Embattled Israel -- Our Most Dangerous Foreign Policy Conundrum

A frustrated Palestinian attempting to tend his olive trees ... is he the potential trigger of the next mid-east conflagration? Could he be a Palestinian "Bouazizi" who sets off a new war? The West Bank is poised like a bead unstably perched atop a wire loop; one small push and down it slides, a reaction far stronger than initial push. And in this case, some of the potential reactors are nuclear armed.

One by one, Israel's peace partnerships are coming undone.
~ Egypt: poplar opinion is forcing the junta to moderate both their support of the peace agreement and their constraint of Hamas in the Gaza. After the elections, there will be a lively debate about Egypt's commitment to the peace, no matter who wins.
~ Jordan: two prime ministers fired in six months. Much empathy on the street with West Bank Palestinians. A youthful, literate, unemployed tinder box of instability.
~ Turkey: already turned hostile to Israel’s handling of Gaza. Turning its face away from Europe and Eastward toward its Arab neighbors again.

And all about, in Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, are uneasy autocrats who regularly use Israel to whip up their people and distract them from domestic concerns. Can they, will they attempt to do so again? Even in Israel, the "Arab Spring" had its counterpart in September -- huge demonstrations against the government over inflation, housing shortages, income squeeze and opportunity disparities. Increasing polarization over policies and immigrant demands.

Yet rather than dampen, Israel insists on enflaming Arab populist outrage. My nephew and his fiancé , Ged and Kelleigh, spent a couple of months last summer working on a Palestinian farm in the West Bank, then traveling in Jordan and Turkey. They paint a grim picture.

One Palestinian land owner with whom they worked was attempting to plant an olive grove on his land bisected by the wall. They helped him transport water to nurture the new grove -- expensive water, for the Israeli authorities forbid the drilling of wells or construction of cisterns to catch the rare rains in the West Bank. Forbid, that is, the Palestinians from doing so; no restrictions on settlers' tapping and catching valuable waters. West Bank Israelis annually use 1,450cubic meters per capita vs. 83 per Palestinian -- yes, 83!

Another scene: settlers of an illegal settlement covet an adjacent Palestinian pistachio and olive grove. When the Palestinian owner and his work party, including Kelleigh and Ged, come to tend and water the grove, the armed settlers harass them with taunts and threats. The Israeli Defense Force arrives to separate the adversaries and maintain peace. "Maintain peace" by ordering the Palestinians off their own land, and hurrying them on their way with stun grenades and tear gas, to the delight of the settlers.

Just one small incident in a sea of such mis-matched confrontations.

Netanyahu is intent on flooding occupied land with Israelis, making a mockery of the notion of a free-standing Palestinian state. Regional, indeed, world-wide opposition to and disdain for Israel grows apace.

So what is our policy? To veto Security Council endorsement of statehood recognition? To hang with Israel no matter how isolated they become? To withdraw support from UNESCO – an organization dedicated to defusing world tensions by fostering understanding and exchange? To stand by and watch an embattled Israel, armed with nuclear weapons, turn increasingly defensive, intransigent, feel cornered and desperately deluded that they are always in the right?

Why not abstain when the Security Council votes? Why not begin supplying West Bank Palestinians with supplies, water, agricultural aid -- in effect, countering at least symbolically Israel's real politick investiture of the land? Lecturing Netanyahu hasn't accomplished anything; isn’t it time to demonstrate that our support is conditional and that we can back words with actions that demonstrate even-handedness?

Do we have the political courage to become even-handed? No Republican will do so in this polarized environment, especially given the evangelicals' embrace of Eretz Israel. (Evangelicals believe the second coming will happen only after the Promised Land is fully returned to the Jews. Of course, in the second coming, non-Christians will be wiped out; so much for their empathy with Israelis.) Nor will Democrats support even-handedness, fearful of driving away knee-jerk Israeli supporters. Perhaps a group of "wise men" like those used by Johnson, or Bishop Tutu's “The Elders”, could speak objectively and persuasively. Maybe the specter of nuclear armed instabilities like Pakistan, No. Korea, Iran and Israel will bring some hard thinking and stiffen the spines of our "leaders." Shocked to put Israel in the same company? Ask yourself: are they truly acting more statesmanlike and rational than the others?

Only when we begin to see and listen and think hard about being dragged into another conflagration, one conceivably of mushroom proportions, will we have the courage to change direction and act even-handily and hard-headedly. Israel is our toughest, most dangerous foreign policy conundrum, far harder to deal with than Pakistan, Iran or North Korea where the world sees it our way, because we are alone and stuck in our prior position. But we may be at the two minute warning – little time to find our own, new way in this increasingly dangerous and unstable part of the world.