US-Israel Ties Face Worst Crisis in 35 Years

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country's diplomats there that US-Israeli relations face their worst crisis in 35 years, despite attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office to project a sense of "business as usual"" Oren was speaking to Israeli consuls general in a conference call.

Netanyahu continued to consult with the forum of seven senior cabinet ministers over a list of demands that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made in a telephone conversation Friday. Clinton harshly criticized the announcement recently of plans to expand the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in East Jerusalem while US Vice President Joe Bidden was visiting Israel.

Restoring Confidence in Bilateral Relations
Clinton's list includes at least four steps the United States expects Netanyahu to carry out to restore confidence in bilateral relations and permit the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

1. Investigate the process that led to the announcement of the Ramat Shlomo construction plans in the middle of Bidden's visit. The Americans seek an official response from Israel on whether this was a bureaucratic mistake or a deliberate act carried out for political reasons. Already on Saturday night, Netanyahu announced the convening of a committee to look into the issue.

2. Reverse the decision by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee to approve construction of 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo.

3. Make a substantial gesture toward the Palestinians enabling the renewal of peace talks. The United States suggested that hundreds of Palestinian prisoners be released, that the Israel Defense Forces withdraw from additional areas of the West Bank and transfer them to Palestinian control that the siege of the Gaza Strip be eased and further roadblocks in the West Bank be removed.

4. Issue an official declaration that the talks with the Palestinians, even indirect talks, will deal with all the conflict's core issues - borders, refugees, Jerusalem, security arrangements, water and settlements.

Two advisers of the prime minister, Yitzhak Molcho and Ron Dermer, held marathon talks with senior White House officials in Washington and US Mideast envoy George Mitchell and his staff to try to calm the situation. Mitchell will return to Israel and expects to hear if Netanyahu intends to take the proposed steps. At the beginning of cabinet meeting, Netanyahu tried to convey a message that there was no crisis in relations with the United States. But he sent precisely the opposite message to Oren in Washington.

In Oren's conference call with the Israeli consuls general, he said that the current crisis was the most serious with the Americans since a confrontation between Henry Kissinger and Yitzhak Rabin in 1975 over an American demand for a partial withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. At cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the matter had been blown out of proportion by the media.

He added: "There was an unfortunate incident here that was innocently committed and was hurtful, and certainly should not have occurred." He said steps would be taken to prevent such cases in the future. "It is extremely important to understand that the State of Israel and the United States have common interests," he said, adding that those interests "also require us to take decisions to change the situation in the country."

Tense and Pessimistic Situation
Some noted that in previous conference calls with Oren, the ambassador took pains to make clear that relations with the United States were excellent. This time, however, Oren sounded extremely tense and pessimistic. Oren was quoted as saying that "the crisis was very serious and we are facing a very difficult period in relations (between the two countries)" Oren told the consuls to lobby congressmen, Jewish community leaders and the media to convey Israel's position. He said the message to be relayed was that Israel had no intention to cause offense to Vice President Bidden and that the matter had stemmed from actions by junior bureaucrats in the Interior Ministry and was caused by a lack of coordination between government offices. "It should be stressed that (our) relations with the United States are very important to us," Oren said.

Several of the consuls suggested waiting, but Oren hinted that his approach reflected Netanyahu's wishes. "These instructions come from the highest level in Jerusalem," he was quoted as saying, adding that the utmost must be done to calm matters. Oren told participants in the conference call of a meeting he was summoned to with Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg for a reprimand. Oren spoke of his surprise at being summoned after believing that the crisis had already ended.

