Will the U.S. Congress kill the two-state solution?
By effectively freezing $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, Congress members are surpassing the efforts of hard-line Israeli politicians.
By Bradley Burston Tags: two-state solution Palestinian state 1967 borders Benjamin Netanyahu Barack Obama Palestinian AuthorityWhy would an Israeli prime minister mount the podium of the United Nations General Assembly to rebut a historic address over Palestinian statehood, only to sound like a man running for Congress in a Tea Party district?
He opens by attacking the United Nations, calling it a place of darkness and quoting a fundamentalist leader as branding it a "house of many lies."
With studied folksiness ("You couldn't make this thing up"), he segues to a warning of "the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us." He takes a swipe at the New York Times ("better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press") and moves to a greater Gotham variation on xenophobia ("And don't forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel's neighbors").
Maybe he knows, better than we do, where his strength lies. Or, given the ensuing events, Netanyahu might harbor other hopes for the Congress which welcomed him so warmly in May.
Netanyahu may much prefer that the House be the one to kill off the two-state solution, rather than shoulder the responsibility for doing so himself.
Surrounding the Palestinian effort to win UN endorsement for statehood, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and other coalition leaders have gone full throttle in strewing threats of retaliation against Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, from rescinding the Oslo peace agreements to formally annexing all West Bank settlements and surrounding areas to Israel.
So far, though, the threats have been little more than gratuitously nasty campaign fodder directed at hard right voters.
But as Israel celebrated the long new year's weekend of Rosh Hashanah, members of the U.S. House, in their zeal to punish the Palestinians, have left their Israeli counterparts in the dust.
Congress, effectively freezing $200 million in humanitarian aid, as House sources put it, "until the Palestinian statehood issue is sorted out," may have taken its first step toward crippling the Palestinian Authority and scuttling the possibility of a two-state solution.
More may follow. Holding out the threat of a complete cut-off of the some $600 million in U.S. economic and security aid to the PA, the ranking Democrat on the House Middle East Affairs subcommittee, Gary Ackerman, took a tone worthy of Lieberman and Steinitz.
If the Palestinians, he said, "are willing to consider putting their future in the hands of the United Nations, perhaps they should think about how much aid their friends at the United Nations will provide to accompany whatever meaningless, one-sided UN resolution they might pass."
"Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle are falling over one another to show their support for Israel," the Forward's Natan Gutman wrote of the Congressional step. "Most observers, however, believe the move is more about political grandstanding than serious policymaking."
With respect to grandstanding, Netanyahu's role in the reported aid suspension remains unclear. Though he has interceded on the PA's behalf for aid in the recent past, he is now likely to score points with hard-line Israeli voters and U.S. Jews convinced, rightly or not, that Congress would not dare take action without consulting with the prime minister called by the New York Times a "singularly influential lobbyist."
The Congressional freeze comes at a time when IDF officers have been unequivocal in praise for the cooperation of, and the crucial role played by, Palestinian Authority security forces, in curbing violence in the West Bank.
American training and funding of PA units have played an important role in this regard. The freeze leaves security aid intact, for the present. Ironically, settlers, whose safety is dependent on IDF-PA cooperation, have been leading the charge to cripple and suffocate the Authority.
The suspension of aid also comes at a time when Abbas and the PA have made substantial gains in Palestinian public opinion versus the maximalist, Iran-leaning Hamas. It comes at a juncture when Hamas leaders are achingly keen to exploit any substantive, perhaps fatal undermining of the Authority, and certainly, any damage done to the two-state option by members of the House, of all people.
And it comes at a time when the Israeli public seems uniquely ready to put any peace process on hold, not out of desire to retain the settlements of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but due to a stark loss of belief in the possibility of ever forging an accord with the PA. The shift in public opinion – in effect, fulfilling Benjamin Netanyahu's dream of dreams - expressed itself in polls published at the weekend.
