Friday, February 18, 2011

Fallen Figleaf- the US veto of its own policy.

Washington Draws a Line in the Sand on Settlements -- With Palestine
By Ian Williams, February 18, 2011 FPIF
It’s tough being a naked superpower when the caterpillars munch away your fig leaf
.
In real terms it makes Chamberlain at Munich look like a stickler for principle.
The President and Secretary of State of the United States have been pleading an
d pressuring over Israeli settlements, which Washington opposes.
But who are they pleading with? Who are they cajoling and pressuring? Not the Is
raeli president building the settlements, but President Mahmoud Abbas of Palesti
ne, to withdraw the Security Council resolution which expresses the sentiment of
the entire world -- including the US -- that the settlements are illegal. In re
al terms it makes Chamberlain at Munich look like a stickler for principle.
To head off this disastrous dilemma heading to impale its Middle Eastern policy,
the US had drafted an ineffectual and in any case non-binding statement that ad
mitted to the “illegitimacy” of settlements in the West Bank, but spent more space c
ondemning ineffectual rocket attacks from Gaza.
But Abbas had no option but to go ahead and put the resolution to the vote. It w
on 14 to one, with US Ambassador Susan Rice casting a veto.
The administration was scared that it would either be forced to support its own
policy in the Security Council and thus risk an excreta tempest from AIPAC -- or
that it would veto a resolution that it agrees with and humiliate itself in fro
nt of the rest of world, including its real allies in NATO.
“We reject in the strongest terms possible the legitimacy of the continued settlem
ent building,” inveighed Rice, while ferociously condemning them as “folly,” bad for I
srael as well. However that just reinforced the international message that the I
sraeli tail was wagging the American dog to vote against its own policy.
A positive vote would have sent a serious signal to Netanyahu not to trifle with
his only protector and major paymaster. However, all Netanyahu has had to do is
to refer to the even more crazed ideologues who surround him, who will not hear
of “concessions” on settlements. But poor Abbas, beleaguered by WikiLeaks showing h
im trying to kill the Goldstone Report under US pressure and showing what most P
alestinians regard as an overflexible, indeed supine, negotiating posture in the
peace talks, is assumed not to have a domestic constituency he has to care for.
One would have thought that after Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain, this administrati
on would have picked up some hints about diplomacy, not least that diktats and d
ollars to proxy dictators does not make for stable relationships. But the world’s
rapidly attenuating super power was reduced to covering for a coalition of deran
ged rabbis, likudnik-inclined millionaires, Neocons and evangelical Christian Zi
onists in the UN Security Council.
It did so in front of a Security Council packed with most of the General Assembl
y members who have expressed their negative views on settlement over and over ag
ain to vote on a resolution sponsored by a wide geographical and ideological ran
ge of states -- including many EU and NATO members. The resolution was moved by
Lebanon, whose ambassador eschewed inflammatory rhetoric and merely cited succes
sive Security Council resolutions, World Court opinions and Geneva Conventions o
n the issue not to mention Israel’s own commitments under the Quartet’s “Road Map.”
Tip O’Neill’s dictum “All politics is local” is not always true. For a start, polls show
that most American Jews oppose Netanyahu and his settlement policy. But more co
gently, the masses of Arab citizens on the streets of their rapidly reforming co
untries bitterly oppose the settlements, and will draw their own conclusions fro
m the Obama policy.
To stop AIPAC huffing and puffing, the Obama administration is about to lose Egy
pt, Tunisia and much of the rest of the Middle East and erase the last faint hop
es of the region that the US can in any way give genuine support to democracy or
international law. The disillusionment is going to be all the more profound bec
ause of the betrayal of the spirit of Obama’s early speeches in Istanbul and Cairo
. Instead of sending serious signal to Netanyahu not to trifle with your only pr
otector, he is now confirmed in his obduracy. And Arabs and other world citizens
are even more convinced of US duplicity.
Obama also has yet another crisis coming. The UK, on behalf of France and German
y as well, promised to do all it could to welcome Palestine as a UN member by th
is September, thereby pushing yet another hot button for AIPAC -- and thus the a
dministration.
Labels: 1967 War Egyptians, Bahrain, Barack Obama, Israel Palestine, settlements
, Susan Rice, Tunisia, US veto