The assumption that
Israel must accept the Kerry plan as a basis for negotiations with the
Palestinian Authority -- lest it risk a rift with the U.S. -- should be
assessed in light of the full context of U.S.-Israel strategic
cooperation, the imploding Arab street, the unique foundations and
nature of U.S.-Israel ties, the U.S. political system, the
ineffectiveness of prior U.S. plans and Israel's own security
requirements.
U.S.-Israel strategic
cooperation transcends the Palestinian issue. Despite the 66-year-old
disagreement between the two governments about the ways and means to
resolve the Palestinian issue, strategic cooperation has catapulted to unprecedented heights.
Notwithstanding Arab talk--
but based on the Arab walk -- the Palestinian issue does not preoccupy
the attention of Arab policy-makers, does not significantly impact vital
U.S. interests and does not play a key role in destabilizing the Middle
East, as reaffirmed by the tectonic Arab tsunami that is unrelated to
Israel or the Palestinian issue.
The Palestinian issue
has been superseded by regional and global mutual threats, interests and
benefits, shaping the increasingly two-way mutually beneficial U.S.-Israel agenda:
the U.S. supply of critical military systems to Israel and the Israeli
battle-tested laboratory, which enhances the performance of U.S.
military systems and the U.S. defense industries; the joint development
of ballistic, space, UAV, cyber and other critical technologies; Israeli
innovations upgrade the competitive edge of U.S. high-tech industries;
Israel provides intelligence on Iran's nuclear threat and Islamic
terrorism on the U.S. mainland and beyond; Israel trains elite American
units in counter-terrorism and urban warfare, shares battle lessons and
helps shape U.S. battle tactics; Israel's power-projection deters rogue
regimes, which threaten pro-U.S. Arab regimes such as Jordan and Saudi
Arabia; and so on.
Israel's role as the
most consistent, capable and willing ally of the U.S. gains in
importance, as the Arab street becomes increasingly anti-U.S., Islamist,
unstable and unpredictably violent. While the U.S. cuts its defense
budget and withdraws its military from the Middle East, Russia and China
deepen their presence in the region and West Europe is preoccupied with
domestic challenges.
The disagreement over the Palestinian issue is, also,superseded by shared U.S.-Israel Judeo-Christian values,
which have strongly influenced U.S. morality and its legal and
political systems. This dates back to the pilgrims in the 17th century,
the Liberty Bell's inscription from Leviticus, the founding fathers, the
biblically driven anti-slavery movement and the statues of Moses in the
U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Supreme Court.
American constituents
have established a unique bottom-up, systematic, positive attitude
toward the Jewish state. They disassociate themselves from the
executive's moral equivalence toward Israel.
In 1948, charismatic
U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall pressured Israel to accept his
plan of a U.N. mandate for Palestine as a substitute for independence.
Marshall considered the Jewish state a liability and the Arabs an asset.
He assumed that Israel would join the communist bloc and would be
unable to defend itself against the invading Arabs, thus triggering a
second Jewish Holocaust in less than 10 years. Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion refused to negotiate Marshall's proposal.
When threatened with
U.N. Security Council sanctions, which dictated a withdrawal from the
"occupied Negev," Ben-Gurion stated: "What Israel has won on the
battlefield, it is determined not to yield at the [U.N. Security]
Council table." Ben-Gurion's principle-driven defiance and steadfastness
produced short-term pressure, but long-term strategic respect,
transforming Israel into the most reliable, stable, capable, democratic
and unconditional ally of the U.S. in the Middle East and beyond.
In 1957, President
Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel to evacuate the Sinai Peninsula.
Senate and House leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, threatened
Eisenhower with legislative paralysis, and convinced Eisenhower to
reduce his pressure. However, Israel pulled the rug from under their
feet by accepting the Eisenhower plan.
In December 1969 and
June 1970, then-Secretary of State William Rogers introduced his plan
calling for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, allowing Arab refugees
to return to Israel and joint Israeli-Jordanian rule in Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Golda Meir rejected the plan, initializing the
construction of three large new neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem, home
to over 100,00 people. Rogers tolerated Egypt's advancing
surface-to-air missiles in violation of commitments, which facilitated
the deterioration to the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
In 1977, President
Jimmy Carter pressured Israel to participate in an international
conference, highlighting the Palestinian issue and a full Israeli
withdrawal. Prime Minister Menachem Begin dismissed the idea and
initiated the dialogue with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, which led to
a peace accord.
In September 1982,
President Ronald Reagan announced his plan calling for a full Israeli
withdrawal and an immediate settlement freeze. Begin rejected the plan,
expanded settlements and laid the foundation for the November 1983
upgrade of U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation.
Accepting Kerry's plan
would revert Israel to the pre-1967 situation, in which Israel is only a
nine to 15-mile sliver along the Mediterranean, dominated by the
mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, which would be controlled by the Palestinian Authority,
a systematic violator of agreements, perpetuator of hate education and
generator of terror. The irreplaceability of the Judea and Samaria
mountain ridges for Israel's national security has been reinforced by
the Arab Tsunami. It has made the Middle East -- the most
conflict-ridden region in the world -- more violently intolerant,
unpredictable, unreliable, unstable and treacherous.
Accepting the Kerry plan requires
the subordination of long-term vision and security to short-term
convenience, and the subjugation of realism to wishful thinking, thus
jeopardizing the very survival of the Jewish state, transforming Israel
from a unique asset to a burden. Rejecting the Kerry plan may create
short-term tension but no long-term rift. On a rainy day, the U.S.
prefers a defiant, rather than a submissive, ally.
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