Washington and Difficult Trade-Offs

There is a bilateral campaign led by the U.S. and Israel against Palestine and its people, since Israel considers the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, an obstacle that must be shifted before the international community can undertake any four-party negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman would prefer that they completely remove Abbas by making him resign, although there are factions in Israel that would prefer to remove him another way.

Lieberman's plan has been met with criticism from the United Nations and the European Union — and America's silence about it leaves even more of a question.

This question about America's position comes in the face of the big Palestinian question, particularly in recent days and months. In the past it has resisted; it resists now, and will continue to resist any Palestinian effort to create a Palestinian state. The U.S. is threatening to cut its financial participation in the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization if the organization allows the Palestinians membership, since such activity would be prohibited by two American laws adopted in the early ‘90s. It cannot participate in financing the special agency of the United Nations if they accept Palestine as a full member. In that situation, UNESCO would be deprived of 22 percent of its budget, resulting in a $70 million deficit for 2011.

The four-party committee met yesterday in occupied Jerusalem to conduct separate meetings with the Palestinian and Israeli sides in order to resume negotiations — which are becoming meaningless given the position of both sides.