The disagreements between the administration of US President Barack Obama and the Israeli Government, led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the settlement activity in occupied Jerusalem have increased. According to US dailies, these disagreements were clearly evident at the latter's meetings and tense talks with US officials.
Internal and External Interests
Netanyahu considers himself more powerful than the US President and his administration's officials because he enjoys great support from the two largest establishments in the United States, the Congress and the Jewish lobby, AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee). Therefore, he appeared uninterested in the calls on him to halt the settlement activity and go back to the table of indirect negotiations with the Palestinian side.
This arrogant stand on the part of the Israeli prime minister constitutes the greatest challenge, not only to President Obama, but also to the entire governing US establishment. This challenge makes it incumbent on the governing US establishment to confront the Israeli prime minister forcefully and effectively in a way that will serve the United States' internal and, particularly, external interests.
Successive Israeli Governments rebelled against the White House in the past, but the disagreements and crises that resulted from their action were not so serious that they were difficult to contain or overcome. The current crisis, however, is completely different in terms of its timing and the magnitude of dangers that it entails.
Wars in Region
The United States is currently fighting two ferocious wars in the region, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan. At least about a quarter of a million US soldiers are taking part in these two wars, and the Israeli settlement activities and acts of aggression began to have a negative effect on the US soldiers in these two wars, as was admitted by Commander of the US Central Command David Petraeus.
What we mean to say is that the United States cannot contain the current crisis through the same means that it used to contain previous crises. In addition, Israel currently suffers a quasi international isolation and increasing campaigns of hatred in the circles of the peoples of its allies in the Western states, namely in Europe.
Aggression Against Gaza Strip
Israel is no longer the only democratic state in the Middle East that represents the Western culture and abides by the law. Rather, it has become a terrorist rogue state in the eyes of many people following the war crimes that it committed during its latest aggression against the Gaza Strip and after it used the passports of more than six Western states (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Australia, and Italy) in assassinating martyr Mahmud al-Mabhuh. Al-Mabhuh, one of the founders of the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, was assassinated in an allied and peaceful state, the United Arab Emirates.
We do not know who will emerge as a winner in the current conflict between Obama and Netanyahu, between the president of a superpower and the prime minister of a small state that cannot live or rather survive without the former's support and backing. What we do know, however, is that the United States is the loser so far, only because this crisis broke out the way we saw, which was humiliating to the United States and to its international and regional standing.
Freezing Settlement Activity
What is certain is that the United States will not give up its Israeli ally because of the current crisis. On the other hand, Netanyahu will not make it easy for the United States to back down on its current stand on the need to halt or freeze the settlement activity to save what has remained of the peace process, which is truly collapsed. Netanyahu announced that occupied Jerusalem is not a settlement, but an eternal capital for the State of Israel.
What is noticeable is the fact that the Arab states are standing as spectators and not trying to help their US ally in such a confrontation with Israel. But this is not a strange stand because these states have no weight and value and are accustomed to living on the sidelines and to receiving insults and slaps.
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