Just as Israel’s deteriorating diplomatic ties with Turkey are linked to Ankara’s agenda of restoring its historical standing in the Muslim world, America has picked a fight in part because it fears the regional perception that it is soft on Israel will undermine its efforts to win over populations in countries where it is fighting long-running wars, and facing the prospect of more.
General David Petraeus, the US commander of forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan, told a Senate hearing this week that the tensions fomented in the Muslim world by the Israel-Palestinian conflict had an enormous impact on the ability of US forces to operate in the region.
Washington’s perceived proximity to Israel — reiterated at length last week by Joe Biden, the US Vice President, even as his peace trip became a debacle with the Israeli announcement that almost 2,000 new housing units were to be built in East Jerusalem and the West Bank — has long been a source of anti-US sentiment in the Arab world.
That it apparently cannot get its ally, whom it bankrolls to the tune of $3 billion (£2 billion) a year — to end settlement growth has only further fuelled the perception that the US is losing its clout.
The Obama Administration has denied reports that General Petraeus asked for Israel and the Palestinian territories to come under his area of operations, but the commander, who is credited, with the success of the surge in Iraq, said the idea had been discussed internally.
President Obama has said that peace in the Middle East is a strategic interest of the United States. That Israel’s settlement activity may be blocking that strategic interest, and putting US lives at risk, will narrow any room for future compromise by Washington, which backed down last year when Israel refused to halt construction in East Jerusalem, which it captured in the 1967 war.
Mr Netanyahu finds himself in an awkward position.
His right-wing, hawkish coalition supports the settlements, and one of his own key partners, Avigdor Lieberman, the Foreign Minister, lives on a West Bank settlement.
The Prime Minister has had difficulty pushing through a short-term moratorium on settlement growth, and has refused to halt construction in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians refuse to return to talks until Israel does so, leaving the conflict to fester.
More than ever, Mr Netanyahu will rely on skilled diplomacy to try to navigate the rocky waters ahead.
However, Mr Leiberman has in the past proven to be less than subtle. In the blow-up with Turkey, his deputy, Danny Ayalon, publicly humiliated the Turkish ambassador during a televised meeting, putting him on a lower chair than his, with no Turkish flag, and then, speaking in Hebrew, directing the cameraman to focus on these slights of protocol.
Mr Lieberman appears not to be in a conciliatory mood, spurning Brazil’s visiting President, Luiz Lula da Silva, because the latter opted to visit Yasser Arafat’s grave but not that of the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl.
The Brazilian leader today condemned Israel’s expansion plans in East Jerusalem and called for it to pull down the vast security barrier it has built inside the West Bank.
Mr Lieberman’s ministry estimates that Mr Obama will probably be too concerned with domestic struggles ahead of the November mid-term elections to be troubled by Israeli settlement growth. But if that is perceived to be undermining America’s vital interests in wartime, he may have to recalculate, and quickly.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer
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