This is a guest post by Kenneth Bandler of AJC.
The propensity of some Israeli political leaders to speak publicly or take action before thinking clearly of the consequences hit a new low this week during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit.
If Israelis were looking for reassurance that the United States is genuinely the Jewish state’s number one ally, the vice president couldn’t have been clearer. “The bond between the U.S. and Israel has been and will remain unshakable,” declared Biden. “Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel.” But, alas, there is a significant gap, on settlements, and it was an Israeli Cabinet Minister who decided to remind all with international media focused on every step of Biden’s visit.
Biden is the highest ranking U.S. Administration official to visit since President Obama moved into the White House. His arrival coincided with the announcement by Senator George Mitchell, Obama’s special Middle East envoy, that Israel and the Palestinian Authority had agreed to resume peace negotiations, albeit indirect through so-called proximity talks. An intermediary is desperately needed, and the U.S., thankfully, continues to be seen as the key power to fill that role. Surely, no one would expect the vice president himself to come to Jerusalem and Ramallah to negotiate, but he was poised to endorse this apparent progress, and prod both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas to move forward with Mitchell’s team.
For months, it seemed that the Palestinians were the ones stalling the peace process. Abbas has traveled to Latin America and Europe to muster support for a Palestinian state, but not the short distance to Jerusalem to sit down with Netanyahu, who laid out a vision for peace, and a two-state solution, in a speech last June at Bar Ilan University.
In November, to woo Abbas back to direct negotiations — and to assuage Obama — Netanyahu took the bold step of announcing a ten-month freeze on new construction. But he stressed that Jerusalem is exempt, a posture that understandably infuriated the Palestinians, as well as the U.S., and set the stage for the unfortunate turn of events during Biden’s visit.
Within hours after delivering praise in Jerusalem, Biden was publicly criticizing Israel. “I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem,” said the vice president, referring to Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s announcement that Israel would build 1,600 additional housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a Jerusalem neighborhood over the pre-1967 Green Line. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel,” Biden said.
Thanks to Minister Yishai, the tenor of Biden’s visit shifted quickly. Media focused on tensions between the U.S. and Israel, and the new construction plans became the centerpiece of Biden’s meeting with Abbas, who threatened to cancel the proximity talks even before they begin.
For now, the U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian talks appear to be back on track, though when they will begin is not yet clear. What is clear, however, is the reality that there is space between Jerusalem and Washington on the peace process, especially on the issue of settlements. It will come to the fore again. Indeed, just before Biden arrived, Israel announced approval for 112 new housing units in Beitar Illit, the fastest-growing settlement in the West Bank. This is another exemption from the ten-month freeze.
While Yishai later apologized for the “timing” of his announcement, no one in the White House can know if and when an Israeli official will again step forward to carry out the Netanyahu government’s policy to build new homes for Jews throughout Jerusalem. It is an ideological priority for Israel, but that comes as an unnecessary cost of an open confrontation with the United States. At some point soon, Israel’s leaders will need to decide which is more important.
“The United States will continue to hold both sides accountable for any statements or any actions that inflame tensions and influence these talks,” Biden stated publicly several times during his visit to Israel and the West Bank.
Let’s hope all in the Israeli Cabinet consider this core message that the U.S. wants to be helpful and means business in getting results through negotiations. Israel’s political leaders should take a cue from their own military, where discipline is essential for the country’s security, and dysfunction can be perilously costly.
What rubbish. Jerusalem is not a settlement. Biden can either accept that Jerusalem is part of Israel, or he can get out of the holy land.
The US government and state department is not a friend of Israel, and hollow words from a man who has spent a lot of his career enabling Iranian nuclear aspirations doesn’t change that.
The whole settlements as a prerequisite for talks is a joke. Israel should boost settlement building to pressure the Palestinians. Slowing down or stopping only makes the Palestinians more emboldened. When the Palestinians are ready to come to the table, begging for their state instead of demanding, they will get it.
Sorry Steven, but Israel would not exist without the staunch support of the US government and I’m hard pressed to think of a better friend of Israel. That doesn’t mean Israel has to supplicate itself before the American VP, but it’s foolhardy to provoke the country that ensures its survival.
Eric,
Sorry, but Steven is absolutely correct.
Really?? I’ll assume for the discussion that by “US Government” you mean the present Administration. Sure the Obama Admin has pressured Israel to stop construction beyond the green line and has made (unsuccessful) overtures to the Arab world. But it’s also providing Israel with approximately $3 Billion of annual aid and has worked to block Security Council consideration of the Goldstone Report (successful). As far as the reference to Biden spending his “career enabling Iranian nuclear aspirations,” you’ve got to explain that one to me.
