In a speech on May 22, 2011, given to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, President Barack Obama said that the ties between the United States and Israel are "unshakable" and "ironclad." Three days before that speech, Obama had laid down some markers for a peace accord between the Israelis and the Palestinians:
1. The time to press for a peace accord is now, not some time in the indeterminate future.
2. Putting forward American parameters for bilateral talks is not an imposition on the parties. The parameters are essential terms of reference for successful talks.
3. The starting point for talks about mutually agreed-upon territorial swaps must be the 1967 lines.
4. A peace accord must provide credible security arrangements for both parties and "full and phased" withdrawal of Israel's military forces from the West Bank.
Early in his presidency, Barack Obama gave every indication that he would make the termination of any further Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and Jerusalem a keystone of his Middle East policy; however, Israel has continued to build settlements without incurring any effective counter-action on the part of the United States. Vice President Joe Biden's arrival in Israel in March 2010 was greeted with word that Israel would be building 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem. Instead of just expressing disapproval of Israel's continued settlement building, the United States should have made the sending of any more aid to Israel contingent on the end of settlement building.
It was reported that during Biden's March 2010 visit, he excused Israel's horrific destruction in its air raids on Lebanon and the excesses documented in the Goldstone report on Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip. It was in April 2011 that UN Ambassador Susan Rice said she wanted the Goldstone report to "disappear." The report by Judge Richard Goldstone found that it was Israel's indiscriminate use of force that broke international law.
Obama reacted mildly to the Israeli commando attack on a Gaza humanitarian ship in international waters by deploring the loss of life and calling for an investigation. There was almost universal international condemnation and Obama's mild reaction to one ally, Israel, risked a serious rife with another ally, Turkey, whose government and people were incensed by the Israeli raid.
It is appalling that the U.S. should not have roundly condemned Israel for its massive overreaction in Lebanon to the taking of two of its soldiers. Furthermore, the U.S. should have demanded that Israel assist monetarily in the rebuilding of a heavily damaged Lebanon or withhold aid that it was planning to send to Israel.
In regard to the well-documented and even-handed Goldstone report, which cited both the Palestinians and the Israelis for war excesses, instead of trying to make the report "disappear," the U.S. should have commended and supported Goldstone for his valuable public service.
The subject of the Goldstone report was the December 2008/January 2009 assault on the Gaza dubbed "Operation Cast Lead" by the Israeli military. According to the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, "Operation Cast Lead" destroyed over 14,000 buildings in the Gaza Strip, including schools, mosques, hospitals, civil administration buildings and homes. The 22-day-long conflict left 71,675 Palestinians homeless.
U.S.-supplied F-16s, Hellfire missiles and ammunition were employed in the assault, in spite of stipulations that such military hardware not be used in offensive operations.
The next blog will focus on Israeli violations of international law, especially its use of banned weapons of war.
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