Friends, Allies and Neighbours

Hysteria at a perceived slight by a beholden ally has overtaken the U.S. administration. Their agenda has been slighted, their efforts taken as of little value, their prestige has suffered a blow, and they will not stand for it. Israel must be humbled, and the sure-fire way to do that is to unmistakably give very impressive support to that country's host of enemies whose totalitarian, anti-democratic, human-rights-abusing states surround it in hostile dudgeon.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, though in mortal combat with his adversaries in Hamas, took the opportunity to indefinitely suspend direct peace talks with Israel, when Israel responded to Hamas-driven border attacks by its attempt to restrain those rocket attacks. Not that the direct talks were going anywhere in a great hurry, but they might, eventually, have resulted in some meaningful direction not altogether futile.

After the long hiatus during which Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continually attempted to persuade the PA to return to the bargaining table, to no avail, the Obama administration stepped into the breach with its wonderful idea of "proximity" talks whereby a third party would shuttle back and forth from the Israelis to the Palestinians, to kick-start a dim level of discussions. As though the sheer force of suggestibility would succeed when face-to-face talks could not.

If Israel truly had no right to defend its sovereign borders and the lives of its citizens, then its attack on Gaza's Hamas terrorists might merit the cessation of peace talks. Such not being the case, it is abundantly clear that the Palestinians have no use for peace talks. That they grudgingly agreed to resume third-party talks speaks to their appreciation of the U.S.'s hard-ball tactics with Israel.

And with Vice-President Joe Biden stiffly upbraiding Israel for its undiplomatic contretemps, and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton castigating the prime minister of another country for his right to determine the course that country will take in recognition of its best interests, the PA feels further emboldened to threaten Israel with yet another intifada.

It is interesting to note that the PA diplomatically named a Ramallah square after Dalal Mughrabi who killed 37 Israelis in a bus-hijacking massacre before she herself died, a martyr, once Joe Biden left the area. This is in keeping with the PA and Mahmoud Abbas inciting Palestinians to violence against Israel, in their partnership for peace.

How discreet was the poster that read, "On the anniversary of the Coastal Road Operation we renew our commitment and our oath that we uphold the charge and that we will not stray from the path of the Shahids..." The U.S. administration has, after all, chided the PA in the past, asking that it refrain from deliberately inciting Palestinians to riot and to violent action. Reflected also in what is occurring now at the Temple Mount.

With Israel's stewardship of the sacred places of all three religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam, free access is given to all worshippers. Despite which the Palestinians, who claim their new state must have East Jerusalem, inclusive of all those sacred sites as their capital, even under Israeli rule strenuously work to deny Jews access to their holy sites, adjacent those of the Muslim society.

Israel's safety and security is seen as expendable by the current administration; the United States has always claimed friendship with Israel, and that friendship is always available as long as Israel is careful to mind what its mentor tells it. Israel has jurisdiction in Jerusalem, the municipality has the right to determine where, how and when it will build, and the United States should be a little more careful about its perceived moderation in viewing one side's excesses and rage over the other's.

Unless their plan truly is to give aid and comfort to the enemy of their friend. A friend in name only, perhaps, but an ally, withal. The U.S. would do well to remember that when it requested that the surrounding Arab states offer a little encouragement to normalcy with Israel, the unified response was a stony disinterest. Just as America is fundamentally concerned with its security, so too is Israel for its, far more directly threatened.

Satisfying the Palestinians by sacrificing Israel will not produce the break-through in Western-Islamic relations that both the Arab-Muslim communities state will ensue, and Western, democratic countries hope it will. To believe so is to succumb to delusional fantasy.