Pollster Mina Tzemach, conducting a survey for Yedioth Ahronoth, found that 66 percent of Israeli Jews do not believe that there will ever be peace with the Palestinians. The same poll found that 45 percent of Israeli Jews fear for Israel's continued existence.
Completing Netanyahu's hat trick, fully 88 percent of the respondents said that Israel was a good place in which to live.
How does Tzemach explain the results? One factor may be the Israeli perception of life in the Middle East as a whole, she told Yedioth. "The good mood may stem from the Israeli citizen peering at the other nations surrounding him. When he draws a comparison, things look less horrible."
Overall, she observes, "People are withdrawing into themselves," noting that she herself cannot recall a poll that yielded such apparently paradoxical figures.
"As a defense mechanism, we make a separation between our personal lives and what is going on in the country. We're completely aware of what is happening here, but we don't let that influence us. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to live here."
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, Sept. 23, 2011. |
| Photo by: AP |
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There is really no practical alternative, short of continued conflict or a mass slaughter of one side by the other.
2-State solution has been dead since the begining, first w/ arafat and second w/ Abbas. It's nice when they say we want peace in english then say in arabic that the 1967 borders are just the first step in ending Israel....I rest my point
that has seen my tax dollars go to an organization that has killed scores of U.S. citizens, I say it is about time. Let Bradley Burston contribute money to the PLA/PLO if he wants to. We taxpayers in America are getting fed up with funding our enemies.
The two-state solution has been dead for some time already. Bibi can't hurt it anymore. Now its time for people to realize, and start demanding from the last colonial regime the only solution left: democracy for all people under Israeli authority. One man, one vote, one State.
Basically the United States is justifying Al Quada position as moral!
Looks like you lost both the money you paid UNTIL the critical moment to the Palestinian Authority and the influence on the Palestinian Authority ON the critical moment. Thanks to the forum of redneck hillbillies called American Congress.
Congress would have to agree on a budget. The chances of that are slim. And they would have to agree on some detail, chances slimmer. Dems and Reps don't talk to each other, just at each other. And the Tea Party would rather that the world economy crash rather than see anything work - especially any American worker. Might they agree to slow or stopping aid to the Palestinians, sure, but only with hell freezing over.
It only supports terror and lies. First get to the truth, then help honest people have a better life.
The US is broke financially and politically. The Congress is for sale so foreign policy is difficult to develop and/or uphold. It is time for this past superpower to start sharing responsibility for world peace with its allies. Now that the EU has grown to encompass most of Europe, American involvement in the EU backyard is actually impeding their own growth, like an adult son who remains infantilized when Mom keeps taking all responsibility. The US should leave the Mediterranean protection business to Europe and get the Sixth Fleet dismantled. It will be enough for the US to take care of the Persian Gulf with its necessary oil supply. It will also be good for all the little sucklings of the Med basin to grow up and support themselves. Israel is not as mired in debt as the US and does not need US welfare payments. Egypt and Jordan, and even the Palestinians, should also learn to take care of themselves.
It is indeed inexcusable that American congressional representatives have so obviously been bought, and even worse, that they CAN be bought by a foreign government on an issue which goes against American values and interests.
myself with palestinian origins couldn't ask for more, it's all a matter of patinece, when no other solution is available the 1 state will be the only one on the table
If the American congress does not fund the Palestinians basic need, then someone else will. This will take away the only leverage and sign of goodwill that America has with the Palestinians. How does this help America's supposed goals of finding peace? The congress is simply acting as paymaster for Israel who, as we all know, does not like the idea of giving money to any Arabs for any reason.
Their goal is to establish a state without any peace agreement, without security arrangements for Israel and without dropping the demand to flood Israel with millions of Arabs.
Has everyone forgot the King David Hotel ? I mean you say Terrorism , Terrorism.....but your state would not exist without Terror....talk about the POT calling the kettle black!!
Israel should be ashamed of themselves....simple as that.....poor me, poor me....constant moaning and groaning.......people are sick of your poor mouth!!
