Joel Davis of FPA’s U.S. Role in the World blog accuses the U.S. of not being an honest and impartial broker in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. He notes that the U.S. threw a “temper tantrum” after Israel’s housing development announcement last week and asks why the U.S. did not throw a similar tantrum after a rocket fired from Gaza killed a Thai agricultural worker in Israel.
Davis’ post might have been more convincing had he addressed some pertinent facts he left out. The U.S. does not even talk to Hamas because it is designated a terrorist organization. Obama campaigned on a promise not to talk to Hamas, vehemently denying rumors he had secret designs to initiate low-level talks. George Mitchell said earlier this year that he wouldn’t support an Israeli-Hamas prisoner exchange because it would “be seen as a validation of Hamas’ tactics, which is violence resistance” and it would “send the message that their violent resistance has paid off.” On the day of the rocket attack, the U.S. Treasury Department added a bank and a television station to its terrorist financing list, claiming both to be controlled by Hamas, asserting that “Treasury will not distinguish between a business financed and controlled by a terrorist group, such as Al-Aqsa Television, and the terrorist group itself…” Under U.S. law, it is illegal to provide any assistance to terrorist groups, even to help them learn ways to achieve their objectives peacefully, and this is likely to endure as the law of the land.
The so-called temper tantrum against Israel was actually nestled in the context of a love note. Biden, in the so-called temper tantrum speech, spoke of “the deep friendship and kinship I feel as well as President Obama feels for this magnificent country,” adding, “I feel like I’m at home,” and “the United States has no better friend in the community of nations than Israel,” and:
Our nations’ unbreakable bond borne of common values, interwoven cultures, and mutual interests has spanned the entirety of Israel’s history. And it’s — it’s impervious to any shifts in either country and either country’s partisan politics. No matter what challenges we face, this bond will endure.
Biden spoke of the origins of his love for Israel:
It started at my dinner table with my father, who you would refer to as a righteous Christian. My father — my dinner table was a place where we gathered to have conversation and incidentally eat, as opposed to the other way around. And my father — my father’s support for Israel is outrage for what had happened in the ’30s and the failure of the world to act, his support for the creation of the state of Israel. It generated a feeling for Israel that began in my gut and went to my heart, and the older I got matured in my mind.
And also:
American support for Israel is not just an act of friendship; it’s an act of fundamental national self-interest on the part of the United States, a key component to our broader efforts to secure this region and a wider world, as well as our own security.
And in fact, the so-called temper tantrum was actually more of a temper tantrum against Hamas. Biden asserted that “Hamas has condemned Gaza’s populace to misery and hopelessness,” and stated that “the United States stands resolutely beside Israel against the scourge of terrorism, from which both of our countries have suffered badly.” Furthermore, the U.S. did condemn the rocket fire today in a joint statement with the other Quartet members (EU, UN, and Russia) which stated that “[t]he Quartet condemns yesterday’s rocket fire from Gaza and calls for an immediate end to violence and terror and for calm to be respected.”
In light of the above facts, I think the argument that the U.S. is soft on anti-Israeli terrorism is pretty weak.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this post incorrectly blamed Hamas for this week’s Gaza rocket fire. Since the rocket was not launched by Hamas, but by Ansar al-Sunna, a group that opposes Hamas, I revised the post to reflect this fact. I apologize for the error.
