Financial Times Editorial Comment: Obama’s lack of Mideast muscle

Financial Times Editorial Comment: Obama’s lack of Mideast muscle
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Published: March 11 2010 20:29 | Last updated: March 11 2010 20:29
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4f41f0be-2d48-11df-9c5b-00144feabdc0.html


When Joe Biden visited Jerusalem to kick-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, all the US vice-president got was a kick in the teeth from his host, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

After a year of false starts, Barack Obama’s administration had made Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to discussions – not direct ones, but “proximity talks” through George Mitchell, the US special envoy to the Middle East. But the announcement that 1,600 new homes would be built in a Jewish Orthodox settlement in occupied East Jerusalem – just hours after Mr Biden reiterated the “absolute, total and unvarnished” US commitment to Israel’s security – led Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president, to cancel the talks.

This may have been what Israel intended, or it may not have cared what the consequences would be. In either case (and even if it was, unbelievably, a bureaucratic accident) it showed Mr Netanyahu’s lack of concern for making others trust his interest in a peace deal.

The point was not missed on the Americans, at whom this provocation was directed. In the strongest language this administration has used against Israel (and in contrast to his earlier paean to US-Israeli friendship) Mr Biden “condemned” the act for “inflaming tensions”.

Mr Obama has himself to blame. He staked his foreign policy on improving relations in the Middle East. Early in his presidency, Israeli leaders worried that US policy towards them may turn less forgiving. But when Mr Netanyahu flouted US demands on settlements last year, secretary of state Hillary Clinton blinked. Whereas Mr Biden says there is “no space” between the two countries on security, the rather wider space between the White House and Congress weakens both Mr Mitchell’s and Mrs Clinton’s hands.

Mr Netanyahu, counting on support on Capitol Hill, reckons he can win any game of chicken with the White House. He may be right that Congress will not stop aid; but Mr Obama has other levers. If he took a leaf out of the Bush-Baker book in 1991 and signalled that Israel could no longer take unconditional US support for granted, Mr Netanyahu’s domestic support would quickly evaporate.

The settlement expansions risk elevating a conflict over land – which can be settled – into an irretrievably more potent war of religion. That would end the hope for justice for Palestinians, security for Israelis, and Mr Obama’s goal of unclenching fists across the wider Middle East. It is time for him to become more muscular.