An extraordinary test of wills between the US and Israel has left the administration of US President Barack Obama a stronger negotiator both with its closest ally in the Middle East and with Arab nations needed to broker peace with the Palestinians.
The US appears likely to pull Israel and the Palestinians back toward preliminary peace talks after more than a week of harsh words about Israeli housing policies that Arabs and many Americans see as land grabs.
The way ahead will probably become clearer in coming days as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington as early as tomorrow and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell resumes his shuttle diplomacy today.
Netanyahu’s meetings with US officials will test the limits of US influence over its closest ally in the Middle East and the right-wing Israeli leader’s latitude with even more hawkish elements of his fractious governing coalition.
The US-Israeli dustup began when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new apartments for Jews in contested east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to serve as their capital. The announcement was made during a visit to Israel by US Vice President Joe Biden, deeply embarrassing the Obama administration just as it believed indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians were about to begin. The Arab League abruptly withdrew its endorsement of the preliminary talks, to be managed by Mitchell.
Palestinians want Israel to halt all construction of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. They claim those areas for a future state, along with the Gaza Strip. Clinton condemned the Israelis for their action, even questioning the Jewish state’s commitment to its security relationship with Washington. But having now eased off, the administration is giving Netanyahu political breathing space while saddling him with a political debt that Washington hopes will lead him to engage more forthrightly in peace talks with the Palestinians.
From the Arab point of view, the administration’s willingness to tussle with Netanyahu over a key issue in the peace process can be seen as evidence of US even-handedness.
There is little prospect of reaching an early settlement of the long-running conflict, but talks under almost any conditions are a diplomatic coup for Obama, who pledged as a candidate that he would make peace a priority and not wait for perfect conditions that might never come.
Talks broke off more than a year ago, in the closing days of the administration of former US president George W. Bush.
Mitchell canceled plans to go to the region last week because of the breach. Once Netanyahu addressed US demands that Israel make up for the housing announcement, Clinton dispatched Mitchell to make preparations for the planned talks in which he will be the intermediary.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS