The latest attempt by the United States alongside Qatar and Egypt to find an agreement for a cease-fire has again failed to produce a breakthrough. A well-respected Palestinian TV commentator, Nasser Laham, argued that in the last 40 years, every time the United States has tried to mediate in the Middle East conflict, it has failed. He noted that the Oslo accords were reached without U.S. involvement, and he quoted top Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreeing not to tell the Americans, “otherwise they might thwart” the effort.
This is not to say that the Americans are not genuine in pursuing the current effort for a cease-fire. Certainly, a cease-fire would be a dream come true for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. But it is logically impossible to be a strong ally to one party and an honest broker at the same time. When President Biden says he is a Zionist and Secretary of State Antony Blinken reminds everyone on his first visit to Tel Aviv that he is coming to Israel as a Jew, it is hard to expect people with deep bias to be able to dissuade an Israeli leader intent on the war continuing as long as possible so he can stay in power and out of jail.
American officials, including Blinken, have violated and ignored clear U.S. law about the use of defensive weapons in an offensive way that kills children and women indiscriminately. No wonder Americans opposed to the Israeli war on Gaza are calling for an arms embargo on a country accused of war crimes and possible genocide. Even President Biden agreed that the protestors outside the Democratic convention had a point, yet no weapons embargo was decided upon. Sure there are domestic pressures on the White House, but that is exactly why the U.S. is in a difficult position of being an ally and a neutral arbitrator at the same time.
The Biden administration has also violated U.S. law that forbids sending funds to any government that impedes the delivery of basic humanitarian supplies. That is what is happening in Gaza without U.S. officials insisting on the honest execution of American law. The Americans are also abandoning their trusted Arab allies as the Israelis insist on violating the U.S.-sponsored 1977 Camp David accords and the succeeding annexes after the U.S.-supervised 1993 Declaration of Principles. The presence of Israeli troops on the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza is a clear violation of those agreements, yet the U.S. is allowing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to suggest that Israel need only withdraw one kilometer from the 14-kilometer border area. Instead, Washington should side with its Egyptian ally and with signed peace agreements.
The failed efforts to reach a cease-fire are also happening because of the way the talks are being conducted and the spin that they are getting. The powerful U.S. and Israeli media machines continuously claim that Hamas was the party that rejected the latest cease-fire proposal. However, a careful reading of the official statement of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) shows that they have in fact accepted the earlier Biden proposal, which was also approved by the United Nations Security Council.
The problem that has been dogging any breakthrough is that of trust and the efforts of Netanyahu to constantly move the goalposts in a clever effort to always blame Hamas for rejecting the proposal. U.S. and Arab mediators always begin with the Israeli proposal and then offer it to Hamas to get the Islamic movement to take the blame for its rejection.
The major sticking point is important. Hamas as well as all Palestinians and the entire world (and indeed many voices within Israel) want this war to end. Any proposal without a clear end of war and Israeli military withdrawal will ultimately fail.
Wars end with a cease-fire that is well observed, an exchange of prisoners, and a sincere effort aimed at tackling the root causes of the violence. Netanyahu, who is hobbled by corruption cases and a mandatory neutral investigation of Israeli actions surrounding Hamas’s October 7 attack, doesn’t want to end the war without his version of a victory, which includes the (probably impossible) annihilation of a deep-rooted Palestinian resistance movement and the unilateral release of Israeli soldiers and civilians. Americans and many well-respected Israeli experts and veteran retired military officials keep telling him that this will not happen.
The United States and its weak Arab negotiators have a clear path that they can follow but have resisted doing so. The United Nations Security Council is the world’s top body for peace and security. The UNSC has ordered a cease-fire, but Israel has refused to even pay attention to the mandatory decision of the Security Council.
The United Nations Charter has a special chapter (Chapter VII) that deals with what to do with parties that refuse to implement mandatory decisions by its Security Council.
If negotiators for an end to the war are serious, they can simply pass a resolution that details steps to ending the war that doesn’t include any vague opening for the Israeli army to stay in Gaza. Such a resolution would include a prisoner exchange (including the release of remaining hostages), an observation mechanism for its implementation, and a path to the globally accepted two-state solution. It should also include a mention of Chapter VII sanctions to any party that refuses to implement its provisions.
The United States, whose president began the current process with a proposal that both Israel and Hamas have accepted, should want to make sure that both parties know that they mean what they say by agreeing on a text that the world community can support and will end this carnage.
Doing the same thing over and over will not resolve the problem even if the head of the CIA is involved. The time has come for a global cease-fire offer that is fair and that includes a clear clause for an immediate end of the war and an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza. Continuing the current process is playing into the hands of the Israeli prime minister, whose interests are focused on his own political survival. Allowing Israel to get away with its unending revenge war in which so many thousands of Palestinians have been killed and are suffering is a formula for disaster and an invitation for the widening of a conflict that everyone wants to end immediately.
