Global Issues
MIDEAST: An Unlikely Collision Takes Place
In the middle of last week, it seemed that the old cliché about the light at the end of the dark Middle East tunnel was being confirmed: the U.S. had successfully cajoled both Israel and the Palestinian Authority into beginning to talk again.
Four days later, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is discovering that the cliché has transformed into the bitter joke: it's not light at the end of the tunnel - it's the headlights of the oncoming train hurtling towards him on the same track.
It could even be said that Mr. Netanyahu is the signal man who has guided the oncoming train into Israel's path.
The oncoming train is U.S. Middle East policy, and Netanyahu is preparing for a full-scale wreck.
Traditional Middle East watchers gaze in amazement: could this really be the U.S. and Israel, the region's two staunchest allies, not so much heading for, but already involved in a major collision.
The crisis which has been widely predicted ever since Netanyahu took office just over a year ago has finally erupted. And it's all out in the open.
President Barack Obama did not hold back. He condemned the humiliation of his Vice-President Joe Biden. Just when Biden was being hosted by Netanyahu (and was lauding the unflinching U.S. commitment to Israel's security), the Netanyahu government announced the approval for the building of 1,600 new apartments in occupied East Jerusalem.
Instead of accepting Netanyahu's partial apology, Obama issued a stern warning that the U.S. could not countenance such a brazen new settlement project.
Washington demanded that the Israeli leader take 'specific actions' to show he is 'committed' not only to the peace process, but to harmonious U.S.- Israel ties.
Israel cannot go ahead with wanton policies that jeopardize U.S. national interests in the region, the White House insisted.
This was followed up with a hard-hitting '43-minute' telephone call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Netanyahu late on Friday afternoon in which she lambasted the Israeli settlement decision.
Details of the conversation were not officially released, but Clinton made sure that the message would not get lost. She went on CNN Television to make public the upbraiding she had just given Netanyahu, calling the announcement of the settlement project 'insulting' to the U.S.
While Clinton maintained that she was not blaming Netanyahu personally for the settlement announcement, she added caustically, 'he is the Prime Minister. Like the President or Secretary of State, ultimately, you are responsible.'
For the U.S., this confrontation was anything but out of the blue.
Twice in the past year, Netanyahu has fallen out with the Obama Administration: first, he flouted the U.S. wish for a total settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank, then he flaunted his commitment to Jewish settlement throughout occupied East Jerusalem, including in the heart of Palestinian neighbourhoods - over Washington's strong objection that he should not do so.
There's also a historical and a personal dimension to the U.S. anger: when he was last in power at the end of the 90s, Netanyahu clashed also with the U.S. administration precisely over the same issue - Israel's settlement policy in East Jerusalem.
Back then when Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, was in his second term as U.S. President, the settlement of Har Homa (a now flourishing Jewish neighbourhood on the border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem) was the blot on the U.S. peace record.
The U.S. clearly does not want Netanyahu to 'pull off' another Har Homa in the planned new neighbourhood called Ramat Shlomo.
Back then, U.S. officials had let it be known that they regarded Netanyahu as 'unreliable' and 'devious'. The tone of the present argument seems very much in keeping with those sentiments.
But at that time, the antagonism was kept on the personal plane and Har Homa was allowed to remain. This time the U.S. is stressing the damaging political impact on their overall Mideast policy.
After listening to the scathing remarks from the State Department, Netanyahu called European leaders, including two to whom he is closest, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, to explain why he believes the U.S. is wrong in fomenting a crisis.
But, says Aluf Benn, Haaretz diplomatic correspondent, in a news analysis which led the paper's Sunday edition under a banner headline about the deepening row: 'The Prime Minister has reached the moment of truth. He must choose between his ideological beliefs and political cooperation with his right-wing coalition on one hand, and his need for American support on the other.'
While Israel ponders how far the U.S. means to take this crisis and how deep the rupture might become, Netanyahu is suggesting to Israelis to 'keep cool'.
At the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister declared: 'I read this morning the alarmist headlines. Let's not get carried away. It was an unfortunate accident, but we know how to deal with such situations - calmly, responsibly and seriously.'
He has still to issue a formal statement about Israeli policy in the wake of the Clinton dressing down. But all indications are that the Prime Minister won't be backing down.
For Netanyahu, the question of Israel's hold over Jerusalem - all what Israel defines as Jerusalem - is at least as existential a matter as the alliance with the U.S.
True that Netanyahu, an expert himself in relations with Washington, let it be known that he'd told his cabinet that good ties with the U.S. are important. But, says Israel's leading political analyst, David Landau, in his current mood and his experience over the past year with Obama, Netanyahu may not care about the implications of diluting U.S. support for Israel: 'He may have come to the conclusion that he can give up on getting anything out of this Administration.'
Netanyahu may have concluded, continues Landau, the U.S. is anyway going on with sanctions against Iran.
What is equally true, however, is that Netanyahu appears not to have much faith in the U.S. succeeding in curbing Iran diplomatically even through sanctions, however firm they may be.
For its part, the U.S. has made it absolutely clear that it will not allow Israel to go it alone in confronting Iran's nuclear ambitions. That had been the number one issue on Biden's agenda at the start of his ill-fated visit.
This sudden crisis in U.S.-Israel relations thus goes beyond whether or not the prospect of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations has been ruined.
It leaves the Middle East in a more volatile state than ever.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service