Jun 25th 2013

Kerry's Challenge

by James J. Zogby

Dr. James J. Zogby is the President of Arab American Institute
Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the Middle East this week as part of his continuing effort to launch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. It will be his fifth visit in just three months and, despite the Secretary's best efforts, prospects for a breakthrough remain bleak.

While the Palestinian side remains in some disarray (more on that later), Kerry's real challenge, I believe, will be to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be more honest about his real intentions. That will not be an easy lift, since being forthcoming has not always been Netanyahu's strong suit. In fact, during his career he has been known by friends and foes alike to be a bit of a dissembler and a maneuverer.

During Netanyahu's first term as Prime Minister, then President Clinton found dealing with him to be quite maddening. I recall the famous comment of Uri Avnery, the Israeli peace activist and former Member of Knesset, upon hearing that Clinton had invited Netanyahu to negotiations at the Wye Plantation. Avnery said, "Netanyahu will either say 'No' and not go; or he will say 'Yes' and not agree to anything; or he will go, agree, and not implement what was agreed upon". Avnery's observations were on target. Netanyahu chose the third option. 

With his return to the post of Prime Minister, in the early days of President Obama's first term, Netanyahu found himself being pressed by the new and quite popular US President to agree to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. This was a tall order for Netanyahu, who during his time as Israeli spokesperson at the Madrid Peace Conference refused to refer to the Palestinian delegation by that name, instead insisting on referring to them as "Jordanians". But, as he has been known to do, Netanyahu bowed to Obama's pressure and delivered a speech in which he appeared to accept the two-state outcome. In the weeks and months that followed, his behavior spoke otherwise. After a few skirmishes with Obama over settlement construction and Palestinian home demolitions and a major confrontation over the US President's declaration that the basis for Israel-Palestinian negotiations should be the 1967 borders with "land-swaps"—which Netanyahu won, with the backing of a fawning US Congress—no further efforts were made to advance peace until now.

Both Obama and Secretary Kerry began the President's second term with a renewed push to start negotiations leading to a two-state solution noting that with the growth of settlements and other construction in the occupied territories time was clearly running out on the possibility of creating a viable Palestinian state. 

Netanyahu has maintained the appearance of being a willing partner in this endeavor urging the Palestinians to come forward to negotiate with him, as he famously insists, "without preconditions". But there are clear signs that these appearances are deceiving.

Just last week Netanyahu's gamesmanship was exposed following the issuance of a joint statement after his meetings with his Polish counterpart. The statement read, in part, "the two governments [Israel and Poland] agree about the urgent need for progress toward a two-state solution" adding that both Israelis and Palestinians should avoid "unilateral steps...[that] are not helpful for achieving a sustainable peace". Sensing that this would be interpreted by his far-right governing coalition as a repudiation of new settlement construction, Netanyahu quickly dissociated himself from the statement, with his spokesperson claiming the Israeli side had not reviewed it beforehand.

In the past two weeks, members of Netanyahu's governing coalition have made it even more clear how challenging Kerry's mission will be. 

Israel's Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (a member of the LIKUD party) was quite blunt, declaring that "there was never a government discussion, resolution, or vote about a two-state solution...if you will bring it to a vote...you will see forces blocking it within the party and the government".

And going further, Netanyahu's Minister of Economy, Naftali Bennett, speaking before a meeting of West Bank settlers stated that "the attempt to establish a Palestinian state in 'our land' (sic) has ended". He went on to liken the Palestinian presence to "shrapnel in the butt", noting that it was uncomfortable, but it was something you learn to live with, instead of risking an operation to remove it. 

Netanyahu, facing a storm of criticism for these comments, responded that he, alone, makes foreign policy. He went on to restate his commitment to seeking a "negotiated solution where you'd have a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state"—adding, as he does, that as part of this arrangement he will insist on control over air, water, and land rights, security arrangements in the Jordan Valley, and control over all of annexed "Greater Jerusalem" etc. This, one supposes, is his interpretation of "negotiations without preconditions".

Even with Netanyahu's claim that he, alone, makes foreign policy and despite the deal-breaking terms he insists upon, Deputy Minister Danon's observation that the Israeli government has not and would not support a Palestinian State because "it was not the policy of the government" must be seen as deeply troubling. If a peace agreement is negotiated by Netanyahu and rejected by his government, because, as Danon makes clear, it is not something to which they have ever agreed, then where are we?

Who is Netanyahu fooling, his cabinet and government, or the US President and Secretary of State?  This is what John Kerry will have to discern as he attempts to move forward. 

