Diplomacy

Supporters of a "special relationship" between America and Israel -- Aaron David Miller, for example -- often cite two justifications for these close ties: shared values and strategic interests.

The former claim is hard to assess, because it's so subjective. I have Israeli friends who share my personal values, but I'm an agnostic liberal from New York; I wouldn't claim my values are perfectly representative of "American values." I've met other Israelis, those who seem to prefer an elected theocracy to a liberal democracy, whose values I find repellent -- but perhaps other Americans find more common ground with those Israelis.

How about the other question, then? Does America's "special relationship" with Israel serve its strategic interests? Consider a few areas of foreign policy.

Gregg and I have been wondering for a couple of days how the United States would respond to being publicly embarrassed by an Israeli government that seems bent on continuing with the expansion of illegal settlements even as the West tries to organize highly sensitive negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

We didn't have to wait that long: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a 43-minute phone conversation on Friday morning to rebuke the Israeli leader about the "deeply negative signal" his government sent by approving more settler homes in East Jerusalem. Could this be the first sign of a tougher Obama administration approach toward Israel?

I thought about writing a long rebuttal to these two Aaron David Miller pieces, but after keeping up with a week of tiresome news from Israel I just don't have the energy.

Suffice it to say that his argument -- Obama shouldn't pick a fight with Israel over East Jerusalem settlements, and instead should focus on restarting proximity talks -- is the triumph of process over peace. Miller literally encourages both sides to "continue the dance," to perpetuate the untenable status quo.

In the wake of Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel, a Knesset committee on Thursday endorsed a change to the country's planning procedures aimed at preventing a similarly embarrassing episode of bad timing from occurring again, the AP reports.

Within 24 hours of Biden's arrival, shortly after the Palestinians had agreed to so-called "proximity talks," Israel approved the construction of some 1,600 illegal homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem.

But the proposed change in the Knesset isn't meant to give greater scrutiny to settlement decisions; it's supposed to ensure that the timing of such announcements isn't as embarrassing in the future.

We'd like to blog about Joe Biden's Tel Aviv speech, but the White House still hasn't e-mailed a transcript to reporters (perhaps because it was undergoing some last-minute revisions?).

News reports say Biden urged Israel and the Palestinians to begin proximity talks without delay. But they're already in doubt: The Arab League held an emergency meeting in Cairo last night (عربي), and decided to withdraw its support for the talks because of the new construction in Ramot Shlomo.

When the U.S. Transportation Security Administration in January instituted mandatory airport pat-downs and bag searches for citizens of 14 countries -- all but two of them in the Middle East and all but one majority Muslim -- you knew it was just a matter of time before the institutionalized racial profiling caused an outcry.

On Sunday, a group of Pakistani lawmakers who had been invited to visit the United States and meet with Obama administration bigwigs refused to go through the additional screening in Ronald Reagan National Airport on their way to a flight to New Orleans, according to the New York Times. Pakistan is on the of the 14 countries whose citizens have been selected for more scrutiny. The legislators returned to Pakistan, where they've been hailed for their actions.

Israel's interior minister, Eli Yishai, has apologized for the announcement of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem's Ramot Shlomo neighborhood while U.S. vice president Joe Biden is in Israel -- though not for the decision itself.

So much for the velvet glove. The White House -- which obviously recognizes that the latest new construction in East Jerusalem has the potential to overshadow vice president Joe Biden's entire trip -- put out a harsh statement on the Israeli decision.

It's just a statement, of course, and not backed by any real consequences, but by diplomatic standards -- and the standards of Washington's recent statements on Israeli settlements -- it's rather strong. Full statement is after the jump.

The Israeli government continues to roll out the red carpet for U.S. vice president Joe Biden: Israel's interior ministry just announced the approval of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem's largely-haredi Ramot Shlomo neighborhood. (The neighborhood is actually north of Jerusalem proper, but it's on the Palestinian side of the Green Line.)

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office hasn't said anything yet about the new construction, nor has Biden.

