Here’s an interesting if gag-producing piece by David Horovitz, the editor of the Jerusalem Post, on how the relationship between Israel and the U.S. has chilled. The piece seeks “bitterly, to underline” how the romance between the countries has ended. And how the U.S. and Israel are now somewhat adversarial.
But first the gag. Throughout the piece Horovitz says that Palestinians must be guided toward sovereignty by Israel and the U.S. And the arrogance and condescension of these statements are utterly unconscious on his part. Can you imagine India suspending Pakistan in statelessness for the last six decades (yes, after mutual murderous hostilities) and lecturing the Pakistanis about when they will be ready for sovereignty? What is the effect of holding out the idea of “land for peace,” which Horovitz regards as a good faith effort on Israel’s part, for 20 years and producing only more dispossession? How can you laud the peace process, as Horovitz does, when it has produced only an absence of rights for 4 million people?
Yes, Israel is losing the American elites, but it is because they are waking up to the effect of this sham on American foreign policy. Walt and Mearsheimer’s paper was the first blow. There have been many since. Horovitz:
Much more troubling, however, is the growing sense in these past few weeks that the shared interests and values that constituted the basis for those earlier, heartfelt personal relationships is crumbling. As our two leaderships have haggled (and that, unfortunately, is the only word for it) over the terms of a new settlement freeze, our alliance seems to be shriveling into a cold, adversarial contest.
In the past, guiding the American-Israel approach to peacemaking with the Palestinians was a wealth of shared goodwill and historical precedent. We were partners, trying together to find the balance of carrots and sticks…
At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, what seems to have been overlooked here is that these were negotiations between Israel and the United States, not Israel and the Palestinians. These were negotiations, that is, between two parties that, until not very long ago, used to sit on the same side of the table – figuring out how best to entice the recalcitrant Palestinians toward peace. Now we are sitting across the table from each other. And the Palestinians, the people who used to be on the other side of the table, the people who walked out of the direct talks two months ago just as they have ultimately walked away from every serious Israeli peace offer are not even in the room. They are proceeding sedately toward statehood, with growing confidence that they can attain independence without the necessity of reconciliation.
