signals that without such US pressure on Israel, there’s nothing to be gained from talking to the Netanyahu government because the three decades spent relying on US-led diplomacy to deliver Palestinian national goals has brought precious little.
