By Ted Belman
Elliott Abrams is an American diplomat, lawyer and political scientist who served in foreign policy positions for U.S. Presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. He recently wrote a major article Rebuilding American Alliances in the Middle East that is worth reading.
Essentially he recommends that the US mobilize the Sunni countries together with Israel into an alliance headed by the US to oppose Iranian expansionism. He wants the US to have Israel’s back diplomatically and to fight the BDS.
Unfortunately he can’t extricate himself or the US from the TSS. He recommends that the US and Israel come to an agreement “to limit settlement growth and keep the “peace map” intact.” What this means is to allow Israel to build in the areas that she is expected to keep. Something Netanyahu would love to agree to. At the same time, build up Palestinian institutions like Bennett recently proposed.
[…]
Just as Israel and the Arab states see their interests beginning to coincide, our closest ally in the region, Israel, has been treated as an increasingly heavy burden to the United States. From the very first days of the Obama Administration, relations have been marked by tension. The Administration adopted in early 2009 the goal of zero new construction in any settlement, to include East Jerusalem — a goal to which no Israeli government could ever accede, and a condition no Palestinian leader had ever demanded. And when the Netanyahu government refused to accede, the Administration blamed Israel for sabotaging progress toward peace. Meanwhile, by demanding zero construction as a prerequisite for negotiations, the Obama policy backed the Palestinians into a corner: How could they appear less demanding than the Americans? So years went by without any negotiations at all. Secretary of State John Kerry’s intense efforts in 2013-14 to commence talks were finally met by Israeli agreement and then rejected by PLO chairman Mahmond Abbas—yet the Obama Administration has continued to speak and act as if Israel alone were to blame for the lack of peace negotiations.
Error followed error in U.S management of the relationship with Israel, including personal attacks on its Prime Minister. But when Israeli voters went to the polls in 2015, they did not punish the Prime Minister for mismanaging relations with Washington, as might have been the result if there were bilateral tensions ten or twenty years ago. They believed the problem lay at the American end, with the President rather than the Prime Minister, and re-elected him.
Arab leaders watching these tensions emerge might themselves, ten or twenty years ago, have been encouraged to see a wedge driven between Washington and Jerusalem—but not today. If this is how the Americans treat an ally as close and as popular as Israel, what kind of treatment could they themselves expect? Instead of gloating publicly they have winced in private, for they find themselves in the same boat with Israel, now facing a mutually goading combination of Sunni jihadi and Iranian threats. The state failures in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and prospectively Lebanon, as well as in Yemen, have allowed Iran to increase its role in the Arab Middle East, and allowed it to move its forces closer to Israel’s border with Syria. The opposition to Iranian power and proxies consists of Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf Arabs, who, needless to say, lack the cohesion that Iran’s leadership brings to the Shi’a forces.
Those common, and commonly acknowledged, threats provide a basis for rebuilding the American position in the region and regaining the trust of its leaders. The first order of business should be ending the mistrust and tension with our closest friend and most valuable military ally, Israel. Consultations between its officials and our new Administration should come quickly, and public displays of renewed confidence will be helpful—not only in Israel, but in showing the Arabs that something has changed and in reminding Iran of the closeness of U.S.-Israel ties. Early discussions of the bilateral military relationship are an obvious requirement, despite the Obama Administration’s misleading claims that in this area relations are superb.
But the political side, not the military one, is where the real damage has been done and needs to be repaired. Diplomatically, the United States should reiterate that it will energetically—not grudgingly—defend Israel in all international fora. This will head off the need for some U.S. vetoes in the UN Security Council, because it will strengthen the American bargaining position as resolutions are drafted. Wielding the veto on Israel’s behalf should be viewed not as a failure of diplomacy but as a proud assertion of American interests and principles. In public and in private, the U.S. government should combat the BDS movement and similar actions meant to delegitimize Israel and harm its economy—including by adoption of new laws that deny access to the American market to those institutions and companies that boycott Israel.
The obsession with construction in settlements and in East Jerusalem should be replaced by the kind of quiet agreement reached by the Bush Administration with the Sharon government in Israel: to limit settlement growth and keep the “peace map” intact. Instead of a dramatic and unrealistic search for instant, comprehensive peace agreements (that Israelis and Palestinians alike see as improbable), the United States should focus initially on improving Palestinian life and building Palestinian institutions. Greater economic progress, more autonomy, improved security, deepened Israeli-Palestinian and Palestinian-Jordanian cooperation, and the strengthening of Palestinian institutions will pave the way toward an eventual solution. Those goals are not dramatic, but they are both necessary and realistic. […]
from the comments section:
couldnt have said it better myself
looks like BB is calling in the price of the perks and draft evasions
it is obvious to even idiots like me who can see from afar how BB installs yaalon who install Alon into positions which will defame the jews and settlers and seek to obstruct them and smear them just as they did in the very convenient fake arson commited by arabs and blamed on settlers. the convenient arson which enabled these collaborators to enact laws to lock up without evidence settlers and jewish opposition.
what sort of idiot would put a man so biased to deal with settlers and Jews a man whose wife even is on the warpath agianst the jewish settlers. Not an idiot but a sly mongoose.
