Build, build, build: as Israel annexes Palestinian property to build yet more illegal settlements it seems no one has the will to stop them, writes Ayman El-Amir* Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has taken a handful of dust from East Jerusalem and thrown it in the face of Barack Obama, his administration, the American people and the Arabs. The Israeli government's declared decision to build 1,600 new housing units in and around East Jerusalem, and to confiscate Palestinian property for the purpose, was designed to test the limits of Washington's tolerance of its expansionist policy. It has been gradually expropriating what is left of Palestinian territory to forestall the creation of a future Palestinian state. When Washington reacted angrily, the Netanyahu government, in time-honoured fashion, set another test. It regreted the timing of the announcement, which coincided with the visit of US Vice-President Joseph Biden, but not the substance. When Washington insisted it was the substance that mattered Netanyahu reiterated his regret that it was bad timing, not bad policy. He wanted to reassure his ultra- rightwing coalition partners that the settlement policy was still alive and well and would be resumed as soon as the row with the Obama administration blew over. Mendacious Israel will weather this storm, as it has others, by resorting to Congress, its most compliant ally, controlled as it is by the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) lobby. AIPAC itself sent out a signal to Congress. It said the present crisis in US-Israeli relations was a matter of concern. What it meant was that the crisis should somehow be resolved in favour of Israel, or that the Obama administration must be taught a lesson for daring to disagree with Israeli policy. Upon his arrival in Israel, Biden deflated Israeli whining over threats to its security by reaffirming in advance the Obama administration's "absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel's security". He also lambasted Iran for its quest for nuclear power, a popular political theme in Washington these days. In his statements, Biden had his eyes focussed on the US Congress, notorious for spending taxpayers' money lavishly in support of Israel's aggressive and expansionist policies whenever Israel cries "insecurity". Congressional generosity has totalled $30 billion in the past decade alone. Assured of the unconditional blank cheque it expected and received from Washington, the Netanyahu government pushed its luck further. Netanyahu insisted after the weekly cabinet meeting that the problem was the timing of the announcement. Palestinians and Arabs do not believe Israel is serious about reaching the "just and lasting settlement" of the Middle East conflict provided for in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 adopted 42 years ago. What Israel wants is to steadily annex the territories between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean and populate them with imported Jews in fulfilment of the Zionist vision of Greater Israel. It started in 1969 with a dozen settlements to test the water. Israel now has 500,000 settlers planted in the West Bank and East Jerusalem while 100,000 Arab inhabitants of East Jerusalem are denied access to their city because of the barrier wall built by Israel. The UN General Assembly and Security Council have adopted 19 resolutions forbidding Israel from changing the political, physical and demographic status of the city. Successive Israeli governments have ignored them all with no fear of retribution, thanks to US support of Israel's immoral and illegal actions. To add insult to injury, the Israeli occupation authorities have blocked the access of Palestinian worshippers to Al-Aqsa Mosque and beaten up demonstrators in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Arab regimes, helpless and hapless, are adopting an attitude of wait and see. The Palestinian Authority is demanding the Obama administration, which gnashed some teeth in the face of Israeli defiance, to show more muscle. Arab heads of state, or at least some of them, are scheduled to meet in Libya on 27 March for their annual summit ritual. Overwhelmed by inter-Arab differences, they are expected to come up with little more than verbal bravado in response to Israeli expansionism and provocation. They are not short of options but of political will. It is time they made a collective decision to freeze the Arab peace initiative, adopted in 2002 to signal their willingness to live peacefully with Israel and extend their recognition to it. When the initiative was launched former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon mothballed it in a series of reservations. Arab leaders are scared of calling it off or freezing it because of potential US reaction. It is still their call. Ossified Arab regimes have long forgotten the game of power, which they last played in 1973 when they imposed the Arab oil embargo. Whether the Arabs like it or not, the Middle East region is still caught in the thralls of power-play. This has been the only game in the region since the colonial conquests of the 19th century. Colonial powers abandoned their direct military presence in the region and left it in the hands of autocratic mediaeval dynasties and pseudo-republican totalitarian regimes. Israel was created, armed to the teeth and supported as an outpost for Western powers to guard their interests. Only this can explain how an aggressive, racist and expansionist state could be declared a strategic ally of the US. It shows how and why US Middle East strategy, since the late 1980s, has functioned on the basis that Israel must maintain military superiority at all times over all Arab countries put together -- an echo of the Nazi concept of Deutschland uber alle. The US-led Western powers have raised a hue and cry over Iran's nuclear activity and conveniently overlooked Israel's arsenal of 200 nuclear weapons. The game of colonial domination continues, and not always via soft power, as was demonstrated by the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the Israeli invasion of Beirut, the West Bank and Gaza. Since 2001, the US has mobilised enormous resources to fight the global phenomenon of terrorism which does not seem to be on the wane. It has gone to Afghanistan and, under false pretexts, to Iraq, at huge cost. Some key factors are lost in the anti-terrorism strategy -- that Israel's aggression and policy of emaciating the Palestinian people are root-causes of the spread of violence in the Middle East and beyond. Arab regimes should seek to change the Middle East paradigm which has long been dominated by the American- Israeli alliance. If they had the wisdom to launch a peace initiative with Israel they should be able to pursue a strategy of dialogue with Iran, seeking an alliance in all fields. It would at least be a dialogue among equals, not with a military power that occupies Arab territories and threatens Arab states. The Western-created Shia-Sunni conflict, which some Arab regimes are promoting, should be replaced by a multilateral dialogue to resolve outstanding issues and foster cooperation in the common interest of all parties. The forthcoming Arab summit should either withdraw or freeze the Arab peace initiative until such time as Israel ceases all settlement activities and shows some serious plans for a just and lasting peace, which it has not offered so far. The pro-active Israeli lobby in Washington will work both sides of the aisle of the US Congress to twist the arm of the Obama administration and resolve the dispute in favour of Israel. Binyamin Netanyahu was cock-sure of that when he confronted US criticism and warnings by re- stating that it was the timing that was wrong with his settlement plans. Arab heads of state should have the courage to demonstrate to the US that it has much to lose if it continues its unconditional support of its worst ally. * The writer is former Al-Ahram correspondent in Washington DC. He also served as director of United Nations Radio and Television in New York.
