In 1947 The UN partitioned land into Arab and Jewish states. In 1948 Israel became a state and the Arab land became the Palestinian Authority. The partition displaced between 500,000 – 700,000 Arabs and they rejected the partition; the parties have been fighting ever since. From a religious standpoint, Jerusalem is important to Arabs, Jews and Christians, it’s located on the edge of the West Bank (Palestinian Authority) and its potential as the capital for both the Israelis and Palestinians remains unresolved.
The US has been trying to resolve this conflict for years. In 2000 President Clinton sent George Mitchell to find solutions. In 2001 Mitchell published a report stressing that Israel halt its expansion of settlements in Palestinian territories and Palestine must prevent violence. In John Heilemann’s September 26, 2011 article in the New Yorker, he states that during President Obama’s transition the Israelis and Palestinians were at war in Gaza. Shortly after becoming President, Obama appointed Mitchell as the Special Envoy to the Arab-Israeli Peace Process. Mitchell visited Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia and found that Israel’s settlements within Palestinian territories are the subject of wide international scorn. In fact, the settlements have been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice and are supported by no country in the world. On paper, the Gaza War ended in 2009 with unilateral cease fires. Despite knowing for years what was necessary to attain peace, in March 2010 the US, via Vice President’s Biden’s visit to Israel, was told by Israel’s Interior Ministry of the building of new settlements in contested East Jerusalem. As a result of the lack of cooperation between the Israelis and Palestinians, Mitchell resigned his post on May 13, 2011.
Israel finds itself increasingly isolated, beleaguered and besieged. It’s embassy in Cairo was invaded by Egyptian protesters and its relationship with Turkey is in tatters due to its continued expansion of settlements. Activists from Turkey headed to Gaza, Palestinian militants in Gaza continue to fire rockets on Israel and as of October 30th, Egypt’s efforts to stop the firing continue to fail. On May 19, 2011 President Obama gave a speech on the Arab Spring and endorsed the use of Israel’s 1967 borders with mutually agreed land swaps as a basis for a 2-state solution with the Palestinians. The next day, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reams the President for the sheer absurdity of suggesting Israel ever return to what he called the indefensible 1967 lines. I agree with John Heilemann, Obama is attempting to make a stalwart ally see that undertaking the painful and risky compromise is necessary for peace with the Palestinians and is the only way to preserve the Zionist dream – a future as a state both Jewish and democratic. Obama’s role is not that of a callous assailant but of the caring and sober brother slapping his drunken sibling. The point is not to hurt the guy but to get him to sober up.
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas went to the UN bidding for statehood recognition, President Obama showed his disapproval. The US helped rescue Israelis from the attacked embassy in Egypt. The US shares intelligence, missile-defense development and gives Israel access to top-shelf weapons. Israel and the American Jews have not had such support from an American President in recent memory. But all of what he has done is not enough for Netanyahu to make an effort in a peaceful solution with the Palestinians. And, it apparently is not enough for American Jews either as the New York’s 9th Congressional District, one-third Orthodox Jews, for the first time since 1922, has put a Republican in office as a sign of disapproval for the President (Gallup polls shows his approval with Jews has dropped 28 points since his inauguration).
On October 19, 2011 it was reported that Israel exchanged 1,027 dangerous Palestinian prisoners who were serving life sentences for one of their soldiers (he’s the first to come back alive in years). The general feeling is that we will have to wait and see whether or not these Palestinians pose a threat to the rest of the world.
The US special Mideast peace envoy, David Hale, will meet separately on Nov. 13 with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli negotiator Yitzhak Molcho. Senior diplomats from the U.S., U.N., Russia and European Union will hold separate talks with the Israelis and Palestinians. Last week, the Palestinians won membership in the U.N. cultural organization, prompting Israel’s Prime Ministers on November 2nd, to order more settlements (2,000 housing units) to be built mainly in eastern Jerusalem and announce the withholding of millions of dollars in tax money it collects for the Palestinians. The Palestinians are demanding that Israel withdraw from all land conquered in 1967 and have refused to talk unless Israel halts settlement activity.
The audacity of the Israelis to do what they want and think that we should continue to protect and support them at the risk of losing stature with the rest of the world is outright foolishness. It’s time for both of them to realize that stubborn and self-absorbed people who do nothing to compromise make it impossible to attain world peace; they in particular are hindering peace in the Middle East.
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