October 10, 2008

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

The first debate between Presidential hopefuls Obama and McCain was supposed to focus on US foreign policy and national security.  Which it did.  But it was significant for what was avoided and what remained unsaid.  Namely, the plight of the Palestinians.  In fact, there was not a single mention of the word ‘Palestine’ or ‘Palestinians’ during the entire 90-minute debate.

There is a global consensus among dispassionate observers that the core issue which has roiled relations and raised tensions between the United States and much of the Muslim world is the Palestine problem. 

The just-released paperback version of the landmark book, “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy”, co-authored by Professor John J. Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago and Professor Stephen M. Walt from Harvard University, argues that blind American support for Israel, shaped by the pro-Israeli lobby, stifles honest and open debate of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

Certainly, on the evidence of the first Presidential debate, the point of this book is proven.  Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, maintains that the shock of 9/11 shook American confidence and, because it was watched live on television, it has left in its aftermath a culture of fear which has been subsequently propagated and exploited. 

Indeed, a credible argument can be made that, but for Palestine, there might not have been a 9/11.  Suicide bombings started in the Middle East and its epidemic has now traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan where, heretofore, it was relatively unknown.  Now, it has become an almost routine occurrence. 

During the debate, it was pathetic to see the two Presidential candidates vying for the most powerful post of the world being so slavishly timid and sycophantic in demonstrating their support for Israel.  For the average viewers around the world, it was a conduct unbecoming for a great power. 

It also poses a threat to US democracy wherein a major issue is virtually exempt from critical scrutiny and review.  The founding President of America, George Washington, had explicitly warned his successors to shun passionate attachment with a foreign country, which could compromise vital American interests. 

On September 18, Archbishop Desmond Tutu presented a blistering report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Israel’s shelling in Gaza to the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva.  In it, the Archbishop condemned the international community for “failing to fulfill its role in respect of the suffering of the people of Gaza.”  He added, “It is the silence of the international community which most offends.  This silence begets complicity.”  Expanding on his comments, Archbishop Tutu held the West responsible “for its awful connivance with the Holocaust”.  He said, “The West is penitent; the penance is being paid by the Palestinians.”

After an 18-month study, a diverse group of top American leaders including Madeleine Albright, who was Secretary of State under President Clinton, has just released a report in Washington, urging a strategic overhaul of US policy in the Muslim world.  The report, “Changing Course: A New Direction for US Relations with the Muslim World”, urges that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians should be the top priority of the next US President.  Already, Senator Richard G. Lugar, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is circulating this report. 

In a stunning reversal of Israeli defense doctrine, Ehud Olmert, the recently-resigned, now caretaker, Prime Minister of Israel has concluded that Israel has no choice but to withdraw from its occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem (captured by Israel from Jordan on June 7, 1967), as well as from the Golan Heights, if it is serious about peace in the Middle East. It is the first such public acknowledgment by an Israeli leader. Significantly, the day this momentous story broke on September 29, the top-rated NBC-News ignored it on its nightly news broadcast. 

While responsible Israelis, who are faced with the damaging ground realities of Palestinian resistance, are willing to reconsider, US policy elites are not.

The fact remains that, without a just resolution of the Palestinian problem, the current direction ensures self-destruction.