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U.S. Mideast Diplomacy Isn't Advancing Peace or Democracy

(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - During U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Jerusalem this week, he demanded "calm" from both Israel and the Palestinians - with a moral equivalence inherent in his call. This conveyed a bad message vis-a-vis Washington's stance on the Palestinian Authority's "pay for slay" policy - of providing salaries and pensions to terrorists and their families - and inability to accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state. Blinken failed to hold PA leader Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the uptick in terrorism, which he wrongly attributed to the lack of a viable peace process. The assumption of the foreign-policy establishment and international media that recent events are another example of a "cycle of violence" is false. The lack of peace and upsurge in terror are solely the fault of a Palestinian leadership incapable of envisioning an identity for its people that isn't linked to its century-old war on Zionism and the Jews. This is why PA rhetoric, media reportage and school curricula are filled with incitement to violence and glorification of "martyrs" killed in the process of murdering Jews. No less outrageous were Blinken's lectures to Netanyahu about preserving democracy, treating the government that garnered a majority of Knesset seats on Nov. 1 as essentially illegitimate. But even Biden and Blinken understand that the Palestinians are no more willing to negotiate seriously with Israel than they were during the Obama administration.
2023-02-02 00:00:00
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