Strange as it might seem, U.S. policy defers to others —
sometimes, more than is good for it. Thus, for some time, there has
been not been much of a U.S. policy towards Israel and the
Palestinians. There has been a Middle East Quartet policy. And it
has taken the U.S. into an expensive dead-end.
The Quartet is a decade-old, hastily conceived grouping of the
European Union, the Russian Federation, the United Nations, and the
United States. It includes entrenched pro-Arab bureaucracies.
Unsurprisingly, it has adopted policies that prolong rather than
mitigate the Palestinian/Arab war on Israel — while America funds
both the Israelis and the PA.
The Quartet, in its latest communiqué,
insists on a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations
encompassing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, to be concluded
“no later” than the end of 2012. No matter that, in 2000 and again
in 2009, the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) refused to
accept peace plans delineating just such an outcome.
The Quartet demands $1.1 billion in international funding of the
PA for 2012, active social and economic development programs in
certain PA sectors, and so on. But it is less insistent about what
is to be done about continuing Palestinian terrorism and incitement
to violence.
Thus, the Quartet “calls” for Palestinians to “improve law and
order … fight violent extremism, and … end incitement”; it
“considers” matters to be “fragile and unsustainable” with the West
Bank and Gaza remaining divided between rival Palestinian groups;
it condemns “rocket attacks from Gaza”; it “stresses … the need
for calm and security for both peoples.” But negotiations are not
conditional on any of these changing.
Thus, the Quartet simply institutionalizes the state of war it
is ostensibly designed to end.
So the “peace process” continues. With its lack of consummation
comes Arab displeasure and international pressure on Israel to
break the logjam. The U.S., as Israel’s principal ally, also incurs
wrath. That suits Arab powers and American rivals — but the U.S.
continues to lend its name to the Quartet. Under Barack Obama, it
even has a president who sees it as a priority to relieve pressure
on the PA.
Thus, U.S. funding for the PA is now virtually sacrosanct. The
other week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
overrode Congress when House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) put a hold on $147 million in
U.S. funding to the PA. Ros-Lehtinen sought to pressure the PA into
dropping its bid for statehood via the United Nations and refusing
negotiations without preconditions. The Obama administration wants
negotiations — but it won’t penalize the PA when it evades them.
All carrots and no sticks.
Similarly, the U.S. goes along with Quartet policy to ignore PA
incitement and the routine honoring of terrorists, like Dalal Mughrabi. To cite
a typical example, when Fatah terrorists murdered an Israeli in
January 2010, the PA condemned Israel for hunting down and killing
the perpetrators. PA president Mahmoud Abbas also sent condolences
to the families of the three terrorists. His prime minister, Salam
Fayyad, personally visited the terrorists’ families. But the Obama
Administration said nothing,
even when specifically informed of these events by the Israeli
government.
Yet, three months later, the Obama administration said
that it “will continue [!] to hold Palestinian leaders accountable
for incitement.” It could at least be more honest, like the British
Foreign Office, which
admitted last week that it never even raises these matters with
the PA.
Only weeks ago, a PA minister, Majida Al-Masri, called for Fatah and
Hamas to unite in order “to turn to the struggle for the liberation
of Palestine — all of Palestine.” The Quartet — and the U.S. —
said nothing and did less.
Quartet policy, like so many multilateral ventures, is politics
of the lowest common denominator. It ignores unpleasant realities
(no Palestinian consensus for peace or leadership to deliver it),
prioritizes means (Palestinian state) over ends (peace), while
frustrating the capacity to attain them. So long as the Quartet
exists, expect more of the same — including from the U.S.
