Close up: Other options? By Salama A Salama Tired of asking Israel to quit building settlements, Washington has all but halted its efforts to kick- start the peace process. We've seen this before. We've seen the US begin mediating on a note of optimism and then quitting, embittered and confused. It is the same old story, since Anwar El-Sadat told us that the Americans command 99 per cent of the cards in the Middle East game. Apparently not. Obama thought that his administration could do things differently from previous administrations. He thought he could force or cajole Binyamin Netanyahu into serious talks that would settle the whole conflict. He even promised that negotiations, with US help, would take less than a year. And this speech he made to the Arab and Muslims worlds. How wonderful it was! How full of good intentions for a just peace! Then the backpedalling started. And the last straw was Netanyahu's rejection of bagfuls of money and arms, just to stop building settlements. His position brought negotiations to a screeching halt. Some may say that Obama was at least honest to admit failure. Some may say that when Israel turns its back on America, despite everything the latter has done, it is only realistic to give up. Either way, instead of hope we have deadlock. Once again, the tail wagged the dog. Eventually, the Americans will start looking for other options, however ambiguous and inspiring these may be. Either that, or they'll wait for the Arabs or Israelis to make a move first. Perhaps they'll want to talk about Israel's safe borders, leaving settlements and other issues for later. All in all, we're back to square one. And Israel keeps grabbing land and displacing people, even in Jerusalem. So why don't the Palestinians look for other options? Palestinian officials keep telling us that they have a lot of options. But I have no idea what these are. They keep talking about taking the issue up with the Security Council, and a lot of good that will do, knowing that the Americans will veto any action against Israel as they've done repeatedly before. The Palestinians have truckloads of international decisions in their favour. It is implementing the decisions that's hard. The US has already turned down a Palestinian proposal to have the Palestinian state internationally recognised. Argentina, Brazil, and other Latin American countries have no problem recognising Palestine. But until America and Europe follow suit, what good would that do? It can be that Palestinian leaders have grown complacent with the financial help that keeps coming their way. It can be that they're too pleased with the political bribes they're receiving. Or that the task of rebuilding their domestic institutions is more important than thinking of the future. Perhaps it is time to revive the spirit of struggle in Palestinian hearts. But for now, the least the Palestinians could do is to restore unity to their ranks and let the wounds heal. There is no point in resuming deadlocked talks. And there is no point either in maintaining the divisive situation in Palestinian ranks. Take this. When Washington decided to stop cajoling Israel, it did that without consulting with the Arabs or asking them if they had other ideas. What does this tell you? Washington has sent its peace envoy George Mitchell to the region another time, and he will ask the Arabs to go to the talks anyway. The question I pose to you is this: Can the Americans know our interests better than we do? Do we really have to sit back and listen to the shuffling of steps, slow and tedious, between Ramallah and Tel Aviv, while Greater Israel takes shape and while the Palestinian cause suffers a slow and painful death?
