Arab News Blog

Obama’s Mideast policy lies in tatters this morning and US credibility as a broker of any future settlement was deeply wounded.

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, announced Wednesday that he had been informed by Palestine Authority president Mahmoud Abbas that the latter has pulled out of indirect talks with Israel. Late Wednesday, the Arab League itself reversed its earlier cautious endorsement of the proximity talks, recommending that that support be dropped.

Israeli colonization of Palestinian territory lies at the heart of the Mideast conflict. It isn’t a complicated issue in the law, since Israel’s actions are clearly illegal and unethical to boot. But might makes right and Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East, so all the protests on legal and humanitarian grounds have amounted to nothing.

The talks were likely deliberately sabotaged by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who had his Interior Minister announce the construction of 1600 new households in Occupied East Jerusalem the day before they were scheduled to begin. In fact, Israel is actively planning 50,000 further housing units on occupied Palestinian territory. US Vice President Joe Biden had come to kick off the process with visits to Netanyahu and Abbas, but he has now been sent home empty-handed by Netanyahu’s sheer effrontery.

Netanyahu’s far rightwing coalition includes many members of the Knesset or Israeli parliament who are bound and determined to colonize every last inch of the Palestinian West Bank and to reduce the Palestinians to landless beggars. Were the prime minister to make too many concessions to the Obama administration, some of them might well pull out of his government, and it could easily fall. Netanyahu is convinced that the Clinton administration undermined him the last time he was prime minister, and he is determined not to allow that to happen again. So acted as though he was complying with US demands for a settlement freeze, but exempted part of Palestinian territory from the freeze. Then shortly before proximity talks were to begin he had his Interior Ministry announce further colonization, knowing that it would complicate or (better) nix the talks. Netanyahu knew that if he was pressed on the announcement, he could get himself off the hook by apologizing for his flat-footed minister’s poor timing. Biden did not buy this lame shadow play and neither will anyone else with any common sense.

Since 1949, the US has given Israel over $100 billion in direct aid, and the indirect forms of aid are orders of magnitude greater. That the vice president of the United States (and therefore the president himself) were ambushed by the prime minister in this arrogant and nearly sadistic manner raises the severest questions about why US taxpayer money should flow in such enormous amounts to a country that is actively and on a massive scale violating the Hague Agreement of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of populations by occupiers. And this at a time when the US budget deficit is ballooning and there is not enough government money to take care of the needs of US citizens. The argument that Israel is a security asset for the United States is undermined if the Israelis are provoking enmity toward the United States among 1.5 billion Muslims by their inexorable annexation of Palestinian land and daily oppression of the Palestinian people.

Biden took small bits of revenge on Netanyahu, such as going on Aljazeera English from the Occupied West Bank and denouncing the Netanyahu government’s plans to expand its colonies on Palestinian territory as “destabilizing.”

Obama is in real danger of seeing his allies lose respect for the United States once they see that Israel can treat him in this humiliating way with impunity. The security implications for the US are enormous. Many European allies feel strongly that Israel is an aggressor state in the region, and when Obama asks them for help in the fight against al-Qaeda, they may feel that Washington’s coddling of Israeli colonialism produced much of the radicalism that they are now asked to spend blood and treasure combating. Moreover, many leaders may be emboldened to treat Obama and Biden just as Netanyahu did, if the latter faces no consequences for his impudence.

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Reuters – An Israeli cabinet minister apologized on Wednesday after Israel embarrassed visiting Vice President Joe Biden by announcing plans to build 1,600 more homes for Jewish settlers.

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Despite a number of bomb attacks, Iraqis appear to have turned out pretty well and the elections seem to have been a sign of increasing normal life. And the media got a whole lot more pictures of people holding up fingers dipped in purple ink.

That the elections took place is encouraging, reassuring, and somewhat invigorating for those who think democracy is not in fact alien to the Middle East.

On the flip side, though, how the Parliament is configured and how long it takes to get a Prime Minister will be the real story. I’ll comment more when we have clearer results. It’s going to be a rough week on the day job and I will post when I can.

