Israel's announcement, last week, of a radical expansion of Har Homa (an already massive settlement community between Jerusalem and Bethlehem) makes a mockery of the so-called "peace process."
The episode has further served to reinforce the belief that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no interest in reaching a just peace with the Palestinians. This leopard has not changed his spots. Netanyahu remains a wily (and not always honest) manipulator, who at his core is a hard-line ideologue. At the same time, the Har Homa announcement serves as an uncomfortable reminder of U.S. impotence and the role this weakness has historically played in enabling Israel's bad behavior.
I remember all too well a decade and a half ago when Jabal Abul Ghnaim was a lovely green hill on the northern outskirts of Bethlehem. It was Arab land, seized by Israel in 1967 and then annexed to what the Israelis refer to as Greater Jerusalem. After becoming Prime Minister in 1996, as part of a series of provocative acts designed to, in his words, "make a clean break" ending the Oslo peace process, thereby showing the Americans and Palestinians who was in charge, Netanyahu announced plans to construct "Har Homa" on that Arab hill. The intent of this new settlement was to continue the process of building an Israeli housing ring around Jerusalem that would assert their control while denying Palestinians access to the Holy City.
The Clinton Administration opposed the Israeli plan, expressing concern that this new settlement was "unhelpful" and "counterproductive", etc. But words alone would not stop Netanyahu. Bulldozers came and raped and scarred Jabal Abul Ghnaim, leaving it barren with deep gouges where roads and houses would soon be built.
The Palestinians went to the United Nation's Security Council only to see a resolution of condemnation vetoed by the U.S. A General Assembly resolution of condemnation passed by a 134 to 3 (with Micronesia joining the U.S. and Israel in opposition). But such resolutions have no authority. The Clinton Administration continued to object and Israelis continued to plan and then to build.
That was then. Today, Har Homa is home to 17,000 Israeli settlers. The recently announced Israeli plan to build 1,000 new units will not only add thousands more settlers, it will also greatly expand the settlement's footprint by 50 percent, extending it to the south and east.
On one level, what was especially disturbing about this Israeli announcement was its timing and apparent intent. Coming as it did while Netanyahu was in the U.S., having just shared a podium with Vice-President Joseph Biden, it could only be seen as yet another direct challenge both to the Obama Administration, itself, as well as to U.S. efforts to restart peace talks. The announcement was also aimed at the Palestinians telling them, in effect, what they, the Israelis, thought of the Palestinian insistence on a settlement freeze. In addition, the Israelis appear to be making it clear to the Palestinians, that it was Israel who would define and control the terms of any final peace arrangement - as they stake claim to more and more of the occupied territories.
Given Netanyahu's history in this regard, both in the '90's and his more recent behavior, the Obama Administration's response has been more than disappointing. Echoing the timid and failed rebukes of the past, President Obama termed the Israeli plan "unhelpful" and left it Secretary of state Clinton to call it "counterproductive".
More disturbing still were Clinton's words upon ending a seven hour discussion with the Israeli Prime Minister in which she reiterated the U.S.'s "unshakable" commitment to Israel's security, and went on to describe the peace agreement the U.S. seeks as one that "reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state, based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements". In that last statement the Secretary ratified the infamous 2004 Bush letter of assurances to then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This has placed the U.S. in the role of negotiating away fundamental Palestinian rights, and, on the issue of settlements, of "giving away the store" to the Israelis.
The only conclusion that one can make from all of this is that those settlements that Israel built over the last 43 years, in defiance of international law - which have been described by successive American administrations as "illegal", "an obstacle to peace", "unhelpful", "counterproductive" and more recently as "illegitimate"- have now become "subsequent developments" that will be accommodated by "agreed land swaps".
So Jabal Abul Ghnaim is no more, and will be no more, despite international condemnation and U.S. "regrets". The once green Arab hill has been replaced by "subsequent developments". Given of the timidity of the U.S. response to the extension of Har Homa, in all likelihood, that too will be built, and someday soon be a reality that Palestinians will be told they must accept.
Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=3256
because the only path israel and america seem intent on following is the one that will lead to WWIII . . .
20 free F-35s (worth $3 billion) + more sanctions on Iran + maintain Israel’s “nuclear ambiguity” + combat efforts to “delegitimize” Israel + American veto against any Security Council resolution Israel doesn’t like = Israel agrees to freez settlement activity (recognized by the US as illegal and till last year Israel was asked to stop it completely and unconditionally) for 90 days…and only in the West Bank!
