From: Global Research.caProf. James Petras
Introduction
Washington’s insistence that its NATO allies line-up
with it in supporting continued “bilateral” negotiations, has led to the
German government’s public humiliation when it followed Obama’s line of
pressuring Abbas back to ‘negotiations’ only to have the Israeli Prime
MInister Netanyahu announce the construction of 1,100 illegal Jews-only
housing units in occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem.
There are two views of Obama’s speech to the General
Assembly on September 21, 2011, and his opposition to the recognition of
Palestine as a sovereign state and its admission to the UN. The common
opinion of foreign policy experts was that Obama led the US to an
ignominious diplomatic defeat, deepening US isolation in the
international system.
The White House’s blatant parroting of Israel ’s
position to continue bilateral negotiations, while Tel Aviv continued to
colonize Palestinian land and forcibly evict its residents, alienated
the 1.5 billion Muslims throughout the world. Obama’s refusal to even
mention the return to the 1967 borders as a basis for a “peace
settlement”, totally undermined any pretext that the US could act as an
“honest broker” in Mid-East peace negotiations, even in the eyes of its
most slavish supporters in the PLO. His one-sided reference to Israel’s
minimal casualties in maintaining the Occupation, while omitting any
mention of the 12,000 Palestinian political prisoners, thousands of
assassinations, everyday humiliation, routine torture of suspects and
frequent defacement of Palestinian religious centers (mosques and
churches, cemeteries and shrines), undermined any US effort to win favor
among the millions of people involved in the pro-democracy social
movements sweeping the Arab world from Tunisia, Egypt to the Gulf
states.
Washington’s insistence that its NATO allies line-up
with it in supporting continued “bilateral” negotiations, has led to the
German government’s public humiliation when it followed Obama’s line of
pressuring Abbas back to ‘negotiations’ only to have the Israeli Prime
MInister Netanyahu announce the construction of 1,100 illegal Jews-only
housing units in occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem.
Obama’s blatant and overt pandering to Israel before
the representative of 193 independent nations, which had followed the
standing ovation for Abbas’ call for Palestinian recognition, highlights
one of the greatest US diplomatic defeats since the founding of the UN
over 60 years ago.