TMR,
Readers of this blog know me as a supporter of Israel. But I have yo ask: how does your language help Israel? Why should the Palestinians have to “beg” for a state? Dont you see how this kind of language — like the tonedeaf rhetoric of the current Israeli government — only works to alienate world opinion and alienate friends?!
L
I’m sorry but on this the US has made a serious, serious blunder. We (the United States) need a peace Process in the Middle East. Why? Because our ability to get “both sides” to the table is a big, big part of our soft power in the Middle East and (not incidentally) around the world.
So Yishai (who represents the ultra-religious) made a statement about housing being built for the ultra-religious. Why? Because the Shas party is none too thrilled with Bibi who actually is not all that conservative when it comes to settlements and he’s very modern (i.e. non-religious). Bibi heard about the statement on TV.
The appropriate response would have been for Biden to have a behind closed door meeting with the powers that be and ask if they can put a lid on the Shas guy. But that’s not what happened. Biden had a sissy fit in the Knesset; the White House trotted out Axelrod (who remembered he was Jewish during the election) to berate Israel and on and on it went. With no-one in the Administration seemingly realizing that they just landed with both feet in the middle of an internal secular vs religious Israeli dispute and that, thanks to US heavy-handedness, it is highly unlikely anyone will be coming to any table within my lifetime.
Especially since, elsewhere in the Middle East (to quote from WSJ) healthy relations” between Iran and Syria, mildly rebuked Syrian President Bashar Assad for accusing the U.S. of “colonialism,” and publicly apologized to Moammar Gadhafi for treating him with less than appropriate deference after the Libyan called for “a jihad” against Switzerland.
And you know, I notice that France is in the Israeli press a lot. It might be worth remembering that when Israel was born it was France, not the US that was Israel’s best friend…
None of these developments are good for the US. We have lost a lot credibility; we will not be able to bring Israelis to any table; the peace process (which we use as a bargaining chip with all sorts of actors) is dead and buried; and there is at least one Jewish philanthropy donating to the Republicans in my home state–for the first time EVER. So health care may be dead too and if not health care then other pieces of Obama’s agenda because not only do the Dems need Jewish voted but they need Jewish financial support in what promises to be a VERY difficult mid-term election for the Democratic party.
And all this could have (should have) been avoided. What total incompetence on the Administration’s part. It’s like they’re trying to make up for doing a reasonably good job at home by completely tripping all over themselves abroad. Because frankly when it comes to foreign affairs, they leave MUCH to be desired. It started with them paying out bonuses to Europeans and got worse.
Regards,
Inna
The Obama Administration landed with both feet in the middle of an internal secular vs. religious debate. Basically Biden told the Knesset that he is opposed to housing for the religious Israelis.
This at a time that Bibi is actually trying to do something about the settlements (hence the Shas announcement). The Administration’s gross incompetence (does no-one in the White House even realize how the Israeli government works?) pretty much guarantees that the peace process on which we bank quite heavily is dead and buried.
And all because Biden, instead of having a few quiet words about Yishai and then ignoring him decided to say he is doesn’t like the religious on the floor of the Knesset. Of course it is entirely possible that Biden had no idea that he was talking about housing that was being built for the religious to “even out” housing that had been built for the secular. If so, he is even more incompetent than I thought.
Regards,
Inna
Last year, Pres.Obama called for a halt to construction in the settlements. Bibi publicly kissed him off; offered a 10 month moratorium lollipop. During Biden’s visit to encourage the start of proximity talks (PA asks for substance, Israel insists on bureaucratic process instead)the deliberately provocative announcement of construction of 1600 apartments in the Arab sector of Jerusalem. An undiplomatic blip from Shas, but also clearly telling the US that Israel will do what it wants in Jerusalem, isn’t serious about negotiations. Take it at face value, as we must what Ahmadinejad says.
So what is all the fuss about? First, the Palestinians don’t want peace, they want Israels’ destruction. They only play this negotiating game to milk more money out of the U.S. and create more grief for Israel. They are con artists of the first order.
Secondly, Israel is a sovereign nation, which wants peace so badly, that they are willing to pay almost any price for it, even to giving up some of their very precious homeland. It is a price no one should have to pay.