As I have already noted problems abound on the Palestinian side. But it must be noted that their fractured polity and other dysfunctions are a function of living for more than four decades as a captive people under occupation. The notion advanced by President George W. Bush that the Palestinians must first establish themselves as a functioning democracy before they could have a state was and remains bizarre. Given their circumstances, the progress Palestinians have made is significant, but it will always be incomplete since their reality is distorted by their lack of freedom.

What is required for there to be a peace agreement is not that the Palestinians first perfect their state. What must come first is an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. Security arrangements will, of necessity, accompany such a withdrawal, but these will require international peacekeeping forces—something the Israelis have always rejected. Peace will also require an international effort at investment, reconstruction, and resettlement, and support for institution-building. All of this will take time and significant effort. 

But first, the Israelis have to support the notion that there should be an independent sovereign Palestinian state on land occupied in the 1967 war. And this, it appears, is a goal to which, the Netanyahu government has not yet committed itself. Uncovering whether or not this Israeli government has any intention of moving forward and ending the occupation will be Secretary Kerry's challenge.

You can comment this article below.

-----------------------------------------

Facts & Arts is a platform for owners of high quality content to distribute their content to a worldwide audience.

Facts & Arts' objective is to enhance the distribution of individual owners' content by combining various types of high quality content that can be assumed to interest the same audience. The thinking is that in this manner the individual pieces of content on Facts & Arts support the distribution of one another.

If you have fitting written material, classical music or videos; or if you would like to become one of our regular columnists, a book reviewer or music reviewer; or if you wish to market or broadcast a live event through Facts & Arts, please contact us at info@factsandarts.com.

