Khaleej Times
© Dan Balilty/AP
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man walks in East Jerusalem, where Israel plans to build 1,600 homes.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man walks in East Jerusalem, where Israel plans to build 1,600 homes.
Before arriving in Israel, Biden had repeated President Obama's demand that Israel cease building new housing in East Jerusalem, which it holds in violation of international law and numerous UN resolutions.
Shortly before Biden was to arrive at an 'intimate' dinner put on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel announced 1,600 new housing units would be built in East Jerusalem.
All the humiliated Biden managed to do was to arrive an hour-and-a-half late for dinner. He should at least have gotten on his plane and flown home.
How the mighty have fallen. Half a century ago, the great American President Dwight Eisenhower ordered Israel to get out of Sinai without delay or face a total cutoff of aid and diplomatic support. Israel got out.
Israel's best newspaper, Ha'aretz put it perfectly: 'Biden had to wipe spit off his face and say it was only rain.'
Adding to the black comedy, Israel's hardline interior minister apologised for authorising illegal colonisation while Biden was in town and promised not to do it again - if Biden was next in Israel. This pathetic episode shows just how strong Israel is feeling these days. It forced candidate Obama to promise the Israel lobby in Washington that he would never press Israel into a peace settlement.
Then it scorned Obama's calls for Israel to cease colonising the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and withdraws its 500,000 settlers.The Obama administration's humiliation by Israel is having loud repercussions in Washington. There, pro-Israel Republicans are elated over Obama's failure, the latest sign of presidential weakness.
Israel and just about everyone in Washington knows that Obama would not now dare to challenge Israel's many supporters in the US Congress, or enrage Israel's powerful American lobby when his administration is floundering and mid-term elections are on the political radar. The Republican Party is firmly in the grip of rural Protestant fundamentalists who believe an expanding Israel is an essential part of their Christian faith.
Israelis understand that the White House has to pretend to rebuke Israel in order to maintain good relations with its Arab allies, reassure them over the supposed Iranian threat, and pretend that the US-backed Palestinian authority of Mahmoud Abbas has legitimacy.
Biden's humiliation was also shared by the hapless Abbas, who was just tiptoeing under US prodding into more useless 'indirect' negotiations with Israel. He was left looking confused and helpless. The Arab league huffed and puffed. Back to square one.
That suited Israel's Netanyahu just fine. Israel is relentlessly gobbling up the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Its policy is to keep talking and stalling until there is nothing left to negotiate. The only power that can stop Israel's colonisation campaign, which is destabilising the Mideast and bringing the threat of war with Iran, Syria and Lebanon, is the United States.
Israel's self-confidence was shown by the assassinations in Damascus of Hezbollah leader Imad Mugniyah and the recent brazen murder in Dubai of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Israeli officials joked away this crime and dared the world to do something about it. Having just squelched international criticism of its savaging of Gaza and the UN's ensuing Goldstone Report, Israel understandably felt it could face down any pressure from abroad.
Israel increasingly believed that Barack Obama will be a one-term president. Its American supporters never trusted Obama and worried he would press Israel into concessions to the Palestinians. As Republican electoral fortunes rise, Israel senses it has carte blanche to do whatever it desires. President Obama, the only man who could have thwarted Israeli expansion, is politically wounded.
Great powers must not be seen to lose face. One really must wonder why Obama, whose two most senior advisors are close to Israel, allowed Biden's humiliation to take place. It was perfectly predictable. Stalin's favourite expression came from Central Asia: 'the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.' Israel has clearly adopted this policy.
Eric Margolis is a veteran US journalist who reported from the Middle East and Asia for nearly two decades
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