{"id":105939,"date":"2018-02-05T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=105939"},"modified":"2018-02-01T20:07:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T20:07:01","slug":"the-middle-east-peace-process-a-cruel-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/02\/the-middle-east-peace-process-a-cruel-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"The Middle East Peace Process: A Cruel Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Feb 2018 – <\/em>Three brief reports on January 25 concerning Israel-Palestine-US relations sum up the new situation created by Donald Trump\u2019s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital and move the US embassy there in the near future.\u00a0 First is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s absurd claim<\/a> that there is \u201cno substitute for the United States as honest broker.\u201d His notion that \u201cthere is no one else\u201d who can deliver peace is disproven by years of fruitless, one-sided US diplomacy that have amply demonstrated Washington\u2019s incapacity to broker a just peace.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu followed up his comment with a predictable endorsement<\/a> of Trump\u2019s \u201cpeace\u201d team led by Jared Kushner.\u00a0 \u201cThe thing people don\u2019t realize is these people have made their mark in markets in real-estate,\u201d he said.\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t that background be a liability? Not to Netanyahu, who managed to rationalize Kushner\u2019s phantom peace plan by saying in one breath that while peacemaking \u201cis not a real estate deal,\u201d boundary questions comprise \u201creal estate elements and they\u2019re [the Kushner team]\u2014I have to say\u2014very creative. I wait to see what they put down, but I don\u2019t rule it out,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Well, Mr. Prime Minister, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn\u2019t like a real estate transaction.\u00a0 It\u2019s a conflict over two equally legitimate historic claims to sacred land\u2014claims that Israel, however, has backed by force and repressive social and economic policies in occupied territory.\u00a0 The Kushner business-first team\u2019s experiences are totally irrelevant to those matters.\u00a0 But in thinking otherwise, the prime minister is perfectly in line with the Trump administration, which preaches peace but, far from promoting a search for common ground, overwhelmingly favors the Israeli right wing, arms the Israeli military to the teeth, and, like Netanyahu, opposes pressing for a two-state solution.<\/p>\n

When John Kerry was about to leave his post as President Obama\u2019s secretary of state, he made a searing speech highly critical<\/a> of the Netanyahu administration, which he called \u201cthe most right-wing in Israeli history with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements.\u201d\u00a0 A belated indictment, to be sure; but contrast Kerry\u2019s words with the resumption of unqualified US praise for Israel, such as Mike Pence displayed<\/a> on his recent visit to Israel.\u00a0 Christian groups as well as Palestinian officials boycotted the visit in protest of the Jerusalem decision and the notion that only one side really wants peace. Listen to Ambassador Nikki Haley saying<\/a> that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lacks “courage and will to seek real peace,” and that the US “will not chase after” the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Such a chastisement of Israel will never pass the lips of a Trump official.\u00a0 Far from it, the administration will keep rewarding Israel for its intransigence while punishing the Palestinians for rejecting US pressure.\u00a0 At the just-concluded Davos conclave, for instance, Trump threatened<\/a> that \u201cmoney\u2019s not going to them [the Palestinians] unless they sit down and negotiate peace.\u201d\u00a0 What peace?\u00a0 Abbas\u2019 spokesman declared to CNN: \u201cIf Jerusalem is off the table, then America is off the table as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of now, there is no honest broker and there is no peace process\u2014facts that prolong the Israeli Occupation and further undermine Palestinian hopes for internationally recognized statehood and a better life.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice<\/a>, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Feb 2018 – As of now, there is no honest broker and there is no peace process\u2014facts that prolong the Israeli Occupation and further undermine Palestinian hopes for internationally recognized statehood and a better life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}