In attacking the Freedom Flotilla, Israel alienated all of Washington's so-called moderate allies in the region, writes Nicola Nasser* The attack in international waters in the early hours of 31 May by an elite force of the Israeli navy on the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara has cornered the United States in a defensive diplomatic position. Crammed with more than 700 international activists, including several Americans, and carrying 100 tons of cargo, including concrete, medicine and children's toys, while leading five smaller vessels of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the attack -- codenamed "Operation Sky Wind" -- left eight Turks and a US citizen of Turkish origin dead, and several others wounded. Containing angry Arab reaction and adverse repercussions on Arab-US relations was most likely on the agenda of US Vice- President Joe Biden's meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday. However, Biden is the least qualified to allay Arab anger in being the most vocal among US officials in "legitimising" Israel's aggression. The Gaza flotilla episode has dispelled any benefit of doubt Arab allies gave to President Barack Obama's promises of change in US foreign policy in the region. Regaining Arab confidence needs more than visits by US officials, whether by Biden or anyone else, because at the end of the day politics is not about good intentions but rather good deeds, according to veteran Egyptian political analyst Fahmy Howeidy. The head of the Israeli Mossad, Meir Dagan, was more to the point when he said last week that, "Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden." Earlier this year, CENTCOM Commander General David Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that, "Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in CENTCOM's area of operations and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world." Israel seems determined to complicate Petraeus's mission further. Indeed, Washington has found its diplomacy fuelled anti-Americanism while the US administration has been working, or so it says, to defuse and contain the same. Additionally, the flotilla attack has created a snowballing conflict between Israel and Turkey, traditionally the former's only regional friend, a key regional power, a NATO member, a US ally, and hopeful of EU membership, as well as allied with the camp of Arab and Palestinian "moderates". "That's it, Israel. Put your best friend on the spot, with stupid acts of belligerency, when hundreds of its sons and daughters are dying fighting your avowed enemy. It is time Israel realised that it has obligations to the United States," wrote Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the mainstream Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington (CSIS). Stephen Walt, a Harvard international relations professor and co-author of the 2007 book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, agrees. Meanwhile, opposition leader Tzipi Livni "personally" presented to the Israeli Knesset a no-confidence vote in Binyamin Netanyahu's government on Monday because, "the current government doesn't represent the state of Israel to the world" and hurts "ties with the United States". Trying to defuse the repercussions of Israel's blunder, the US leaned on Israel "quite a lot" to release hundreds of Turkish peace activists who were onboard the Mavi Marmara, Turkish Deputy Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Selim Yenel told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. Disrupting US regional strategic plans was the second US interest threatened by the attack. Both sides of the Arab and Turkish US alliance find themselves now on the opposite side of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which was on the verge of a historic breakthrough on the basis of the US-sponsored "two-state solution". The US-led Middle East camp seems now fractured and divided. The opposing camp, led by Iran and Syria, seems more confident and united. Washington appears to have lost the initiative in the region thanks to Israel initiating a conflict with US moderate allies. Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa said that "everything" is now "hanging in the air". Indeed, the emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on 2 June was in direct opposition to the US stance vis-à-vis the Israeli attack, in terminology, perspective and demands, but especially as regards US- Israeli justifications for continuing the blockade of Gaza. To make their message for lifting the siege clear, Moussa was scheduled to visit Gaza next week. Without naming the US, Arab ministers stressed that the continued support to Israel "by some states" and giving "immunity" for its disrespect of international law, "is a precedent that threatens the whole international system... [and] is a big political mistake." They reiterated that the Arab Peace Initiative "will not remain on the table for long". Some 60 per cent of Arabs now believe Obama is too weak to deliver a peace agreement, according to a recent poll conducted by YouGov and quoted by The Christian Science Monitor on 4 June. Meanwhile, even the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- a bastion of Arab "moderates" -- condemned in a statement the Israeli attack as an act of "state terrorism". Kuwait, a GCC member that hosts some 20,000 US troops in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom -- had 16 citizens onboard the Mavi Marmara. In a vote by consensus, the Kuwaiti parliament recommended withdrawing the Arab Peace Initiative. With Iran across the Gulf and the explosive situation across its northern borders with Iraq, the echo of General Petraeus's warning reverberates loud. A NATO ally, Ankara also found itself in a head to head diplomatic clash with the US in the UN Security Council, at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, and at the emergency meeting of NATO where Washington acted as Israel's mouthpiece and defence attorney. Turkey is now for the first time experiencing US double standards, of which the Arabs have been victim for decades. It is noteworthy here that Turkey and Greece have set aside their historical hostility towards each other to publicly diverge from Washington in its defence of the Israeli siege of Gaza. "The US response to Israel's disproportionate use of violence against innocent civilians constitutes a test case for US credibility in the Middle East," wrote Suat Kiniklioglu, the Turkish ruling party's deputy chairman. In addition, according to Marina Ottaway of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "there has been a harsher than normal response from European countries. This could potentially reopen US tensions with Europe that developed during the Iraq war and have slowly begun to heal under the Obama administration." Is all of this the result of an unintentional Israeli tactical mistake? Israel knows very well that its belligerency has been all along the main source of anti-Americanism in the region. The US knows it too. By escalating militarily and responding disproportionately, the extremist rightwing government of Israel is acting with premeditation to confront an erstwhile growing consensus on a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict; a consensus that might otherwise have pressured it into yielding to the dictates of peace. US traditional pro-Israel diplomacy has all along been playing in the hands of Israeli extremists, but this time against declared strategic US interests. Iran had no role in the Freedom Flotilla. The peace activists involved were predominantly Turkish and European. Among the Arabs involved, major input came from Kuwait, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen -- all US allies. Even Syria, which is accused of being an ally of Iran, kept a relatively low profile and had no role in the mission. Israel can in no way authentically claim the flotilla had any Iranian connection. Neither would the organisers allow such a role. The Associated Press quoted Free Gaza Movement cofounder, 69-year-old US-born engineer Greta Berlin, on 4 June as saying the group has shunned donation offers from Iran, and that the group doesn't accept donations from radical groups or states. Similarly, the de facto government of Hamas in Gaza shunned a suggestion by Iran's Revolutionary Guards to provide "protection" for future flotillas. * The writer is a veteran Arab journalist based in Birzeit in the West Bank of Israeli- occupied Palestine.
