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UN vote a setback but US key to Mideast peace hopes
WASHINGTON, Dec 22, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – Washington’s latest overwhelming
defeat at the United Nations may have been an embarrassment, but any claim it
has lost its role as Middle East peace mediator will likely prove premature.
A huge majority of UN member states, including close US allies and major
aid recipients, voted Thursday to reject President Donald Trump’s recognition
of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Underscoring the significance of the defeat, US ambassador Nikki Haley had
warned that Trump would be watching and that she would be “taking names” of
countries who let him down.
But — once again — Trump’s “America First” policy delivered an “America
Alone” result, leaving some Palestinians crowing that the United States can
no longer serve as peace mediator.
Vice President Mike Pence had already postponed a trip he was due to make
to the region this week, after Palestinian and Arab Christian leaders had
proved reluctant to meet him.
– Peace broker –
So, perhaps Washington will have to keep its powder dry for a few weeks as
dust settles, some experts acknowledge.
But if there is ever to be a long-elusive peace deal between Israel and the
Palestinians, only one broker can deliver it.
“There’s been peaks and valleys before on this issue,” said David Makovsky,
a peace process veteran and senior fellow of the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy.
“If I had a dollar every time people said ‘Oh, it’s over now, the US is not
the broker…” he told AFP ironically.
Dan Shapiro, who served as former president Barack Obama’s ambassador to
Israel, dismissed the vote as a “pathetic UN circus” and urged Washington to
refocus on its goal.
“What is US strategy to end the conflict, achieve two states, avoid
permanent binational reality? Or at least keep those goals alive?” he
demanded, on Twitter.
That strategy should reveal itself in the coming weeks or months, when
Trump’s son-in-law and peace envoy Jared Kushner reveals his hotly
anticipated blueprint.
Almost since Trump has been in office Kushner and his fellow real estate
lawyer Jason Greenblatt have been shuttling between the White House and the
region drawing up plans.
Few details have leaked, but Washington gossip assumes it will be a less
prescriptive version of the plan to see Israel and Palestine negotiate the
borders of two states.
Kushner and Greenblatt initially made a good impression on leaders in the
region, despite Palestinian fears that Trump is sympathetic to Israeli
settlement building on occupied land.
But America’s unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital without the parties first agreeing a division of sovereignty in the
holy city outraged Palestinians.
Planned meetings with Pence were cancelled and, at the United Nations on
Thursday Palestinian envoys tasted bitter victory when the world largely
united to condemn Trump’s position.
– Peace parameters –
“One hundred twenty-eight versus nine — that’s a massive setback for the
United States of America,” Ambassador Riyad Mansour told AFP, after the vote.
But if the Palestinians are now hoping for a more convenable mediator,
they stand to be disappointed.
France — along with other key US allies like Britain, Turkey and Saudi
Arabia — voted to censure Trump, but French envoy Ambassador Francois
Delattre played down its importance.
“Today’s resolution simply reaffirms the international law that applies to
Jerusalem,” he told reporters.
“It is more important than ever to unite the international community behind
agreed peace process parameters, including of course the United States,” he
said.
Of Washington’s mediation, the ambassador added: “Everyone knows the
special role and weight they have in this dossier.”
So, however the Palestinians fell today after a rare procedural victory,
next year they may find themselves obliged to engage with whatever new plan
Kushner comes up with.
Makovsky argued that Trump had never ruled out a Palestinian capital in
east Jerusalem, and said US officials should have gone on Arab television to
explain this.
“Look at what the guy said; that he wanted to leave this open to the
parties to negotiate whatever sovereignty arrangements they want, including
the religious sites,” he argued.
“So I wouldn’t say this is dead and buried,” he told AFP.
“My feeling is that if Kushner and Greenblatt actually put forward a peace
plan in the first quarter of 2018. I think [the Palestinians] would have to
take it seriously.”
BSS/AFP/RY/11:40 hrs