Issues Pertaining to US Born Muslims

Although the Obama administration has abolished the former US George W. Bush administration's "war on terror" emphasis shortly after US President Barack Obama became the US President, but the special effort taken by President Obama in wanting to improve the US perception in the World Muslim in the past year has failed to achieve any concrete result. There is no sign to show that the "clash of civilization' phenomenon has subsided. Moreover, before the end of 2009, we heard news about a religious extremist who claimed he would act on behalf of the Al Qa'ida terrorist network to carry out terrorist mission. This Islamic extremist tried to detonate a bomb on a Northwest Airlines international fight heading toward the US homeland but failed.
More compelling is that within the global Islamic extremist forces, we witness the emergence of a growing number of US-born Muslims. Such a trend was obvious when, on the day after the foiled terrorist attempt to blow up the Northwest Airlines plane, US mainstream daily The Washington Post has through its website on its international news section, posed two top stories relating to US-born Muslim terrorist development.
The first news said that on 24 December 2009, the Yemeni government carried out an air strike in order to clear the hideout place of Al Qa'ida network members in Yemen. Apparently, this was done with the help of the United States. The action taken by the Yemeni government has caused concern and attention to the people in the United State. Many wanted to know if the anti-US Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki was among those killed in the air raid. Earlier report has allegedly charged that Anwar Awlaki has connection with the Fort Hood army base Muslim shooter Major Nidal Hassan. The second top news carried by Washington Post on the same day said that the Pakistani authorities were getting ready to prosecute the five US Muslims from Virginia whom Pakistani authorities have arrested for their allegedly involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan.
The common denominator of the two top news carried by The Washington Post was that both the incidents involved US born Muslims. All the names involved in the news were US Muslim citizens and that the anti-US Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki was no exception. If the US Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki were indeed killed in the Yemini air strikes aided by the United States, then as the father of Anwar Awlaki claimed, it would be the first time the US Government executed death sentence to a US citizen by providing direct support to a foreign government without going through judiciary process. More importantly, these recent developments have shown that in the international "political Islam' trend, the US Muslims are increasingly playing a prominent role in such a development. US born Islamic extremists are indeed on the increase. The senseless Fort Hood military base shooting by Muslim Major Hassan has created tremendous impact to the mainstream US society as well as the US Muslim population that are law abiding.
To the mainstream US society, such a development is a challenge to the US traditional immigrant society culture. The development has also given the mainstream US society a sudden sense of feeling that their superiority European societal culture has been weaken. In a relative comparison, the US society suddenly discovers that after half a century of their assimilation policy, they still cannot really "digest" the non-Christian immigrants coming other countries as well as from Europe. All along, the United States is proud of its successful "melting pot" immigrant policy. However, recent series of religious terrorist related events have shown that this "melting pot" immigrant culture has lost its effectiveness on the descendents of US Muslim immigrants.
President Obama is the first US President that carried some Afro American blood. Obama is also the first US President that can trace his religious root to some Islamic influence. Nevertheless, since Obama was raised his single mother and Christian grandparents, Obama only retains middle name 'Hussein' In reality Obama has not been influenced by Islamic culture.
In Washington, the political fight for power has been intensified. Such political struggle for power has begun to have an impact on US foreign policy direction. President Obama's original intention to reduce the Muslim World's anti-US sentiment by cooling down the counterterrorism policy has suffered severe setback. The US Government's intention to treat all citizens "fairly" has also become more difficult to achieve.

Assimilation of Societal Process
Of note is that since the Second World War, the US defense and military have made effort to recruit and promote soldiers and military officers coming from minority groups with the intention to reduce racial prejudice and to speed up assimilation of societal process. This is the reason the Fort Hood shooting killer Major Nidal Malik Hasan could still earn the trust of the US Armed Forces although this Muslim Major has shown his anti-US tendency much earlier. After the tragic shooting at Fort Hood army base, the right wing conservative groups have begun to question this traditional "politically correct" military policy. They even demanded the resignation of US Army chief.
Yet at the same time, with the extremist Muslim population in the United States on the increase, it seems to us that the US intelligence agencies, in particular the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have vigorously strengthened their vigil, surveillance and penetration to the US Muslim community and certain Muslims. A recent issue of The New York Times has even revealed that some FBI agents have disguised as Islamic religious extremists and set up trap to order to arrest Islamic extremists and put them in courts. Moreover, the report also said that the FBI personnel also work with the US Immigration to lure some of their targeted Muslims as their 'line agents' by either approving their green card permanent residency or threaten to deport them from the United States. The job of these "line agents" is to secretly monitor and prosecute the Muslims of their same kind.
Such practice by the US intelligent bodies in treating the Muslim population has caused a strong rebound in the US Muslim community. To borrow the words of The New York Times, they have planted "the seeds of anger and fear" in the Muslim community.

Fundamental Interests of Islamic World
The way the US authority handles the Muslims made the US Muslims feel that from the beginning to the end, the authority has always suspected and considered them as a different category of US citizens. As such, many Muslim citizens have taken a negative approach by taking less overseas trips, becoming very selective in their friendship and by reducing their willingness to do voluntary work for the society or made donation to the society as an act of Islamic faith.
As of today, the US Government and the US community at large are still not willing to look into the underlying causes of why the Islamic radical and extremist thought could attract the younger generation of Muslims in the United States so deeply. In the author's opinion, the main reason is that in the eyes of the majority of the US Muslims, they feel Washington's foreign policy is detrimental to the fundamental interests of the Islamic world. To take a recent example, under the subtle approval by the Obama administration, the Israeli regime has continued to occupy and carry out expansion in East Jerusalem. However, to the Muslim World, the importance of East Jerusalem is only second to Mecca and Medina. East Jerusalem is considered as the third holiest place to the Muslims. According to the Islamic faith, East Jerusalem is the land where the Prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven.

Demand of Situation
Under such circumstances, Washington might continue to view the Muslim community in the United States as the potential "fifth fleet" of the Islamic extremist force in the United States. Such subtle handling of US Muslim population can only widen and distance the US Muslims from the mainstream US society.
Some time ago, we read a Reuters report that said that when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made an announcement for the recruit of more workers, the Arab Americans have responded to this call in a rather lukewarm or even cold manner. They simply said, "Does the United State love us?" This short statement has candidly summed up the contradiction and the ambivalence faced by the US Muslim population.