Editorial: All pretense, no substance

With all the fuss about this week’s White House meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, you’d think the Camp David Accords had been signed all over again. Far from (and let’s hope it doesn’t turn out to be more like the Oslo Accords). It was good to know that the US-Israel relationship is “back on track,” as so many pundits put it, but the love-fest came across more like pretense — just a show for the cameras.

The President’s public statements were warm and complimentary toward the Prime Minister and the “extraordinary friendship” between the U.S. and Israel, and Mr. Netanyahu said, in response to a question at a photo op, that reports of strains in the Israel-US relationship are “flat wrong,” and pointed out that family members can have disagreements.

Still in all, with mid-term elections coming up the White House obviously doesn’t care to be on the outs with American Jews and the many Democrats still among us. Now President Obama can claim to be fostering continued forward movement on the “peace process” even though it is the Palestinians that are not interested in the direct talks Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu both claim to favor. Nothing has changed, presumably, about the President’s warped view of how the Middle East works and why its people do the things they do.

That’s why the kiss-and-make-up session was not free of charge for Israel. Barry Rubin of the Gloria Center (Global Research in International Affairs) wrote:

“So here’s the deal. Give Israel some U.S. support in exchange for modest steps that the administration hopes accomplishes its goals. Israel will give some things that don’t appreciably hurt its interests in order to maintain good relations with the United States.”

“First, Israel has revised the list of goods it permits to go into the Gaza Strip. The details were all agreed upon beforehand with the United States. The Obama Administration will support Israel over Gaza generally, including endorsing its independent investiation of the flotilla issue.”

“As the Israeli government explains it, the new list ‘is limited to weapons, war materiel, and dual-use items.’ Such military items include — aside from the obvious — a long list of chemicals, fertilizers, knives, optical equipment, light control equipment, missile-related computer technogies and so on.”

“Israel is defining dual-use items by an international agreement, the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies,” and thus should be acceptable to Western governments.”

“Construction materiels will be carefully monitored and allowed in only for specified projects. Israel will keep out dual-use goods including construction materiels (concrete and pipes, for example) that can be used by Hamas to build bunkers and rockets.”

More problematic for the Prime Minister domestically than word games over Gaza weaponry are the coming extensions of building freezes in Yehuda and Shomron and in Jerusalem to which he reportedly agreed.

That word pretense comes to mind again; both sides getting what they need, even if it pinches a little bit. The problem — no, the irony — is that while the U.S. and Israel remain perfectly capable of making “peace” among themselves, as they always have been, the actual enemy still shows no signs of interest in actual peace, again, as they always have. Good thing that the “peace process” is moving forward. Perhaps the President could be awarded a second Nobel Peace Prize.