Colin Powell gives a widely-lauded speech in which he shows that the US cares about getting a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem that provides justice for all parties.
Israel response? Build more settlements.
The Palestinian cause has been hurt time and time again by fanatics and (sorry, BBC) terrorists in their ranks committing acts of such violence and bloodshed that Israel has an excuse to use its (US-supported) military superiority against them. And Israel has, generally, been a diplomatic friend to the US.
But Israel continues to shoot itself in the foot, coming across steadily and increasingly as a Goliath against the Palestinian David — quite an irony, if you like such things. Part of this is internal Israeli politics — coalition-building is such a fragile arrangement that the voices of those who insist on building settlements must be heard (and this is as good an argument as any why a strong two-party system is actually a good thing). Part of this is the Israeli mindset of being locked in a life-and-death struggle in which any tactic is acceptible to secure life, if not peace, and anything which creates a further toehold there along the eastern Mediterranean is a worthwhile effort.
But regardless of the reasons, regardless of Arab and Palestinian provocations, this has to stop. It smacks of acting in bad faith, of using might to enforce what is right for oneself. And it continues to erode US popular support for Israel, which is a bad thing both for them and for us.
Peace in the Middle East is not going to be easy. But this sort of provocation only makes a bad situation worse, drives the Palestinians to greater desperation, and makes people of good will and a fair nature wonder all the more which side we should be backing in this conflict.
(Via USS Clueless, who wonders what would happen if we threatened to nuke Jerusalem if there wasn’t a solid peace agreement between the two sides by 31 July 2002. Tempting …)