Every man has his price, so the saying goes. The only question is, “How much?” Israel’s government set a high price, and the Israelis have been offered 20 combat jet aircraft just to put their settlement expansion in the West Bank on hold for three months — maybe. That begs the question how much they might charge for a whole peace agreement with the Palestinians. Or, how much do they want for a mere troop withdrawal from the occupied territories?
The deal being struck between Washington and Jerusalem is absurd. Israel is to be paid to keep the prospects for Middle East peace alive. Israel isn’t even being asked to provide a good faith quid pro quo, such as the release of some Palestinian prisoners or the removal of any security checkpoints. No, Benjamin Netanyahu will simply be rewarded if he doesn’t continue sabotaging American peace initiatives for a little while. And that’s going to have a steep price.
No doubt there are situations in which peace may be purchased by arming. Former President Bill Clinton had that in mind when he modernized the Israeli army, provided there would be a peace accord between Syria and Israel and an attendant withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strategically important Golan Heights. But Israeli security won’t be endangered if the bulldozers working to build Israeli housing units in the West Bank are halted for a while — to the contrary. That’s why the White House offer to provide Israel with warplanes if they postpone settlement-building makes little sense. It’s nothing more than an attempt at bribery.
Obama’s strange zigzag course in the Middle East has failed to bring the region one step closer to peace, and we can now fear that nothing much will change over the coming three months.
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