Dysfunctions of Mideast
the IS. With these more well-armed forces, equipped with artillery and antitank weapons, there is hope that they can put an end to the siege of Kobane by the Islamic State, which has already lasted six weeks and seen more than 800 deaths. If they succeed in pushing back the IS fighters, it will be a huge propaganda victory against them.
And as if the Americans had not already had their plates full of problems in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Oct. 27 that his government would accelerate approval of the construction of 1,060 new apartments for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem. This provoked international condemnation of the plans, including from the US government who said that this move was not compatible with the pursuit of peace.
As everyone knows, the Palestinians consider Jerusalem their capital, so any expansion of the Israeli presence in the area is seen as an aggression against a possible future peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis that would see the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital.
This was only the latest of many explosive grenades that hit US-Israeli relations. In an article this week in The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg reports that a US senior official in Washington said he thinks Netanyahu is a coward, calling him “chickenshit,: a real insult. This shows to what low-level relations between the Netanyahu government and the administration of Barack Obama have sunk. Goldberg says that US government sources have told him that if the Israelis do not return to the negotiating table with the Palestinians soon, the US will no longer protect Israel at international organizations and that President Obama is willing to publicly announce, with maps and all, an American plan next year for an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
I hope that happens, because it will be the only way the Palestinians will achieve their long-held dream of having their own country, where they will be the masters of their own destiny.
Obama is willing to publicly announce, with maps and all, an American plan next year for an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.