The position of the US on the Arab-Israeli peace process is deliberately vague. In public, the US pledges its support for the process and keeps sending diplomats to discuss it as well as sponsoring conferences to revive it. But in reality, US mediation is little more than an illusion while the process itself is akin to a treadmill where your feet move but you don't get anywhere. Conspiracy theories aside, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the US wants the current stalemate to continue. That's why it's pressuring Syria, not Israel. Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was said to be willing to return the Golan Heights to Syria in future peace talks. Turkey relayed the offer to the Syrians, and not without a small measure of pride in being the go-between. What was Washington's response? A frenzied attack on Damascus. The US administration accused the Syrian regime of encouraging terror, destabilising Lebanon, obstructing peace, letting fighters cross into Iraq, and seeking nuclear capabilities. Equally disruptive is what the US administration is doing on the Palestinian-Israeli front. Not only has the US been trying to discredit Hamas, it has actively been urging both Israel and President Abbas to treat Hamas with disdain. The only possible explanation, and one that even Israeli analysts seem to support, is that the US is trying to keep tensions simmering in the region for its own purposes. As things stand, the Arabs are not just having trouble getting a deal from the Israelis. They're having trouble getting a deal that the Americans would endorse. Since the US sponsored the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, America has been determined to bring the entire Middle East under its hegemony. Either the Arabs go through Washington or nowhere. The US sees the Middle East as a war trophy, a prize for winning the Cold War against the Soviets. Inexplicably, the Arabs still hope against hope that Washington will help them one day. Years ago, president Anwar El-Sadat stated that America holds 99 per cent of the cards. Many things have changed since then. But some Arabs are still seeking a solution through Washington, undaunted by the fact that the neo-conservative policies of George Bush are diametrically opposed to the gentle approach of Jimmy Carter. If US foreign policy had a semblance of morality 30 years ago, it has none left now. The Americans have their own agenda, as some Israelis have pointed out. So why are they still mediating the peace process, thereby pushing Arabs to the wall? Because we let them.
