U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem. REUTERS/Jason Reed
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a stark warning to Israel on Thursday that failure to advance peace negotiations with Palestine risks sparking another intifada and isolating the American ally from the rest of the world.
The latest push to jumpstart negotiations between conservative P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and that of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas comes as Netanyahu’s fiery former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has been acquitted of corruption charges, paving the way for him to rejoin the government. As a private citizen, Lieberman has kept up his penchant for inflammatory remarks that stir up resentment abroad, and his return has to make peace even less likely, unless, of course, he is willing to help convince Israel’s far-right to approve of a two-state solution.
But that’s hard to envision given that members of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party are openly rejecting the prospect of a two-state deal, which even Netanyahu has endorsed (at least in principle) to appease the West. Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu party are that much less inclined to lift a finger on behalf of a long-term solution with Palestine, as their political base consists of Russian and other Eastern European immigrants fiercely skeptical of Palestinians’ willingness or capacity to abide by an agreement. That’s to say nothing of Palestinian intransigence and internal divides, as Hamas has ramped up its ideological footprint on local schools in the Gaza Strip, a provocation that will surely irk not just Israeli conservatives but American diplomats as well. Efforts to reunify with Abbas’ Fatah movement have stalled of late, as the Palestinian Authority president is far more willing to wade into the nuts and bolts of the peace process.
Kerry’s aggressive push seems calculated to split Netanyahu’s coalition, which includes centrist parties much more concerned with maintaining close ties to the United States than the conservatives. Certainly, that members of Likud are openly discussing the annexation of Palestine will also test the coalition’s strength, as well as the personal patience of Tzipi Livni, the former Kadima foreign minister and Netanyahu rival the P.M. tapped to give his peace push some credibility. But there seems to be a distinct lack of political pressure within Israel to advance the peace process, given that Yair Lapid — the journalist-turned-pol whose centrist party surprised political observers with a strong showing in elections, forcing Netanyahu to expand his coalition — is insisting Jerusalem remain “undivided”. Netanyahu is also dealing with young conservative upstarts like Knesset firebrand Danny Danon, the Ted Cruz of Israel, who only further discourage him to expend any political capital on behalf of the peace process. Suffice it to say that at this point, Kerry is hoping to rattle Lapid and some of his more cautious allies.
But the overarching dynamic remains one that is simply not amenable to peace, with the fiercest energy on the Israeli political scene overhwhelmingly coming on the far-right of the spectrum. Likewise, until Hamas and Fatah develop a coherent (collective) stance on the peace process, Abbas’ willingness to play ball in front of the cameras does not inspire much confidence.
