As part of the Israeli series of blackmail exercised against President Obama and his administration, there is talk about the American offer which is being studied by Netanyahu's government to resume negotiations with the Palestinians. This offer was drafted by Netanyahu and Hillary Clinton while the American president was on his Asian tour. Consequently, the Israeli prime minister's last visit to the United States led to results which were never before reaped by any Israeli official from any American administration. But in exchange for what? In exchange for an Israeli promise to freeze the settlement activities in the West Bank (but not in Jerusalem) for ninety days, provided that this freeze is limited to the settlements whose building was resumed by Israel following the end of the previous freezing stage (i.e. after September 26) and that the Israelis are not required to extend that freeze following the expiry of the new deadline. As for the fruits reaped by Netanyahu in exchange for the “studying” of this offer and the attempt to earn its approval by his government, they are as follows: 1- Twenty sophisticated F-35 fighter jets (priced at $3 billion) for free, in addition to twenty other aircrafts that were previously requested by Israel. This is the first time in the history of the relations between the two countries that Israel gets American aircrafts for free, as it was mentioned by American diplomats and officials at the Department of Defense. 2- An American pledge to veto any decision that is not approved by Israel at the Security Council. 3- An American pledge for this extension of the freeze affecting the settlement activities to be the last one requested from Netanyahu by the Obama administration. This offer is enticing by any standard, and Hanan Ashrawi was right on the mark when she commented on it by saying that America was paying Israel with the strategy currency to get temporary tactical gains from it. But… what was the Israeli response to this extremely generous and mouthwatering offer? More blackmail under the cover of the presence of a governmental division between the moderate and the hardliners that is embarrassing Netanyahu in front of his allies in the government among the right-wing coalition parties. This prompted Obama, who is very soft at the level of the embarrassment affecting Netanyahu to say: The acceptance of the American offer is not easy for the head of the Israeli government, but its approval will send a message saying he is serious in his efforts to reach peace. It is worth mentioning that so far, none of these American offers and deals was delivered in writing to the Palestinian side, while Abu Mazen and his comrades are reading about them in the papers, just like the rest of us. Perhaps Obama's administration is convinced that the Palestinians' approval of any deal with Netanyahu is a given, although the side which is truly going to pay the price of this deal is the Palestinian side. This is firstly due to the fact that Jerusalem is completely excluded from the plan to freeze the settlement activities, and secondly to the fact that Netanyahu is capable of stalling during the next ninety days to obstruct any agreement, in light of the American pledge for this freeze to be the last one required of him. It is no longer useful to talk about the retreat of Obama's promises and commitments at the level of the necessary conditions for a just peace in the Middle East region, since such talk has fallen in the context of boring repetition. It is only useful to say that if Obama were to distance himself from the efforts to ensure this peace, it would be less damaging for the Palestinians and their interests than the Israeli occupation itself.
