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The Choice We Face, the Debate We Must Have
Monday May 12, 2014
I was deeply disturbed last week when US Secretary
of State John Kerry, in response to criticism from former Senate
colleagues, felt compelled to walk back his warning that Israel risked
becoming an "apartheid state" if it failed to make peace with the
Palestinians. What troubled me most was that Kerry, after acknowledging
that many Israelis have offered the same warning, apologized for using
the word "apartheid" saying that "it is a word best left out of the
debate here at home." In other words, Israelis can have this debate, but
we can't.
This affair brought to mind a comment I heard from
former Senator Joseph Lieberman back in 2000 in which he acknowledged
that it was easier to debate issues like settlements and Jerusalem in
the Israeli Knesset than to have the same debates in the US Senate. The
question is, how can the US lead Israeli-Palestinian peace-making when
we can't criticize Israel or have an honest debate about their
policies?
For more than two decades now America has assumed for
itself a unilateral role in Israeli-Palestinian peace-making. During all
that time our leadership has repeatedly been tested. And all too often,
we have come up short. Our inability to pursue peace, independent of
domestic political considerations, has had dramatic consequences. Not
only have we failed to help resolve the conflict, we have also
contributed to a deterioration in the political environment in both
Israeli and Palestinian societies and to harming the image of our
country in much of the world. Even when presidents have tried to make a
difference, as many have, going back to President Ford, they have been
slapped down by a Congress more focused on short term political
expediency than protecting the long-term interests of the United States.
In the process they have repeatedly compromised our nation's stated
commitment to universal human rights and democracy.
In the eyes of much of the world, we have become like
the crowd in Hans Christian Anderson's "The Emperor's New Clothes". We
see only what we want to see, and deny what we find uncomfortable to
acknowledge. For decades, we turned a blind eye to the daily realities
confronting Palestinians living under a brutal and humiliating
occupation. Even when we did acknowledge these abuses of human rights,
we failed to demonstrate the resolve needed to challenge Israeli
behavior.
It is not merely a problem of our weakness and inability
to publicly criticize Israel. It is as if we cannot bring ourselves to
see Palestinians as full and equal human beings and to stand up and
defend them when their rights are so flagrantly violated. We decry
settlements when they are announced, then call them "realities" when
they are built. In other conflicts around the world: we defend innocent
civilians who are victimized by collective punishment; we defend those
who are imprisoned without charge or expelled from their homes without
any due process; we decry "ethnic cleansing" and other violations of
international human rights law; and we maintain that it is the right of
refugees to return to their homes and to reclaim lost property. But we
do not accept the same rights for Palestinians. We have put Israel above
the law, an exception to the rules; and we have acted as if
Palestinians have no rights at all. Nations who aren't furious with our
double-standard toward Israel just dismiss our policies with a rueful
"well that's the way the US is."
The result of this gross imbalance in our approach to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is everywhere in evidence. Both
societies have become driven by pathologies that we have either enabled
or encouraged by our policies. Israelis behave like spoiled children,
while Palestinians behave like abused children.
Listening to the debate inside Israel is as instructive
as it is depressing. To be sure, there are Israelis who continue to
champion human rights for Palestinians, but they do not have the upper
hand. Within the ruling government coalition, the dominant trend is to
reject any recognition of Palestinian rights and any acceptance of even
the most minimal withdrawal from the occupied territories. Not unlike
spoiled children, they have internalized the fact that there are no
sanctions for bad behavior. Congress will always have their back,
giving them what they want.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have internalized the idea that
nothing they ever do will be good enough to earn the support of the
United States. For them, there is no reward for good behavior. Since
Congress will never have their back, moderate Palestinian leader feel
exposed and vulnerable, while hard-liners are emboldened to act out
their anger and frustration, oftentimes in outrageous and deplorable
ways.
US military leaders, from Generals Schwartzkopf and
Zinni to Patreaus, not caught up in the mind-numbing game of our
politics have been warning us for decades that our failure to press for a
just peace continues to cause grave damage to our standing and our
ability to work with Arab allies to protect our interests.
With the "peace process" at an impasse, America has a
choice to make. Instead merely of pushing for an extension of open-ended
negotiations, it is time to decide whether we can muster the resolve to
put our foot down and speak the truth to Israelis about their behavior
and its consequences. Congress may scream and political operatives may
squirm, but if we are serious about peace then we must show the way with
decisive leadership.
Coddling the Israeli right, only emboldens them - they
know how to take advantage of an opening and play for time. Firm
pressure from America, will empower progressive Israelis who understand
the deep hole being dug by their irredentist leaders. They should be
supported in their efforts to make change. A firm challenge from America
will help spur needed debate and change in Israel.
A decisive stand by America will also empower
progressive Palestinians who are, at this point, under siege from
Israel, on the one side, and Palestinian extremists and cynics, on the
other. Moderates have little to show for their efforts and desperately
need support. With America showing seriousness and resolve, we will
strengthen the hand of Palestinians who have chosen the path of peace,
non-violent resistance, and negotiations.
Will all this come to pass? While I'm not counting on
it, I know that without such leadership, we will surely fail. If we
cannot muster up the strength to challenge Israel and play a
constructive role in peace-making, then we ought to get out of the way
and let the Palestinians take their case to the International Criminal
Court and let the world community decide how to resolve this conflict
that has lasted too long and taken too many Israeli and Palestinian
lives.
***
Washington Watch is a weekly column written by AAI President James Zogby, author of Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters,
a book that brings into stark relief the myths, assumptions, and biases
that hold us back from understanding the people of the Arab world.
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