Browse articles by author

More Current Affairs

What Ukraine Needs 
by Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze
Mar 3rd 2022
EXTRACT: "Although Ukraine’s armed forces are outnumbered by those of Russian President Vladimir Putin invading our country, we take heart from the growing support we are receiving from friends abroad. Nobody should forget that this is not just an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine; it is an assault on the free world. ---- Putin has been at war with the free world for decades. "
Is There a Method to Putin's Madness?
by Xavier Vives
Mar 2nd 2022
EXTRACT: "Moreover, with China sharing the Kremlin’s interest in containing the advance of liberal democracy around the world, Putin could count on the Chinese to provide an additional economic lifeline by purchasing Russian gas. But this new relationship will not be costless. As the world continues to divide into separate technological and economic blocs, Russia will become even more dependent on China, implying a loss of strategic autonomy. Russia may have a powerful military; but with a GDP similar to that of Spain and Italy, it is far from being an economic power."
‘Just short of nuclear’: the latest financial sanctions will cripple Russia’s economy
by Steven Hamilton
Mar 1st 2022
EXTRACT: "The financial measures just announced against Russia are unprecedented for a country of its size. This of course means it’s impossible to predict exactly how their impacts will reverberate around the Russian – and global – economy. And we still need to see the exact details of the plan. But on their face they threaten the collapse of the Russian ruble, a run on Russian banks, hyperinflation, a sharp recession and high levels of unemployment in Russia, as well as turmoil in international financial markets."
What's on Putin's Mind? 
by Nina L. Khrushcheva
Feb 26th 2022
EXTRACT: "Putin apparently assumes that China will back him. But while he launched the invasion just weeks after concluding something akin to an alliance agreement with Xi in Beijing, Chinese officials’ reactions have been very distant with calls for “restraint.” Given Putin’s near-total reliance on China for support in challenging the US-led international order, lying to Xi would have no political or strategic advantage. That is what is so worrying: Putin no longer seems capable of the calculations that are supposed to guide a leader’s decision-making. Far from an equal partner, Russia is now on track to become a kind of Chinese vassal state."
Russia's Stolen Future 
by Joschka Fischer
Feb 25th 2022
EXTRACTS: "Russia’s ascent to global power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries resulted in numerous tragedies not only for the neighbors it subjugated and gradually absorbed, but also for its own people. China’s current leaders, in particular, should be mindful of this history, considering that imperial Russia seized more territory from China than from anyone else." ----- "Putin is taking Russia hurtling back toward the nineteenth century, in search of past greatness, whereas China is forging ahead to become the defining superpower of the twenty-first century. While China has achieved unprecedentedly rapid economic and technological modernization, Putin has been pouring Russia’s energy-export revenues into the military, once again cheating the Russian people out of their future."
Putin Is No Nixon 
by Nina L. Khrushcheva
Feb 18th 2022
EXTRACT: "........ Xi did what was needed to lock Russia into a vassal-like dependency on China. And Putin chose to walk straight into his trap, thinking that partnership with Xi would help him in his confrontation with the West. ---- What could be better for China than a Russian economy completely cut off from the West? All the natural gas that does not flow westward to Europe could flow eastward to an energy-hungry China. All Siberia’s mineral wealth, which Russia has required Western capital and expertise to exploit, would be available only to China, as would major new infrastructure projects in Russia." ---- "Putin seems to be ignoring that China’s leaders and people view Russia as a corrupt country which stole more Chinese territory in the nineteenth century than any other."
The Risk of Nuclear Disaster in Ukraine 
by Bennett Ramberg
Feb 14th 2022
EXTRACT: "Russia’s large-scale military mobilization on Ukraine’s border has grim historic precedents. But should the Kremlin pull the trigger, it will encounter a hazard that no invading army has ever faced before: 15 nuclear power reactors, which generate roughly 50% of Ukraine’s energy needs at four sites. The reactors present a daunting specter. If struck, the installations could effectively become radiological mines. And Russia itself would be a victim of the ensuing wind-borne radioactive debris. Given the vulnerability of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors and the human and environmental devastation that would follow if combat were to damage them, Russian President Vladimir Putin should think again about whether Ukraine is worth a war."
China's Triangulation Gambit 
by Stephen S. Roach
Feb 11th 2022
EXTRACT: "Yet Putin gives Xi precisely what he wants: a partner who can destabilize the Western alliance and deflect America’s strategic focus away from its China containment strategy. From Xi’s perspective, that leaves the door wide open for China’s ascendancy to great-power status, realizing the promise of national rejuvenation set forth in Xi’s cherished “China Dream.” "
America's Not-So-Great Inflation 
by Barry Eichengreen
Feb 10th 2022
EXTRACTS: "It has become abundantly clear that the United States has an inflation problem. What is not yet clear is how big the problem will turn out to be and how long it will last. ---- "Alarmed observers point to parallels with the 1970s, when commodity prices shot up,..." ------ "Today, in contrast, inflation expectations remain firmly anchored. The Michigan Survey of Consumers shows that respondents expect inflation to approach 5% over the coming year, before falling back to just above 2% in the subsequent four years. The inflation rate implicit in the price of five-year inflation-indexed Treasury securities shows basically the same thing: inflation averaging 2.8% over the next five years."
Inflation Will Hurt Both Stocks and Bonds 
by Nouriel Roubini
Jan 26th 2022
EXTRACT: "Over the past three decades, bonds have offered a negative overall yearly return only a few times. The decline of inflation rates from double-digit levels to very low single digits produced a long bull market in bonds; yields fell and returns on bonds were highly positive as their price rose. The past 30 years thus have contrasted sharply with the stagflationary 1970s, when bond yields skyrocketed alongside higher inflation, leading to massive market losses for bonds."
