United States Should Step Aside as Mideast Broker

[Jefferson23]

When it comes to Arab-Israeli diplomacy the American monopoly on mediation needs to be terminated. The reason is simple. Washington’s systematic failure over several decades has disqualified it from acting without adult supervision.

Rather than the marriage counselor who must be balanced because both spouses are angry, the US is the arbitrator who sleeps with and solicits bribes from the more powerful disputant, and fixes outcomes accordingly. Given the US mantra that it cannot want peace more than the parties themselves and that negotiations without preconditions are the only acceptable formula–meaning that Israel has a veto over every decision large and small–it is high time the Obama administration makes room for the many who value peace more than occupation.

In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended the establishment of separate Arab and Jewish states in Palestine. Israel was established the following year, and currently occupies all of the territory allotted by the world body to both states. It is a reality that could not exist without consistent and increasingly uncritical American support of Israel.

Since the 1970s, the international community has routinely prescribed a two-state settlement to resolve this prolonged conflict. It took the United States until the 21st century to join the community of nations in endorsing a Palestinian state, though this never went beyond the declarative level. Indeed, the main achievement of the diplomatic process initiated by Washington in 1991 and monopolized by it ever since, has been the exponential acceleration of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. The reality is that a process carefully designed to fragment and disenfranchise Palestinians to the largest extent possible, and consolidate Israeli control over Palestinian lives, would not have proceeded differently.

remainder: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2934/united-states-should-step-aside-as-mideast-broker

[dtexdem]

1. No one's broker as the Mideast broker.

And in more than one sense of broker. ;-)

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Shaktimaan]

3. wow

This begs the question why does Washington remain so committed to extending its perfect record of abysmal failure?

So now it is AMERICA'S fault that peace has not yet been attained?! I seem to recall Clinton trying pretty fucking hard to achieve a real peace agreement. Anyone who accuses him of purposefully sabotaging the negotiations to further settlement activity hasn't read much about what happened. No one forced Arafat to abandon negotiations or to instigate an intifada. Certainly not America.

[Jefferson23]

13. The responsibility for a peace agreement is not of the US, but to be a fair broker.

Of which the United States as failed.

If you recall when Israel can't even be expected to stop the settlement expansion and the backlash leveled at Obama
from Bibi, and then the US Congress, including Democrats, said..hey, back off. If you think this and many years
worth of worse tactics than this does not penetrate the illusion that we're "fair"..nothing else that I could possibly say.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. While America continues to finance and shelter Israel, it has a duty to rein it in.

If America were to stop funding Israel and using its influence at the UN to give it carte blanche, then arguably it could step aside from trying to make middle east peace with a clear conscience.

[oberliner]

5. America also finances the Palestinian Authority

If American stopped funding Israel and continued to fund the Palestinian Authority then how could they step aside with a clear conscience?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Because the PA is not occupying another country's territory. N.T.

[oberliner]

7. Not sure how that is responsive to anything

There are two sides in this conflict - the US funds both of them.

Not sure how only funding one side and not the other would make us more impartial.

Seems like it would do have the opposite effect.

Do you disagree?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. I'm not advocating impartiality; sorry if I gave the impression I was.

As I'm sure you'll have picked up from my previous posts, I don't think that both parties are equally at fault in the IP conflict. I'm advocating an ethical approach to the conflict, not an impartial one; I think the two are mutually incompatible.

[oberliner]

24. That's a shame

I think impartiality could go a long way.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

27. It would be a step in the right direction.

But if the outside world remains impartial between a strong party and a weak one, the strong one will win hands down.

[oberliner]

29. The outside world is definitely not impartial

It's pretty clear that Israel can only count on a very small (and dwindling) number of countries (powerful though they may be) to side with them in this dispute.

The Palestinian side has a substantially larger number of allies and supporters internationally speaking.

Look at any UNGA vote over the past 40 years.

[shira]

26. There's no good reason to be impartial to, or supportive of regressive Hamas and PLO goals.

Neither is it ethical in any way to support the Hamas or PLO agenda.

It's one thing to be supportive of Palestinians in general.

But not Hamas or the PLO.

[azurnoir]

8. are you unaware that Congress is currently trying to 'defund' the Palestinian Authority

and that the Palestinian Authority receives a small fraction of what Israel does?

[Jefferson23]

10. Yea and I don't recall we ever supplied white phosphorus to the Palestinians and such:

The human rights group Amnesty International is calling on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on Israel and the Palestinians, saying both sides used weapons supplied from abroad to carry out attacks on civilians during their three-week conflict in Gaza.

The London-based group issued a 38-page report Sunday night that detailed "evidence of war crimes and other serious violations of international law by all parties."

Israeli forces used white phosphorus and other weapons supplied by the United States, killing hundreds of civilians and destroying homes, the group said.

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-23/world/israel.amnesty.report_1_gaza-civilians-as-human-shields-grad-rockets?_s=PM:WORLD

Too bad an embargo did not happen for each side.

[azurnoir]

11. The US has actually speeded up bomb deliveries to Israel in times of 'heavy usage'

such as the Lebanon campaign in 2006

U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/middleeast/22military.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Jefferson23]

12. Proves W was good at something..getting bombs delivered quickly.

:nuke:

[oberliner]

15. Not true

Percentage-wise the Palestinian Authority is receiving much more than what Israel does.

Look at the percent of the PA economy that is funded by US aid versus Israel's.

It's not even close.