Finally, the U.S. is a declining power due to corruption and greed, but still the best friend Isreal has - not the government, but the people of the U.S.. The government conducts this toe dance, trying to look like peacemakers, to enhance their declining world image, without regard to the real value of friendship and justice in the world.
Yes, the announcement of the building projects was ill-timed to the embarrassment of Vice-President Biden,but the truth is, it probably only increased the payoffs to the Palestinian leadership. The talks could not truly be fruitful because one side is not even willing to recognize the other sides’ right to exist. So what basis is there for dialogue? Get real.
Mr. Bandler is, unfortunately, correct and spot on.
This Administration’s colder behavior toward Israel notwithstanding, the United States is Israel’s closest and most important ally. Further, the State of Israel would not exist without the continued support and genuine friendship of the U.S. Although Israel is a formidable regional military and economic power, it is unlikely that Israel, in the long term, could stand alone without the U.S.
As for Mr. Yishai’s announcement, what can I say? It was a ridiculous, ill advised and, ultimately, harmful move that has negatively affected U.S./Israel bilateral relations. In a word, the announcement was just plain boneheaded.
Mind you, I have no issue with the building of new residential dwellings in Jerusalem…none. Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel and should remain so. There is no question. Jerusalem should also never be divided or cease to be under the sovereignty of the State of Israel. History has shown us in black and white terms that Israeli sovereignty of Jerusalem, with access to religious sights, rule of law and guaranteed protections, is much better for all concerned.
Mr. Yishai’s move embarrassed and, rightly, angered the U.S. Mr. Bandler is also correct that members of the Israeli government, particularly Mr. Yishai, should consider discipline. I will add that members of the Israeli government should also consider the bigger picture. One does not embarrass the vice president of one’s most important ally while on an official visit.
The best that the US government could do is cease meddling in Israeli-Arab relations. They have inadequate understanding of the dynamics nor the security considerations. The peace negotiations, if Abbas truly wants them, must be only between the two parties.
Abbas is driven between two conflicting issues: (1) there is no doubt the elimination of Israel is his top priority; however, (2) he has been quoted as saying he is in no hurry to get the IDF out of the West Bank, because only they can keep Hamas from taking over.
In fact, Israel has made major progress in the economy of the West Bank, with Israelis and the government providing planning and agricultural support to the West Bank Arabs.
Many Arabs are buying housing in West Jerusalem, but no one seems concerned. The boundaries of the Jordanian occupation have no legal status, and one would think that Jews should have the same right to live in a territory governed by Arabs as Arabs have to live in Israel. Calling Israel an apartheid state is beyond ridiculous. Israel is the least apartheid nation in the whole damned Islamic world. In which Islamic nation does a Jew serve in the legislature, or serve the country as an ambassador to a foreign nation?
While I greatly value the relationship Israel maintains with the US, I disagree that Israel could not survive and prosper without US support. Israeli science and technology is vital to the US, and the preponderance of the $3B or so received from the US goes back to the US.
I remember seeing a large sign in the ocean just off the Tel Aviv shore many years ago. It read “Sleep well, President Reagan, Israel is behind you.”
Think positive, and let’s not be giving away the store.
While it is true that formally announcing the building of additional residential units in Ramat Shlomo during Biden’s visit was needlessly and carelessly insensitive, Israel has always built units in the Jerusalem periphery with or without USA’s consent, so in this respect, it is the American Gov’s denunciation, which is unusual, let alone unreasonable; they are literally intervening in Israeli politics and long-standing policy. If the announcement related to a new settlement in the West Bank - I could possibly understand America’s anger.
Secondly, while it is true that America is one of Israel’s few old allies, and that Israel could not survive without America’s support (eg, military, and perhaps economically, too), Israel is not a banana republic state of the US, nor the 51st state, and has the right to pursue what is important for itself in terms of political, moral, and physical survival. Nor did the US approve the last Lebanon war, but it was carried out regardless. Nor did the US approve the West Bank wall, but it has helped Israel curb suicide bombings and other terrorist activites.
So Clinton’s anger - while comprehensible from an American perspective - should not be translated to demands that Israel must fill out. Just as true friends can say hard things to each other (eg, US to Israel), so do true friends must accept each other’s decisions and actions (Israel’s by the US).
Further, since the rise of Obama, there have been growing hard-line attitudes towards Israel by the US, but not necessarily worser attitudes by Israel towards the Palestinians. Since the Palestinians have no leadership (or one that nobody listens to), America can place no demands on their side - only on the Israeli side. This must be contested.
The best that the US government could do is cease meddling in Israeli-Arab relations.