Ukraine crisis is reminding Nato why it was formed in the first place
by Mark Webber
Jan 26th 2022
EXTRACT: "The idea of a conventional force attack by Russia on Poland, the Baltic or Black Sea states is fanciful. But it is rendered near impossible in the minds of the Kremlin leadership by the sure knowledge that Nato would take a stand. In response to events around Ukraine, the credibility of the alliance is being affirmed through a set of coordinated measures...." ---- "The forces Moscow has assembled on Ukraine’s borders are clearly intended to intimidate the government in Kyiv. But as the weeks drag on Russia may be losing the military advantage. It has already forfeited the element of surprise essential for a swift land grab (as was used during the seizure of Crimea in 2014)."
The Fed's Mad Scramble 
by Stephen S. Roach
Jan 25th 2022
EXTRACT: "By now, it is passé to warn that the Fed is “behind the curve.” In fact, the Fed is so far behind that it can’t even see the curve. Its dot plots, not only for this year but also for 2023 and 2024, don’t do justice to the extent of monetary tightening that most likely will be required as the Fed scrambles to bring inflation back under control. In the meantime, financial markets are in for a very rude awakening."
Europe is dependent on Russian Gas during Ukraine Crisis because it didn’t Ramp up Renewables Faster
by Juan Cole
Jan 25th 2022
EXTRACT: "As it is, Germany has made strides in getting off coal. Coal provided half of power production in 2000, and is now down to about a little over a quarter. And Germany has done more to put in renewables, with its “Energiewende” or Energy Switch, than any other large industrialized nation. The new Social Democratic government, which is in coalition with the Greens, plans to put enormous amounts of new renewables in every year until 2030, projecting that by that date, 80 percent of Germany’s power will come from renewables."
Ukraine: how an armed conflict could play out
by Julien Théron
Jan 21st 2022
EXTRACTS: "The fear is that Moscow is backing itself into a diplomatic corner where the use of force is its only way to remain credible." ----- "The Ukrainian population has also been mobilizing in support of the troops since the seizure of Crimea and the war in Donbas. And according to a poll taken in December 2021 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 58% of Ukrainian men and almost 13% of women declared that they are ready to take up arms. A further 17% and 25% more said they would resist through other means. In what would be a classic case of asymmetrical warfare, resistance from Ukraine’s population could therefore prove a serious thorn in Moscow’s side."
Novak Djokovic: the legal problem of having one rule for some, another for everyone else
by Joshua Jowitt
Jan 12th 2022
EXTRACTS: "While at the time of writing, the outcome of Djokovic’s visa troubles was uncertain, the double standard of rules raises a much bigger question about the philosophy of law: can the application of a rule be so unfair that we have no valid reason to follow it?" ------ "......a rule that doesn’t treat like cases alike can’t be a law at all. This is because a key requirement of a legal system is that it needs to be stable, which means that people need to know what the law is and when it applies. If a rule doesn’t treat everyone equally, then it does the opposite and increases doubt and uncertainty about what the law even is. And if enough rules exist that create uncertainty about what the law is and when it applies, the system will collapse. A rule that undermines a legal system in this way can’t really be law at all, and legal officials shouldn’t create or uphold them."
Victims of the Unvaccinated
by Peter Singer
Jan 9th 2022
EXTRACT: "Novak Djokovic, the world’s top-ranking tennis player, has just been granted a medical exemption to take part in the Australian Open. Djokovic, who has won the event nine times (one more victory would give him a record-breaking 21 major titles), refused to show proof of vaccination, which is required to enter Australia. “I will not reveal my status whether I have been vaccinated or not,” he told Blic, a Serbian daily, calling it “a private matter and an inappropriate inquiry.” The family of Dale Weeks, who died last month at the age of 78, would disagree. Weeks was a patient at a small hospital in rural Iowa, being treated for sepsis. The hospital sought to transfer him to a larger hospital where he could have surgery, but a surge in COVID-19 patients, almost all of them unvaccinated, meant that there were no spare beds. It took 15 days for Weeks to obtain a transfer, and by then, it was too late."
Chaos and Opportunism in Kazakhstan 
by Djoomart Otorbaev
Jan 9th 2022
EXTRACT: "The protests that erupted across Kazakhstan on January 2 quickly turned into riots in all of the country’s major cities. What do the protesters want, and what will be the outcome of the country’s most severe civil unrest since independence in 1991? "
Kazakhstan and the Price of Russia's Empire 
by Nina L. Khrushcheva
Jan 7th 2022
EXTRACT: ".....one wonders how Chinese President Xi Jinping views Russia’s intervention in Kazakhstan, which shares a nearly 1,800-kilometer (1,120-mile) border with China, especially in light of Putin’s earlier comments diminishing the history of Kazakhstan’s independent statehood. (He has shown similar contempt for the independence of Belarus, the Baltic states, and Ukraine.)"
History by Decree 
by Ian Buruma
Jan 7th 2022
EXTRACT: "The problem with history as propaganda is not that it makes people feel good or bad, but that it creates perpetual enemies – and thus the perpetual risk of wars."
The Real Threat to American Democracy 
by Michael Lind
Jan 5th 2022
EXTRACT: ".....a scenario in which Trump (or one of his allies) is designated president by the House of Representatives after the 2024 election probably belongs in the realm of political-thriller fiction.  Now consider the unlikely event that Trump were nominated and won a clear Electoral College or popular-vote majority in 2024. Rather than establish the white-nationalist dictatorship of progressive nightmares, an elderly second-term Trump would most likely be an even more ineffectual figurehead in a party dominated by conventional Republicans than he was in his first four years. If Italian democracy could survive three terms of Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister, American democracy can survive two terms of Trump. None of this is to suggest that American democracy is not under threat. Populist demagogues like Trump are symptoms of a disease in the body politic. The real threat to American democracy is the disconnect between what the bipartisan US political establishment promises and what it delivers. This problem predates Trump by decades and helps to explain his rise. "