Israel Matzav

An empty threat?

At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting in Washington on Thursday, Committee Chair John Kerry and ranking Republican Richard Lugar (no friend of Israel) slammed both Israel and the 'Palestinians' for the 'lack of progress' on 'peace.' Lugar also threatened to cut US assistance to both sides.

The senators also took Israel to task at times during the hearing on making progress toward Middle East peace, with Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) calling for improvements in “the dire conditions in Gaza,” terming it “a great disappointment that so little has been rebuilt” following the war there a year ago. He urged the import of more reconstruction materials, some of the many items Israel has barred in blockading the crossings.

In addition, ranking member Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) raised the specter of reducing American support for Israel and the Palestinian Authority if they don’t comply with US demands on the peace process. Both parties receive generous American aid packages, though Lugar did not mention these monies in his comments.

“The consequences might be that you really don’t receive our support – for a while you’re on your own. Take it or leave it,” he suggested as one possible scenario, noting that many would dismiss such an action because of the close US-Israel relationship and the pivotal view of the Palestinians in the Middle East.

But, he warned, “The consequences of a failure to move ahead have to be evident at some point. Somebody has to worry about this.”

The Palestinians were also not immune to castigations from Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania). He contended that “the Israelis have shown, certainly in the last year, that they’ve been willing to make real concessions. I can’t say the same, in my judgment, about the Palestinians. I think there’s been a real reluctance or even refusal to engage in real negotiations.”

But most of the criticism voiced Thursday focused on the US approach toward peace-making in the region. “Because of the Goldstone Report and the way in which the settlement issue was handled, publicly hanging [PA] President [Mahmoud] Abbas out to have an expectation that that was the standard and then going back from it, left him weakened,” Kerry said, referring to two Obama administration policies though he didn’t mention the US by name.

Lugar's threat is empty. Israel could do without much of the American assistance. For example, I reported on Thursday that an American firm will be building a new IDF headquarters at a cost of $30 million using American assistance money. Would we really be so much worse off if we used our own money and paid an Israeli company to do that (think how many jobs we would create)?

As to the 'Palestinians,' they are rolling in so much foreign assistance that they don't know what to do with it, and any money they lose from the US would be made up by the Europeans anyway.

The US has very little leverage in this part of the world right now. They're mostly ignored by Israel, by the 'Palestinians,' by the Syrians, by Iran and by the 'moderate' Arab countries. This is because Barack Obama came in here and tried to upset the status quo. None of the parties is really ready for that to happen. Once you impinge on something that another party sees as a vital interest, it's going to take an awful lot to get them to listen to you. Obama has been unable to back up his rhetoric.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:56 PM