Roger Cohen’s latest op-ed in the New York Times condemns the Obama administration and Israel for failing to achieve progress in the peace process. Even though President Barack Obama has attempted to establish a new paradigm for working with Israel and its neighbors, the administration has stumbled into the same old habits, according to Cohen.
Of particular irritation for Cohen is Israel’s continued policy on settlements. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to half-halfheartedly implement a partial and temporary freeze on settlements only after immense and partially-successful pressure from the administration. Cohen writes:
“The U.S. objective is a two-state peace. But day by day, square meter by square meter, the physical space for the second state, Palestine, is disappearing. Can the Gaza sardine can and fractured labyrinth of the West Bank now be seen as anything but a grotesque caricature of a putative state? America has allowed this self-defeating process to advance to near irreversibility.”
Cohen supports the Zionist cause but rejects Israeli actions that he says oppress Palestinians. He writes:
“Here’s what I believe. Centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust created a moral imperative for a Jewish homeland, Israel, and demand of America that it safeguard that nation in the breach.
But past persecution of the Jews cannot be a license to subjugate another people, the Palestinians. Nor can the solemn U.S. promise to stand by Israel be a blank check to the Jewish state when its policies undermine stated American aims.”
Cohen argues the U.S. can pressure Israel without compromising the country’s security. He notes that the Israeli nuclear program (OK, alleged) serves as a deterrent to make Israel the most powerful country in the region.
Yes, Israel is the most powerful country in the region. But, Israel faces growing international pressure to limit the use of force, pressure that would severely intensify if Israel threatened -let alone used- nuclear force. Israel is militarily the strongest, but the IDF remains handcuffed by international pressure and what some would call a double standard.
(I, personally, reject the double standard argument. Israel should not measure the morality of its actions against the immorality of other countries or terrorists. Hamas’ use of terrorism does no justify Israel’s, for example.)
To infuse urgency in the peace process, Cohen makes one comment that has permeated pundit discussions but lacks a foundation in reality- the demographic existential threat. Birth rates of non-Jews in Israel are higher than those of Jews and Israelis fear that non-Jews will become a majority. But, studies negate this argument, noting that Arab birth rates are dropping and Jewish rates are growing. The demographic existential threat is likely a myth.