Yesterday brought us the news that the Obama administration is giving up on pressuring Netanyahu on settlements.
Are they giving up, or are they just losing their edge? Apparently, “U.S. officials said they were not abandoning the peace effort altogether, just changing tactics.” Unfortunately, “it was not immediately clear what other proposals the Obama administration might put forward.” So is there something better up their sleeve? Such a change – after all, the American focus in Israel has been dedicated to settlement freezes for almost the entirety of Obama’s reign – could indicate its abdication of the role of mediator, the recognition of the futility of the “peace process”, and the first steps towards recognizing Palestine. Or more likely, it indicates that the Israeli government has a worse stranglehold on the US than we previously thought and ever dared dream. Obviously the Obama administration realizes the futility of the process, though it’s a shame they’re handing Netanyahu this victory on a silver platter.
This settlement freeze failure is making the US administration the laughing stock of Israel and Palestine alike. Ehud Barak claimed “talks with U.S. officials over a settlement freeze had stopped because Washington was distracted by the WikiLeaks controversy and its need to focus on the confrontation with North Korea.” You’d think they’d be able to multi-task, but I guess asking one small thing from Netanyahu on top of all these other concerns was just too much. From another side, aide to Abbas, Yasser Abed Rabbo, criticized this newfound weakness of the American role in negotiations. If the US is “the one who couldn’t make Israel limit its settlement activities in order to conduct serious negotiations, how can he be able to make Israel accept a fair solution?…This is the big question now.” The illusion of America’s role as team leader in this “peace process” has been shattered, and we see now that when it comes to Israel and Palestine, as far as the US is concerned, the Israelis will get what they want.
As this is just further proof that the Netanyahu-Lieberman military-industrial complex has us exactly where they want us and we’re a fairly useless ally for peace and justice, it’s time for someone else to step up to the plate and have a go at this perennial intractability. Indeed, both Israel and Palestine are prepared for this eventuality. Barak sees Barack’s withdrawal as putting Israel in “danger of becoming increasingly isolated internationally. Israel is concerned with the success of one Palestinian tactic: persuading countries to recognize an independent Palestinian state within borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East War.”
This week we saw two members of the international community doing just this. I have to congratulate Brazil and Argentina for recognizing an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 Green Line. They’re filling a void left by the collapsing American hegemony in questions of Israel-Palestine, where previously the international community would never have had the guts to do this without North American initiative. Now that the US is effectively emasculated, Brazil and Argentina, along with Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, are coming out in vocal support of the Palestinian right to statehood, representing the popular yet silent voice of the rest of the world.
That it is these countries who recognize Palestinian statehood is indicative of a split that we’ve known about for a while: between the “European” world — Europe and South America — in their sympathy for the Palestinian cause; and the “American” world in their undying sympathy for the plight of Israel. European, especially southern, and Latin and South American sentiment is pro-Palestinian, often to the extent of being uninformed, taking the progressive/leftist line as a way to stick it to the man. And example: when I was in Greece two months ago, I was talking to an old man and said I was living and working in Israel. “You are a bad bad girl,” he told me. I explained to him that I was working for a Palestinian organization and I was working for civil rights within Israel, and he acquiesced. “Okay, you are good girl, but Israel is a bad bad country.” He is not alone in feeling this way. You only have to look at the myriad of European expats and European-funded aid projects in the West Bank to see that the prevailing popular sentiment in Europe is decidedly pro-Palestinian (whatever that means anymore). Juxtapose this with the prevailing American and Canadian official and public sentiments which tend to lean (understatement) towards Israel, and with their pursuit of these futile peace processes as the only option.
Though I’m no expert on South America, I find it completely unsurprising that these recognitions are coming from our southerly neighbors. These are countries whose popular opinion seems to shy away from the hegemony of the United States, more European than American. As influential countries on their own continent, part of me hopes this is the beginning of a massive trend which could overturn the predominance of the US-Israel(-Canada) powerhouse. I’m specifically thinking of Venezuela here, which everyone knows is not exactly the US’s best friend. What a way to stick it to the US and Israel. Brilliant. So here we have South America circumventing the process altogether, playing the game by their own rules.
A version of this post appears on a blog I run with friends, midthoughtblog.com.