Now this is a deal made in heaven! It must be the Christmas season already!
Our bond with Israel is unbreakable. Barrack H. Obama.
Rahm Emmanuels departure from the White House has not and will not lead to a change in US Middle East policy. (Because the US has NO Middle East policy. American Middle East policy is formulated in Israel and communicated tot the US as an order.)
In retrospect, based on today's headline, it was a brilliant negotiating tactic by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Although, in all likelihood, the script was written long before Hillary left the country and Benjamin had already picked out the color of the seat covers for the jets.
Seriously, a deal for 30 Billion worth of stealth fighters doesn't just pop up in the hallway out of thin air.
So, we disagree in some areas ...
Let's keep up the constructive dialog.
Shalom.
AIPAC has politicans by the balls in solving this problem with their donations. Until the US citizens say NO to AIPAC and other foreign lobby willing to grease the wheels so it serves it's best interest nothing will change. More Americans will become homeless while the Military Industrial-Security Complex becomes stronger. No more wars Period. More more wars for Israel. More more money for this undeclared 51st State of America.
No problem with AIPAC and others funding Israel - but stop sending our tax dollars and now even more military aid and equipment.
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Dr. Zogby, in my view, the U.S. has ALWAYS negotiated away fundamental Palestinian rights. And, though I was hopeful that Mr. Obama would prove to be an honest broker, and he did begin his tenure on a positive note, so far, his capitulation to Netanyahu has further subordinated America's national security, the safety of our troops in the Afghanistan and Iraq and his foreign policy initiatives to our so-called special relationship with Israel.
Today, Israeli and Arab media outlets are reporting that during SoS Clinton's 7 hour meeting with Netanyahu yesterday, she promised to give - yes, give Israel 20 new F35 fighter Jets worth $3 billion in exchange for a 90 days - that's 90 days settlement moratorium. In addition, the U.S. promised NOT TO ASK Israel to suspend settlements again after 90 days.
If Israel agrees, The U.S. would sign a new security arrangement which would include a veto of U.N. Resolutions on the Goldstone Report; blocking anti-Israel UN resolutions concerning the Gaza flotilla raid; defeating international resolutions aimed at exposing Israel's nuclear program at the International Atomic Energy Agency; and strengthening pressure on Iran and Syria in regards to their nuclear and proliferation activities.
Palestinians don't have a snow-ball's chance in h**l of their own state under Obama and Netanyahu.
Voila. Peace Now....and not the organization, either.
They should try it. What do they have to lose?
But nothing that anybody does to bring about peace gets the Israelis to negotiate in good faith. day by day illegal settlement by illegal settlement they continue to steal Palestinian land in occupied Palestine.
The USA right now is under some sort of spell.
The concept of being "chosen by G-d" means something enitrely different than your convictions of social superiority. In fact, it is a concept that is the basis behind the learning of Torah and applying the lessons from which. Now, you don't have to agree with folks who read the Torah as being more in touch with society than you, but you must admit you have little grasp of their society.
Your comment, if about the Jews, shows your amount of ignorance and should be flagged as abusive. After all, from the way I read it, you're basically blaming me for my own impending death. Awesome.
You reap what you sow.
Feb1. 2010: Abbas, in an interview that appeared Sunday on The Guardian Web site, said he would be prepared to resume face-to-face talks if Israel froze all construction for three months and accepted the June 4, 1967, borders as the basis for land swaps.
March 15, 2010 "If there is a total freeze of settlement activity AND recognition of 1967 borders, yes, we will go to negotiations," Abbas said."
Jan 24,2010 -- “Abbas's refuses to start new peace negotiations without a comprehensive freeze on the expansion of its settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem."
Jan. 16, 2010 "PA demands Gaza blockade as a precondition to negotiations."
Aug.14th 2009. "PA is resolved not to renew peace negotiations with Israel until all Palestinian prisoners are released from Israeli jails,
Abbas-- no negotiations unless there is settlement freeze and Israel agrees to a two-state solution.
October 2008
Egyptian Weekly"... Mahmoud Abbas says he is prepared to resume peace talks with Israel without preconditions."
June 4, 2009- "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday laid down his conditions for renewing stalled peace negotiations with Israel. "
Jul 8, 2009-- Abbas statement in Belgrade, "We do not accept any preconditions nor do we make one."
Amazing.....