So what is their claim of incitement?
it sounds like a pretty accurate description of the collective that is probably about 90+% anti semitic. it also sounds much less inciting than the arab mk’s, the wakf, the imams who call for the arabs to murder Jews and yet the BB yaalon combine locks none of them up for incitement and allows them to roam free and incite the murders of jews.
bernard ross Said:
speaking of that covert agenda and the “understandings” with the gulf arabs to which I always allude:
the shoe drops again… this demonstrates how BB takes into account his covert gulf arab agenda when he is soft on the pals, releases terrorists, does nothing about the abuse of jews at the Mount…. he does not want to harm whatever he believes he has going under the table with the GCC
However, this comment could upset the apple cart on the current “understandings”:
of course, going too far with russia could impact how the GCC helps Israel with egypt/qatar leashing of hamas and GCC leashing of abbas.
there is another issue: the us killed the secret talks that were to take place between BB and abbas probably because they want the credit and limelight for any resolution… i would not be surprised if the cia fomented this trouble so kerry could step in to claim he calmed it down…. in other words without them there is no peace…. like carter with his fake camp david credit.
LOL, kerry and obama to the rescue, they made sure to kill the abbas BB talk becuase they dont want anything happening for which they do not get the credit. Lets hope his proposals are not more than the status quo that BB keeps portraying as something worth attaining and hard to get. when something is portrayed as hard to get folks are happy in the end to get it even though they wanted more. Its like that tax money thing at the end of the long drama things go back to the beginning but the suckers think a lot happened that got resolved by the important people.
No maybes. Obama has been extorting Israel for seven years.
When is Netanyahu going to respond to Obama’s outrageous slander that Jewish intransigence has provoked the Muslim murders of Jewish civilians? Has Jewish intransigence provoked the Muslim murders of Catholic civilians? Or the Muslim murders of Yazidi civilians? Or the Muslim murders of Nigerian civilians? Better yet, has Jewish intransigence provoked the Muslim murders of Muslims who are insufficiently primitive?
Obama and Kerry are world class bigots, and someone in a position of prominence really should say it.
maybe obama wanted the “explosion” to extort concessions from israelis , scare them into giving away the homleland and the mount to avoid muslims attacking them in Israel….. the result of the Israeli left “tough love” policy which results in burned and stabbed jews. the CIA is well known for destabilization as all other major intelligence services… that’s what the “arab spring” was.
Israel needs to implement active policies which allow it to deal unilaterally with the security issues and long term arab threats internally and externally. I am concerned that BB and Israel have no plan B’s and hang all their hats on foreigners for resolution of Israels problems.
Israel must avoid being an ostrich caught in its own avoidance of realistic outcomes. It must have plan B’s for BDS, for state and UN sanctions, for removal of US vetoes. It must have a plan b for restrictions on arms sales arising from war and in internal conflicts.
an immediate policy which could move the nation forward while avoiding international repercussions is the severe criminalization of anti semitism which allows for admin detention, deportation, home searches etc. This should be a long term policy which can remove and liquidate the muslim perpetrators while everything else is stalled.
Furhter, Israel needs to take seriously to counter private BDS and state, UN BDS and sanctions to establish a serious NGO network which can intitiate suits against individuals, businesses and govs on a massive scale as the most effective weapon to fight the BDS and sanction movement. PR is not effective and has little effect on the ground. Legal warfare can have a much greater real effect and also punish defendants finacially, severely while raising money for further battles. I beleive that Israel has not seriously financed this approach becase it does not want nterference with its covert policies. E(G Israel always lobbies for not cutting off the pals funds in US congress which is counterproductive to the battle but not to Israel covert agenda, of which we are never informed.)
The designation of anti semite to the deported, incarcerated inciters will evade charges of racism, etc. The real question is whether Israel is incompetent in these areas or is willfully negligent because it pursues covert policies.(EG the current stalling of BB waiting on attacks to end by themselves instead of starting the house to house searches in hostile areas demonstrates a willful negligence the reason for which remains unexplained)
@ Bear Klein:
You must have had a “Get Out of Jail Card”.
Moderation jail. I should post bail in advance.
Ted, Our friends will not separate themselves from the TSS until Israel stops talking about it as a hypothetical solution that no one believes can happen. Bibi talks about it even though he realizes the two sides will never agree. He does this to get the International pressure at a minimum on him and so Obama does abandon Israel at the UN.
Only Bennett among the party heads talks straight forward and says he will never agree to a Pal State. The coalition agreement does not mention the TSS. Israel including Bibi are not interested in it. Lapid and Herzog still talk about it. Lapid says we need a bigger Wall and to move Jews out of their homes except for the settlement blocks.
So after twenty years of talking about Israel needs to talk about an alternative plan. 70% of the Arabs in East Jerusalem, Gaza and Judah/Samaria would want to relocate to the west according to Pal Poll done last year. Israel needs an ISRAELI plan that first Israelis believe in. Then we sell our friends in the rest of the world.
Israel needs to work on a plan and a leader who will take this as his mantle to become Prime Minister so he may legitimately claim that the public endorses this new plan. This hopefully will happen by the time Obama leaves office.
Bad news for left and right, Bennett and Abrams too. Any Israeli agreement that relies on the cooperation of Arab Muslims is just another flight of fancy and doomed to be an even bigger and more deadly failure than OSLO and the TSS.