Israel/Palestine: Rice Fails on All Fronts

by Alex Thurston :: Filed Under Middle East / South Asia :: August 27th, 2008 @ 11:04 am EST

With four months and a few days left, I have little faith that the Bush administration will achieve its stated goal of negotiating peace in Israel/Palestine by the end of 2008. Rice, finishing up her 17th trip to the region in the last two years, says that peace is still possible. But with Israel’s settlement activity in the West Bank “doubling” recently, according to the Israeli group peace now, major issues block the peace process.

Statements from Rice on settlement activity are vague and spineless, while those of Israeli Foreign Minister (and possible Olmert successor) Tzipi Livni are condescending and counterproductive:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking during a visit to the region to push forward peace negotiations, said settlement activity was not “helpful”, and said “anything that undermines confidence between the parties ought to be avoided”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is a favourite to replace scandal-hit Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said settlement building had been reduced “in a most dramatic way” - although she did not specify the timeframe she was referring to - and was limited to “small activities”.

“Israeli government policy is not to expand settlements, it’s not to build new settlements, it’s not to confiscate land from Palestinians,” she said.

She urged the Palestinians not to use the issue as “an excuse” to avoid talks, but also said she understood their “frustration”.

If the Israeli government denies problems and belittles those who bring them up, it’s hard to see peace moving forward.

(On a different note, the New York Times calls Rice’s remarks “criticism” - take a look and see what you think.)

Sources also say that Israel is insisting on Hamas’ exit from power in Gaza before going through with any peace deal. That, I would say, is extremely likely. If that’s a precondition, we will not see peace any time soon.

And we can see the consequences of letting the conflict fester: across the region, tension continues. Iran says it “can hit Israel with missiles if attacked.” Obviously Iran is being provocative here, but it’s silly to say that a peace agreement in Israel/Palestine would not help defuse some of the tension. With Iran also threatening US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have a stake in the peace process as well. Go ahead, call me an appeaser - and then you can explain exactly how the current strategy of no real diplomacy is working out and keeping our troops safe. (And tensions with Russia aren’t helping matters in the Middle East either.) Are we going to fight everybody, or are we going to start actually solving problems?

Last but not least, (our ally) Egypt calls on Israel to stop making threats against Lebanon.

Hear that, Condi? That’s the sound of all of your and your boss’s meaningless rhetoric sliding down the toilet.