Micah Halpern: Diplomacy by whining

By Micah D. Halpern

The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Israel’s revered statesman, respected diplomat and global thinker Abba Eban — a man intimately familiar with the Arab world and Arab diplomacy — made that observation. And the words ring as true today as they did when first spoken twenty-six years ago.

The Palestinians have developed a unique style of diplomacy — a kvetch and complain style. They express displeasure and dissatisfaction with almost every plan put before them, almost every concession made to them and almost every pledge made on their behalf.

Their latest source of displeasure is the United States.

Palestinian diplomats and political leaders are accusing the United States of not keeping their word. As it turns out, this time, they are correct.

In the early days of his administration Barack Obama made it clear that it was his belief that in order for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to be resumed under his watchful eye, Israel must first freeze all settlement activity. The Arab world received this news gladly. Finally, the collective thinking went, the United States understands the Palestinians and is ready to stand up to the arrogant Israelis. You could practically hear the applause, as this “precondition” became known in the Arab world and the halls of the US administration.

And then the United States saw the light. The reversal came in September when, during the United Nations’ General Assembly, President Obama coordinated and chaired a three-way meeting between himself, Abbas and Netanyahu. In the press conference following the meeting the President backed down from his original foreign policy commitment. The precondition, he realized, had stymied, not stimulated the negotiating process.

Under Olmert there had been no preconditions. Negotiations progressed or did not progress, the parties met or did not meet, spoke or did not speak based on the immediacy of each situation at hand. The Obama administration had created new tension in a situation already rife with distrust and diplomatic disgust.

Now the administration realizes how impractical the settlement freeze precondition was and the US is pulling back from its original, early term, stance. Now tensions are high. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Presidential Special Envoy George Mitchell are doing their best to bring the parties together, but their best has not proved to be good enough at all.

The Arab world is exerting real pressure on the United States.  Abbas made his disappointment clear to Clinton.  The Secretary General of the Arab League, Amir Moussa, shouted that there is no way that negotiations will begin without a total stoppage of settlements. When Clinton, in her most recent trip to the region, made it clear that Israel has made historical compromises, it was like throwing oil on the fire. The response across the Arab world was disgust — going so far as to parallel the Obama administration with the second Bush administration, one of the mightiest criticisms and insults the Arab world has to offer.

The United States will have a hard time setting things right.  For the life of this administration it will be viewed with skepticism unless, once again, it does a turn about. Anything is possible. One thing is for sure. Whatever happens, rightly or wrongly, the Arab world will find something to complain about.