[azurnoir]

17. not true that Congress is attempting to cut or withhold the PA's funding

now that is news

as to your other point let's see a dollar amount here, percentage of economy that's kind of a desperate ploy IMO, especially seeing as how Israel boasts of its booming economy and how it survived the global economic downturn nearly unscathed and the PA is quite impoverished

[oberliner]

18. No it's not

And the other point isn't a "desperate ploy" just a simple statement of fact.

[azurnoir]

19. There has been no attempt in Congress to block PA funding? n/t

[oberliner]

23. No there hasn't

Look at the links provided.

Hundreds of millions of dollars to the PA from the US continue unabated.

[azurnoir]

31. no it was not an attempt it was successful the US is halting the transfer of 200 million dollars

to the PA now one could claim this is only temporary but in fact at this time we really do not know that as I do not believe a final budget has been settled on yet

[oberliner]

32. Not true

Read the links - no transfer of any funds is being halted.

[azurnoir]

33. oh ok the funds are being 'withheld' meaning the transfer has been halted

now Obama is according to reports trying to reverse that decision, your reliance on semantics along with a total failure to provide any proof of your claims is quite telling and IMO does not make foe a 'winning' case

[oberliner]

34. No funds are being withheld and nothing has been halted

The $200 million to $250 million that goes directly to the Palestinian Authority to help maintain its institutions and pay its salaries -- already has been disbursed for this year.

The annual American aid since four years ago has increased from $500 million to $600 million.

[azurnoir]

35. so the stories are what untrue just smoke ?

we've seen them here do you have anything to prove your claims ?

[azurnoir]

36. Here is one story on the funds that are being withheld

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta attacked a Congressional decision to withhold $200 million in civic financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority during a Monday press conference.

“The administration opposes holding these funds from the Palestinians. This is a critical time and it is not a time to withhold those funds,” he told reporters during a press conference he held with Defense Minister Ehud Barak shortly after landing in Israel.

The funds had been approved by Congress as part of its fiscal 2011 budget which granted the Palestinians $400 million in civic assistance and $1.5 billion for security needs.

Then in August the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), placed a hold on $200 million in civic assistance out of that sum, when it became clear the PA planned to seek unilateral statehood at the UN. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations also placed a hold on the funds. The measure was publicized only this weekend by the British newspaper The Independent.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=240434

[oberliner]

37. Do you read your own links?

From the article you posted:

"Funding for Palestinian security forces and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency have not been impacted"

[azurnoir]

38. you've stated repeatedly that no funds had been withheld I just proved they have been

funds slated for UNRWA go to the UN not the PA

[oberliner]

39. You have not

No funds have been withheld.

Read the article you posted. Read the links. All payments have gone through. No future payments are going to be withheld.

Threats do not equal actions.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

40. They do equal attempts, though. N.T.

[oberliner]

41. True - but the poster I'm responding to wrote "it was not an attempt"

But this argument is getting a tad silly so I will gracefully withdraw.

(And also, I think I lost)

[Donald Ian Rankin]

21. Here are some links that show that it has.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=us+congress+withhold+palestine+funding&rls=com.microsoft:en-GB:{referrer:source?}&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&redir_esc=&ei=LKmoTonSEcOu8QPpsMiWCQ

And something can be simultaneously a desperate ploy and a statement of fact - I think that choosing to divide the amount of aid supplied by the size of the economy, to make it look as though Israel is getting less and the PA more, probably comes under both headings. The relevant measure is aid per capita, in which as of 2006 Israel received about 5 - 8 times as much per year (the site I link to in another post isn't updated beyond then).

[oberliner]

22. None of those links show that

If you read any of the articles in those links, they all show that hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to the Palestinian Authority continue unabated.

No "desperate plot" here. Not sure what the desperation is about. Just pointing out the fact that the US funds the PA to a very large extent.

A much greater percentage than they do Israel.

There is really no denying that.

Per capita aid is also much greater now. (Things have changed quite substantially since 2006, as you are no doubt aware).

Perhaps using 2006 numbers is a "desperate ploy" ?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

28. You've just moved the goalposts.

Earlier, you were denying that Congress was attempting to cut funding to the PA, not just that it had succeeded in doing so or that it was still supplying some aid.

If you can find me a more recent version of the table I linked, I'd be interested to see it.

[oberliner]

30. I don't think I have

I don't see where they have attempted to cut funding to the PA.

I see where they have put a temporary freeze on some of the funding - which is not the same thing.

Let's keep the goalposts where they are.

To your other point, I will see what I can find.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. That's a slightly odd choice of measure.

It implies that poorer people are less deserving of aid than richer ones.

A much more sensible measure is dollars per capita. http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/politics/us-foreign-aid.htm (which may not be accurate, but is the first hit in google) says that the US gives Israel about $3 billion per year, and a few years ago was giving the Palestinians about one fifteenth of that, to a populace slightly more than half the size and - as your figure obliquely makes clear - much poorer.

[oberliner]

25. It's quite natural

It clearly illustrates how critical the aid from the US is to the PA.

Would it even continue to exist without our largesse (and that of our European allies)?

What would the impact be on Israel if the US cut aid?

You seem to think Israel would continue to be alright without it.

[Violet_Crumble]

9. Hasn't there been times when the opposite has happened?

Where the US has continued to fund Israel while it hasn't funded the Palestinians?

[oberliner]

16. Not since the creation of the Palestinian Authority

I believe that the US has providing extensive funding to the PA since its inception.