As the Friday launch date for the Palestinian statehood bid at the UN nears, the Obama administration fired a last minute salvo hoping to dissuade Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, from considering the bid. Senior U.S. officials nervously shuffled along the halls of Ramallah seeking to stall the Palestinian's latest diplomatic offensive. Obama himself is scheduled to meet the president of the Palestinian Authority later on Wednesday to persuade Abbas to change his mind.
Meanwhile, Republicans renewed their attacks on the Obama administration, this time taking aim at his Israel policy. Texas Governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry declared that the President pushed US-Israel relations to a precipice via ‘naïve and arrogant, misguided and dangerous' policies. In the election to replace Rep. Weiner, from New York, former Mayor Ed Koch urged Jewish residents in Brooklyn and Queens to vote for Republican businessman Bob Turner, to send a message to Obama about his ‘anti-Israeli' foreign policy. Never mind that the Democratic contender, Assemblyman David Weprin, was an observing, Israel-loving Jew himself. The Republican candidate went on to win the race, Koch's pleas evidently having a marked effect on the outcome.
Most of all the back and forth is a frank reflection of the motivations that inform both sides of the debate. A lot of people in the U.S. and Israel who claim to be pro-Israel seem to blindly subscribe to their side of this deeply polarizing issue without the slightest bit of rational analysis. In response to a question by a journalist, Governor Perry claimed to support Israel as a "Christian and an American," thereby playing into the nutty Islamist narrative of a Judeo-Christian religious alliance in a crusade against Muslims. When religion infects national policy, there is no room for rational argument.
I was struck by the unflinching stubbornness of the anti-statehood camp last Thursday during Dr. Jonathan Schanzer's talk on the Palastenian UN bid, an event organized by Coalition of Hopkins activists for Israel(CHAI), Hasbara and others. Admittedly, some of Schanzer's reasoning against the ‘political theater' of the Palestinian attempt for formal declaration of statehood is genuine and fair. For instance, despite an admirable attempt by the technocratic Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad to build the institutions necessary for a functioning state over the last two years, much work remains to be done before the Palestinians are fully ready for self-sustenance. And the question of the role of Hamas - a designated terrorist organization – in any future Palestinian Unity Government remains worryingly unresolved.
But, regrettably, much of the talk dwelled on tired old arguments, banal assertions and outright misrepresentations. When challenged about his contention that there is an inherent anti-Israel bias amongst global institutions, he lashed back with a barrage of borderline irrelevant nonsense ranging from how Israel is being unfairly censured compared to the likes of worse countries like Sudan.
Even if that were true, it doesn't somehow make illegal actions implicitly sanctioned by the Israeli government okay – to the old talking point about how Israel is the only ‘real democracy' in the Middle East, a shining beacon of hope in a reason plagued by the likes of Syria's Bashar Al-Assad, who is currently involved in a mass violent repression of his own people in the face of widespread protests for freedom. Never mind, of course, that the repressive autocracies in the Middle East were actively supported by the U.S. for decades until the people's just aspirations for democracy came to light in what is now being called the Arab Spring. At this point, what was once an erudite, academic discussion devolved into a one sided shouting match.
On one hand, it is easy to see where he comes from. But to accuse the world of partiality towards the Palestinian side is simply ignoring the facts. The Israeli government has – against the stipulations of U.S. policy – persisted in expanding settlements, engaged in an armed confrontation with protestors in international waters and responded against incursions on its territory with overwhelming and hugely disproportionate force. In short, it has at times acted inconsistently with what could legitimately be called the actions of a well-behaved modern liberal democracy. Not only that, but the resumption of the ‘peace process' preferred by the U.S. and Israel in place of independence has hitherto not led anywhere, nor is there reason to believe it ever will. As one commenter noted, putting the ball in the Palestinian's court might even turn out to be good for Israel, as the other side is forced to come up with a peaceful solution to all its nagging problems.
Recent polls taken by the BBC routinely confirmed that a vastly greater number of the global public support the establishment of a Palestinian state than oppose it. I maintain that there is no anti-Israel bias among the global public, only an anti-injustice bias.
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