Barack Obama’s Israeli Burden

Relations between Washington and Jerusalem have suffered deep fractures and the last chilly meeting between Obama and Netanyahu in March was a failure. The Gaza crisis also complicates the president’s policies.

When Rahm Emanuel recently spent a week in Israel for his son’s Bar Mitzvah, hope arose that the frosty relations between Washington and Jerusalem might thaw a bit. Emanuel, the White House Chief of Staff who volunteered as a mechanic in the Israeli military during the first Gulf War, conveyed a new invitation from Barack Obama to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Their last meeting was so unfriendly that the president even dispensed with the usual photo opportunity. Their discussion lasted several hours and Obama even interrupted it to have dinner with his family.

Netanyahu’s About Face

Just as Netanyahu was preparing to depart for their meeting last week, Israel’s attack on the international aid convoy headed for Gaza precipitated a crisis. Israel’s Prime Minister was forced to do a quick about face and return home.

Instead, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas paid his respects at the White House on Wednesday, where Obama tried to maintain the diplomatic balance and promote a return to the Middle East peace process.

As a matter of routine, the United States opposed condemning Israel in the U.N. Security Council. At the atomic energy summit in Washington, however, the United States dropped its opposition to the International Atomic Energy Commission sending nuclear inspectors to Israel, a move that caused consternation among some in Jerusalem and in American Jewish circles. Here, as there, fear is growing that the “unbreakable partnership” American politicians always pledge may be little more than a rhetorical cliché.

Solidarity with Israel is gradually disappearing in Washington even within the Jewish lobby, as evidenced by the relatively new “J Street” criticism of Israeli policy. The term currently making the rounds in political circles is “strategic burden,” coined by Anthony Cordesman, mentor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Gaza crisis came at the worst possible time. U.S. diplomats were soliciting support for tougher sanctions against Iran. In the Middle East, special envoy George Mitchell was striving to restart negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, even at the indirect level, in order that Obama could claim he kept the promise made in his Cairo speech a year earlier; it was a promise greeted with wild applause in the Arab world.

Worries About Turkey

The Pentagon and U.S. State Department are concerned that the Israeli military action in the Mediterranean may have permanently torpedoed American relations with Turkey, a strategic ally in the region. Overseas, the Obama administration has been engaged in damage control. In London, Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed the fear that Turkey may drift eastward. In Egypt, Vice President Joe Biden described the status quo in the Middle East as unsustainable.

During his last visit to Israel, Biden had a ringside seat to the nosedive in Israeli-U.S. relations. He was preparing to attend a private dinner with Benjamin Netanyahu when he learned of the Israeli plan to build new settlements. Washington had repeatedly requested the Israelis to cease such settlement building permanently. This rebuff to Biden and the United States resulted in a very angry telephone call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Netanyahu. Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., later described the incident as the greatest crisis in confidence between the two nations in 30 years.

Still No Visit to Israel

Leading U.S. military figures say the Middle East conflict makes things more difficult in terms of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because it creates a hostile environment, causing unrest in Israel.

Obama began his term in office with great aplomb concerning Middle East policy, but in an interview with “Time” magazine, he admitted he had been naïve and underestimated the depths of the conflict. Many commentators as well as security expert Zbigniew Brzezinski have called on Obama in vain to make a trip to Israel and lay out a peace plan. Meanwhile, many in Israel consider it an insult that Obama has yet to include Israel on his official state visit schedule.