But the decision will clearly be a big story in Arabic-language media, and it will figure prominently in any coverage of Biden's visit. Al-Jazeera is treating it as a breaking news item, and it's already catching on (عربي) in Palestinian sources. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, called it a "disaster" that will undermine proximity talks.

Evan added some details overnight to my post on Israel's latest West Bank settlement construction, including a statement from State Department spokesman PJ Crowley. State belatedly sent reporters a full transcript of Crowley's remarks -- and, as Evan said, it's pretty lukewarm stuff.

U.S. vice president Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Monday ahead of a week-long trip to the Middle East. The Obama administration is billing this as a hugely important trip -- a chance to lay the groundwork for "proximity talks" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and also a chance to speak directly to the Israeli people. And indeed, the White House announced on Monday that both sides had agreed to the talks.

President Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, arrived in Ramallah last night to begin "pre-talks" to the "proximity talks" the United States hopes will occur between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the National reports. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone who has much faith in their ultimate success.

Another voice in Washington -- actually, another eight voices -- urging President Obama not to appoint an ambassador to Syria.

This time it's a group of Republican senators, who sent a letter yesterday to secretary of state Hillary Clinton that basically dubbed the nomination a concession to Bashar al-Assad. The letter asked if the Obama administration will sanction Syria for failing to meet its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty obligations, and argued that the recent Assad-Hassan Nasrallah-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meeting should spike the nomination.

Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem, in Cairo this week for an Arab League meeting, did an interview with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat and partially walked back his comments (عربي) about allowing Israel to return the Golan Heights in stages.

"This is not true. What we are interested in doing is recovering every inch of the Golan, up to the June 1967 borders, because this is Syrian land, and this is a matter of our national honor... any dialogue with the Israelis must begin with this objective -- the full return of the Golan, up to 1967 borders -- and the details will be discussed later."

I don't want to read too much into Moallem's wording, but that last part -- "the details will be discussed later" -- is carefully phrased. Moallem seems to leave the door open for the Israeli government to return the Golan in stages, as long as Israel commits up front to eventually returning the whole thing.

He seems to split the difference, in other words, between the historic Syrian position -- the full return of the Golan is a precondition for talks -- and his phased-return comments in December.

My suspicion is that the Palestinian Authority views "proximity talks" as a test for the Obama administration's willingness to impose consequences on Israel. PA officials have hinted at using the talks to "reveal Israel's true intentions to the world."

And the administration seems to understand that dynamic: Ha'aretz reports this morning that Washington "will assign blame" if the talks fall apart.

Turkey recalled its newly minted ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan, on Thursday after the House Foreign Affairs committee narrowly passed a resolution that aims to ensure that the U.S. government formally refers to the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in World War I as a "genocide."

The 23-22 vote will likely harm relations between the United States and Turkey, according to Al-Jazeera.

Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. undersecretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, is in Yemen this week meeting with officials from the Yemeni government. Feltman delivered a letter from President Obama to Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The text of the letter isn't public, but it reportedly pledged continued financial and military aid for the Saleh government.

The Arab League -- meeting today in Cairo -- voted to endorse "proximity talks" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. American mediators, presumably led by George Mitchell, will shuttle between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

You've probably heard that the Israeli planning commission last week approved 600 new homes in Pisgat Ze'ev in East Jerusalem. Pisgat Ze'ev is another one of those settlements, like Gilo, which is mostly Jewish and therefore unlikely to return to Palestinian control in a two-state settlement. So I'm not at all surprised by the commission's decision.

Evan mentioned on Wednesday that there's slowly-mounting opposition in Washington to President Obama's decision to name Robert Stephen Ford as the new U.S. ambassador to Syria.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports this morning (عربي) that the Israeli government is also lobbying against Ford's nomination (or against Obama naming any ambassador to Syria; this isn't about Ford personally). Defense minister Ehud Barak made that request during a visit to Washington this week; so did an unnamed envoy from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.