UK sends military chief to China for first visit in 10 years    General strike hits transport in Argentina    Israel releases Palestinian prisoner controversially arrested aged 13    At least 221 dead after Dominican Republic nightclub disaster, as search for survivors ends    Scarlett Johansson hitting Cannes both on-screen and behind the camera    Saudi Organ Center saves 8 lives through coordinated donor recoveries in 12 hours    AlUla joins IMD World Smart Cities Index 2025    Riyadh's Malham Airport designated for general aviation operations    Crown Prince receives calls from British PM and French President    Saudi, U.S. foreign ministers discuss strategic ties and regional developments in Washington    Al-Jadaan: Arab countries must measure the impact of increasing financial pressures    Saudi Arabia to resume direct flights to Syria soon    Flights and ferries suspended across Greece as unions call 24-hour general strike    Saudi Arabia's Industrial Production Index down 0.2% in February    Sabiri strike gives Al Taawoun narrow first-leg win over Sharjah in ACL Two semi-final    Douglas Gauthier appointed CEO of the Royal Arts Complex in Riyadh's King Salman Park    Nightclub collapse kills 79 in Dominican Republic's capital    Women make up 20% of e-sports players in Saudi Arabia    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Saudi U-17s qualify for 2025 FIFA World Cup after win over Thailand    Benzema rescues Al Ittihad with stoppage-time equalizer in thrilling Jeddah Derby    Veteran Bollywood actor Manoj Kumar dies at 87    Bollywood actress vindicated over boyfriend's death after media hounding    Grand Mufti rules against posting prayers and preaching in mosques on social media    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Excessive American Kindness
Published in AL HAYAT on 24 - 09 - 2009

The first conclusion one can draw from the tripartite summit which brought together Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas in New York, as well as from the US President's speech before the United Nations General Assembly, is that US diplomacy, which promoted a climate of optimism during the past few months and expressed its desire to play an active and positive role in resuming peace negotiations on balanced bases, was quick to abandon such a role with the emergence of the first difficulties, and has retreated to a position of spectator of an imbalanced “arm wrestling match” which, if it were to begin, would only lead to consecrating a reality which negotiations should be aimed at changing.
Indeed, the pressures which the Palestinians and Arabs were hoping for the new US Administration to exert on Israel to resume talks on the basis of a minor correction in the tremendous imbalance of power between it and the Palestinian Authority, one based merely on a temporary freezing of settlement-building, completely disappeared when they were confronted with the real Israeli stance, different from the talk of wanting peace, and turned into mere pleas “to show flexibility, common sense and sense of compromise”.
In other words, the Israelis have succeeded in “neutralizing” US efforts, curbing their momentum and reducing the effects of the “new approach” to the crisis in the region, after they had first tried to confine them to demanding the price of normalization from the Arabs in exchange for obscure promises. The Arabs asserted that attempting to achieve peace based on confidence-building measures “has not succeeded over the past three decades and will not succeed today”, thus thwarting Israel's desire to put the carriage before the horses. It later appeared that the Hebrew state was not willing to facilitate any discussion over final situation issues, and especially Jerusalem, before completing the changes on the ground, in terms of expanding existing settlements and preparing to appropriate more Palestinian lands, and such as to cancel out in advance the possibility of obtaining any “concessions” from its side.
The message addressed by Saudi Arabia to members of the US Congress over the peace process provides a clear summary of Israel's method of procrastination and buying time: the number of settlers was five thousand when the Camp David Accords were ratified between Egypt and Israel in 1979; when the Madrid Peace Conference was held in 1991, the number of settlers had risen to one hundred thousand; and in 2007, when the Annapolis Conference was held in the United States, that number had increased to two hundred thousand settlers. Thus the number gradually rises with each step of the steps of “peace”, as each one cancels out what had previously been negotiated over.
Successive US Administrations have in the past exerted pressure on Tel Aviv to drive it to negotiate, and have used to do so the guarantees of loans to Israel from US banks (it obtained nine billion dollars from the Bush Administration at the height of the 2002 Palestinian intifada), which have been and continue to be allocated to supporting settlement-building and erecting the separation wall, and there is more than a billion dollars left of them until 2011.
Despite the fact that freezing guarantees and threatening with them has in effect led only to limited results which Israel quickly retracted, Washington is able, if it decides to abandon its “excessive kindness”, to make use of multiple means of pressure with which it can “convince” Netanyahu to pave the way to resuming negotiations, if one were to take into consideration the strategic bonds between the two countries.
Some in the Obama Administration might say that failure to impose a “simple” procedural matter like temporarily freezing settlement-building would become acceptable if starting direct negotiations over final situation issues was permitted, but they would thus be ignoring the vital link which the Israelis make between settlement-building and security, making it impossible to come to a decision over these issues without abandoning it.


Clic here to read the story from its source.