10-9-2014 Israel & the US: The Delusions of Our Diplomacy - Nathan Thrall New York Review of Books

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/oct/09/israel-us-delusions-our-diplomacy/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=September+19+2014&utm_content=September+19+2014+CID_f19614b76a170b158715eb1c320f1311&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=The%20Delusions%20of%20Our%20Diplomacy

 

[Conclusion]:  US policy is designed to thwart actions that would raise the costs of the status quo, in effect sustaining it. At the same time, the US expends considerable effort preaching to unconvinced Israeli and Palestinian leaders that the continuing impasse cannot be sustained. But most Israeli voters, and many among the Palestinian elite, are quite at ease with existing conditions, thanks in no small part to the United States. This will remain so as long as the different proponents of the US-led peace process insist on mediating the conflict even as they help perpetuate it.

Rather than accepting current circumstances in an effort not to harm the possibility of a negotiated two-state settlement, the US could condition ongoing support on unilateral changes that are consistent with partition. ..

At the same time, the US could reverse its opposition to the formation of a unified PLO leadership…

Yet the political incentives for the US to take such radical steps do not exist. The potential benefits of creating a small, poor, and strategically inconsequential Palestinian state are tiny when compared to the costs of heavily pressuring a close ally wielding significant regional and US domestic power. Even if the steps I have mentioned were taken, they would be no guarantee of a peaceful future. But unlike current policies, they at least offer the possibility of a better one.

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member    

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