Obama in Israel: A Setback for Palestinian Aspirations

President Obama’s visit to Israel and to Palestine (the West Bank occupied territory), hailed in Washington as a turning point in American-Israeli relations, did not have the same resonance with Palestinians. In fact, it was perceived as a retreat from previous US positions outwardly supportive of a balanced solution.

Watching the President’s motorcade driving across the hills in Palestinian territory on its way back to Tel Aviv from Bethlehem, where Obama visited the Church of the Nativity, I wondered whether Obama was even conscious that he was in the territories that Israel has illegally occupied since 1967. I was also wondering whether, from his car, Obama could see some of the settlements around Bethlehem which he himself condemned at the outset of his first term and which the international community periodically asks Israel to dismantle.

During his visit, the President reaffirmed the undying friendship between the United States and Israel. In his speech in Jerusalem on Thursday he stated: “You made credible proposals to the Palestinians at Annapolis. You withdrew from Gaza and Lebanon, and then faced terror and rockets. Across the region, you have extended a hand of friendship, and too often have been confronted with the ugly reality of anti-Semitism.” Not a word about the hundreds of Palestinian women and children killed by Israel’s intermittent murderous bombardments. Not a word about the thousands of Palestinian prisoners many of them minors  who are indefinitely detained without trial in Israeli jails and who are victims of torture and oppression. Not a word about the 100 or so checkpoints and the separation Wall (which Palestinians describe as the Apartheid Wall) preventing them from travelling across their own land.

The president of the country which prides itself on its continuous vigilance regarding the respect of the rule of law not only expressed his admiration of a state which systematically violates all international conventions but also did not ask for the end of occupation. Period.

I am sure that President Obama understands that for peace to be a possibility, a two-state solution is the only option. However, not once has he brought up key issues like the freezing of the building of settlements to start any negotiating process between the occupier and the occupied. Did he ask Mr. Netanyahu how a two-state solution is to be achieved if he refuses the very idea of putting a freeze to settlement building which is reducing the Palestinian territory to a non-contiguous patch of lands?

The Obama Administration needs to finally address the elephant in the room; the Netanyahu government does not want a two-state solution; the Netanyahu government does not want peace. No, Mr. President: it is the Arabs who have “extended a hand of friendship” by proposing a substantive peace plan – full diplomatic relations and the end of the state of war to Israel if it evacuates the occupied territories and helps solve all problems pertaining to refugees, Jerusalem, etc.. – which has been on the table since 2002 . And the Israeli government constantly disregards any attempt at peaceful negotiations with the Palestinians.  What shocked Palestinians is Obama’s statement addressing Israeli youths: “You can be the generation that permanently secures the Zionist dream, or you can face a growing challenge to its future”. What about the Palestinian dream, Mr. President?  By mentioning this ‘Zionist dream’ you did nothing but aggravate the situation. May I remind you that the ‘Zionist Dream’ is having total control over all Palestine, which includes what is currently the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Your words have shattered Palestinian dreams.