One comment on a lighter note: Although early estimates suggest Prime Minister al-Maliki’s State of Law Alliance is doing very well in the Shi‘ite majority regions, I do wish someone would tell him and his alliance that every time they use the acronym “SOL” to refer to themselves, they may be evoking a contrary message among some colloquial English (or American at least) speakers.

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Islamic Republic’s foreign minister Mottaki’s comments comes as Gates make unannounced visit to Afghanistan.
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UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown will give evidence at the Iraq war inquiry later about his role in the events that led to invasion.
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“Syria is willing to consider peace and gradual normalization with Israel, according to Gabrielle Rifkind of the Oxford Research Group, who met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in December. Speaking with Haaretz over e-mail, the conflict resolution specialist said that following an Israeli withdrawal from half the territory it holds on the Golan Heights, the two states would declare an end to the state of enmity between them as a first step.

According to Rifkind, who met the minister along with a group of conflict resolution experts, Muallem suggested that Syria was prepared to consider a phased approach to the return of the Golan Heights.

“There could be stages of withdrawal, the timing of which could involve a form of normalization,” he reportedly said.

“Half of the Golan could lead to an end to enmity; three quarters of the Golan, to a special interest section in the U.S. embassy in Damascus: a full withdrawal would allow a Syrian embassy in Israel.”

Rifkind, who is the director of the Middle East Program at Oxford Research Group and who traveled to Damascus with a delegation who had conversations with the Syrian foreign minister over a period of time, recently published an article in the Guardian on her last visit there. She says that Muallem stressed that Syria was serious about peace over the Golan Heights.

But he also said that “for peace-making, Israel needs to be ready to recognize that Syria is entitled to every inch of the Golan, but we wish to engage in talks”. “For us,” he added, “the land is sacred and a matter of honor.”

The Syrian foreign minister also emphasized the role of Turkey as third party mediators, as they have already begun working on the issue of defining the 1967 border. This line has never been agreed and the unresolved issue is the demarcation of the line on the water between Syria and Israel, in particular who would control the Lake Kinneret shore.

In talks during the tenure of Ehud Barak as prime minister, the idea was floated of establishing of an expert committee that would draw the border along the eastern shoreline of the lake.

Muallem said Turkey dealt fairly when mediating talks while Ehud Olmert was prime minister and Damascus does not wish to see their neighbor replaced. He said that despite internal dissent, Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer had been sent to Turkey to try and repair the relationship.

He told Rifkind that “Syria does not see direct talks taking place through Turkey, but Ankara could play a part in devising a formula for the demarcation line”.

He added that the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had felt cheated because they had been close to completing the delineation of the border when Israel launched its attack on Gaza.

The next stage, Muallem said, “would entail direct talks with America to address the security concerns. The key issue here is U.S. flights over the Golan in order to provide security”.

When asked about a change of relationship with Hamas and Hezbollah, he said that it will not negotiate any change in its relationship with Hezbollah and Hamas until after the Golan is returned. “Key questions, such as Syria’s support for Hamas, Hezbollah and its policy to Iran – would only be answered after withdrawal,” he said.

Rifkind told Haaretz that in the assessment of the group that met with Muallem “this is particularly hard for Israel to swallow. This is because Israel believes that Syria plays an active role in providing passage for Iranian weapons to these groups. Syria has also recently been involved in the secret transfer of mobile surface to surface Syrian-made 250 kilometer missiles to Hezbollah. It seems that one of the tragedies of the region is that an outstretched hand for peace-making coincides with increased military pressure, and this is seen to be the route to the peace table.”

She added that making peace with Syria would not be easy but could pay off in the long run.

“From a conflict resolution perspective, reaching out to Syria will involve bold steps, and experience would suggest that if Syria and Israel managed to establish an agreement on the Golan, the view from the leadership may be significantly different,” she said. “There could be a potential role for Syria as a mediator between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah which could drastically improve the chances of a long-term truce – or even a permanent resolution – between these parties.”

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AFP – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert underwent a hernia operation under full anaesthesia but left hospital hours later, media reports said on Saturday.

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UPDATE 2: India’s Foreign Minister says deceased include government officials, strongly condemns attack.
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The Foreign Minister leaves today on a five day trip to Egypt, Israel, Ramallah, and Turkey. He says the main objectives are to encourage further growth in trading relationships and to discuss regiona…
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