Abbas should make a speech disbanding the PA and end with "Hello, Lieberman, my fellow Israeli." That was there'd be one state and Abbas and the PA could change the character of Israel from within. Lieberman's worst nightmare. It would be even tougher to defend racial segregation.
Israel as the occupier naturally. Occupation of Palestine has been possible only because the outsiders have paid the costs. Do we pay the costs of Kashmir or Tibet?
Netanyahu does not think through his arguments, so thinking people can see very clearly his phoniness. An outstanding example was given to the world in his UN speech. In an attempt to prove to the world the deep historical connection between the Jews and the Land of Yisrael, Netanyahu mentioned that he has in his office a scribal seal, found near the wall of the Temple Mount, the name on the seal being "Netanyahu", just like his last name. Our Yahoo did not bother to mention that his father, Prof. Ben Zion Netanyahu, was born Benzion Mileikowsky, and later in life changed the family name to Netanyahu. This of course kills Yahoo's argument. He would need to find a scribal seal with the name "Mileikowsky" in order to claim ancient relation, but this is not likely to happen... I don't know if Netanyahu is: a) stupid; b) believes the rest of the world is stupid; or c) just fails to think things through. Most likely is d) all of the above.
He was refering to the fact that members of his ethnic group were there in ancient times. He did not say that he personally was a direct decendant.
Congress does what Netanyahu tells them to do. Netanyahu has no intention of allowing a two-state solution.
Congress, which cannot even put together a budget for the government to continue, cares about their voters (wow, you're ... you're honestly saying that?), and doesn't care for the foreign minister who, hours after belittling their own president, received standing ovations over 20 times on Capitol Hill? I think we all know who Congress works for, and it ain't voters.
The special problem of an ignorant who offers opinions in the area of his ignorance is that he is also stupid... Try to translate the word AIPAC into Russian, and let this be the beginning of a long road of education for a real ignorant.
Israel, as is=insures U.S. access to M.E. oil & refinancing via Petro dollars. 2 states, changes the paradigm, risks elevate. 1 state, leads to Islamic state- Iran power. Iran in power, increases U.S. access cost to oil. If sold in dollars, likely obstructing petro-dollar refinancing. If sold in gold, need we talk? Notwithstanding new Iranian influence over Gulf. eg: Saudi & Gulf states would fall under Iranian influence and without petro dollar refinancing and forced to retake the region, the U.S. would be fighting an unaffordable expense in a very broad theatre without any effective trustworthy ally to rely upon. That's why~ so called Palestinians are not going to ever see a so called Palestinian state. The 'solution' to this problem is reversing the British 1920 plan of importing the Saudi Hashemite King to Trans-Jordan, who expelled these so called Palestinians. They originated from Trans Jordan area.
I support your statement but there is one flaw in procedural logic. No nation needs the approval of another to be called an independent nation. This flawed idea emanated from the servile nations Britain and France enslaved. But any homogeneous ethnicity can declare thei independence and fight to retain it. Palastine must do the same . Fight the settler pilgrims and force them from their land. god gave you that right.
What you want is called "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide". It's a crime against humanity. BTW, that's a legal term. That makes you a wannabe criminal. Does that make you happy? Also, many Palestinian families have lived in their present villages for centuries. In fact, many are decended from Jews who changed their religion, and so their ancestors lived in the area two or even three thousand years ago. Finally, after the Iraq War, can you imagine the US invading any ME state again? It's a ludicrous idea. Israel is not a US asset in the ME - it's a liability.
Yes, bad things happen in this Land, but that is the price we are willing to pay to stay true to our Jewish values and history. It's actually not that complicated -- when you are still connected, that is...
This is all a charade, Bradley. The only thing that can possibly happen to end the conflict is a South African type rapprochement and a permanent, multi-ethnic, mulch-religious secular state that protects minority interests. Otherwise, Israel will fall as soon as it loses its bigger suitors. Under this trajectory, that's less than 10 years.
thats a great idea Palestine starting in Jordan....all the way to the sea! Kazahrs back to asia and the usa, I am sure they love to have you there!