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Buying “Peace,” Buying the Palestinians

- Tuesday, November 23, 2010 |

The United States is offering Israel a variety of gifts and promises in exchange for a 90-day building freeze that includes eastern Jerusalem (according to a U.S. official, as reported by Ha’aretz) to induce the Palestinians to negotiate with Israel for the Palestinian state to which President Obama appears committed.

The Palestinians should be thrilled!

The President of the United States is on their side – the discussion is about establishing Palestine, not about securing Israel. The President didn’t ask for Palestinian concessions, just Israeli concessions that can be interpreted as responsive to Palestinian demands. He is not asking that the Palestinians stop supporting terror and hasn’t repeated President Bush’s demand that they find, “new leadership untainted by terror.” He doesn’t seem to notice that the Palestinian prime minister is leading a boycott of Jewish businesses. He doesn’t demand that the Palestinians recognize the historical ties of Jews to the land or that they give legitimacy to Jewish sovereignty there. He demands instead that the “occupation” end. Jewish history in Jerusalem is ignored, as is the promise to Israel made explicit in UN Security Council Resolution 242 of “secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.” UNESCO calls the Tomb of Rachel and the Cave of Machpelah – which even historical Arab writings call Jewish places – “Palestinian sites” and the President doesn’t seem to notice.

But wait, there’s more.

Aside from U.S. pressure on Israel and the absence of demands on Fatah, the Palestinian goodie bag includes:

A new American general for the Fatah security forces

Agreement to fly the PLO flag in Washington

$718 million in direct U.S. aid ($209.4 million in USAID project money; $150 million in new cash aid; $102.5 million for the security forces; $75 million in emergency money to UNRWA on top of the $130 million in “core expenses,” plus $10 million earmarked for schools. There is another $22 million in UNRWA assistance for Palestinians in Lebanon and Palestinian refugees from Iraq.)

European direct aid of $28.5 million, and

Saudi and UAE cash contributions of $142 million

That’s just to come to the table. It’s good to be a Palestinian right now.

So why are they so reluctant to play? Because, perhaps, the Palestinians know more about how this works than the President does. In the end, it isn’t America that has to be satisfied – it is Israel. And in the end, Abu Mazen knows that the most Israel will give will be less than he will be able to accept. The crux of the problem hasn’t changed from the day Arafat and Rabin shook hands in front of President Clinton – and it surely hasn’t changed since the day Arafat walked out on Ehud Barak and his 95% offer at Camp David in 2000.

The assurances the President made to Israel – leasing land in the Jordan Valley; no future settlement freezes; no unilateral declaration of independence by the Palestinians – are all unacceptable to Fatah. There is no American promise on the so-called “right of return” and no American promise on Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.

Arafat knew he was the weakest of the Arab players. He couldn’t get out in front of his financial patrons – the Saudis, Omanis and Emiratis – in recognizing Israel’s right to territory and sovereignty, and he couldn’t abandon the poor, marginalized and radicalized Palestinians in camps around the region. What Arafat couldn’t do, Abu Mazen certainly cannot do.

Abu Mazen knows it, that’s why he wants the President to force Israeli concessions that he can pocket, but resists even modest movement toward Israel’s bottom line. At some point, perhaps the President will understand that he can no more buy the Palestinians than buy the Israelis, but by then serious damage may have been done.