PALESTINE
Sun 25 Aug 2024 11:37 am - Jerusalem Time
Blinken's ninth round... stopping the war was not on his agenda
Professor John Dabit: Congress has a very important role in formulating laws and decisions to protect Israel
Dr. Muhammad Bou Taleb: It is not logical to talk about failure as long as Blinken did not work to stop the war on Gaza
Hani Al-Gamal: Netanyahu failed in this round in the face of rough Egyptian diplomacy regarding the Philadelphi Corridor
Abbas Al-Wardi: It is time to deter Israel and all international parties must impose a fait accompli policy
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his ninth tour without the negotiations in which he plays the role of “mediator” with both Egypt and Qatar reaching the goal sought by the Palestinians and many in the world, which is to stop the war of extermination that the occupying state has been continuing in the Gaza Strip for nearly eleven months.
“The deal should be done in the coming days, and we will do everything we can to get it done,” Blinken told reporters in the Qatari capital Doha before leaving for Washington. He had previously said after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that Israel had accepted the proposal and urged Hamas to do the same.
Politicians and analysts believe that the US policy biased towards Israel is not new, and includes the White House, the State Department, and most importantly, Congress, which issues legislation and laws in favor of Israel.
They said that Blinken's last tour cannot be considered a failure, because he originally came biased towards Israel, and all he did and is doing is to help the Israeli Prime Minister achieve his goals, and he did not come with the aim of stopping the war of extermination and putting an end to the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinians in general. They recalled his statements that were issued by him during his first tour after October 7, when he said that he came to Israel in solidarity as a Jew and not as the US Secretary of State.
American bias towards Israel is nothing new.
Professor John Dabit, a member of the Democratic Party Central Committee in the US state of Iowa, and the party’s candidate for the state Senate, told “I”: “The American foreign policy towards the Israeli occupation has been biased for years, and this is not limited to the White House or the State Department, but also to Congress, which has a major and extremely important role in formulating laws and decisions to protect Israel. He stressed that this policy is immoral par excellence, as it deals with the world in one way, and the Palestinian people and the occupation in a different way.”
He added: "The function of Congress is to protect the occupation, and that is why they use the veto in the United Nations," considering that "what we have been witnessing for some time is a criminal war and genocide against the Palestinian people, and from time to time we hear cosmetic words, but in reality we have not actually seen tangible steps to stop the massacres."
Dabit stressed that the American position in general is bad on the Gaza issue, adding: “We, as leaders of effective institutions, work in the American arena, and participate in meetings at the State Department with Blinken or in the White House previously, or with members of Congress, and we try to exert pressure on them in order to change the reality. Sometimes we score a temporary victory, and most of the time the work is hard, tiring and very difficult in the United States.”
We continue to defend our rights and make our voice heard by decision makers.
He continued: The Palestinian people are known for their strong and steadfast will, so this work cannot be stopped because this people has the right to liberation and the establishment of its independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. We will continue to defend our Palestinian right and to convey our voice and our narrative to decision-makers and politicians in the United States.
"I always call for taking our positions within political parties for the sake of change. This change cannot happen from the outside, and we must be active people, with official positions and elected officials for the purpose of change," Dabit said.
The officer believed that those who bear responsibility for this failure or flabbiness in the foreign policy of the United States are certainly the US presidency and the US State Department, along with Congress, and they bear responsibility for this moral downfall, the results of which we see and follow in the media on a daily basis.
The truth is clear since Blinken's first visit
For his part, writer and political sociology analyst Dr. Muhammad Najib Bou Taleb from Tunisia told “I”: “We do not think it is logical to talk about failure as long as the American side represented by Blinken did not work to stop the war on Gaza, and failure is usually said of someone who tries to accomplish something with a sincere conscience and does not succeed in doing so.”
He added: "The truth has been crystal clear since the US Secretary of State visited Israel after the Al-Aqsa flood, saying: 'I did not come to you as a foreign minister, but as a Jew.' If this had been said in a country that respects itself and others, the person who said it would have been held accountable for it, because it exposes everything and reveals a biased, prejudiced, and even arrogant and fanatical position. This is the outcome of American policy, unparalleled impudence, and it can only be explained by megalomania and arrogance by force to the point of not being ashamed to deny the other."
Attempting to whitewash Netanyahu's image..
Regarding the attempt to whitewash Netanyahu's image, Bou Taleb said: "This is no longer possible today after all his massacres, because his image is distorted in the world and in Israel itself," referring to the impossible conditions he set in the last round of negotiations, which made one of the mediation parties, the Egyptians, squirm a little late on the issue of the crossings and borders with Egypt.
He added: "These conditions that the Americans support without ambiguity may make those who are still waiting for something positive from Netanyahu throw their stones. In fact, I believe that this may also help make the Arab normalizers and those waiting to "bring the wolf by the tail" come to their senses and look for other more effective solutions, even if they are painful."
Blinken's tour is an ominous sign.
Hani Al-Gamal, head of the International Research and Studies Unit at the Arab Center in Cairo, told “Ya”: “What happened in US Secretary of State Blinken’s last tour, unfortunately, was an ominous sign, and confirms that he comes every time to confirm the demands of his ally Netanyahu.”
He added: "Blinken's recent visit to the region aimed to force the mediators to accept the de facto policy of positioning themselves in the Philadelphi and Netzarim axis and to talk seriously about amending the Camp David Accords, especially the 2005 security annex, so that Israel can return in a legitimate manner to the area from which it is prohibited with its intensive military presence."
Al-Gamal explained that Netanyahu's failure in this round in the face of the rough Egyptian diplomacy towards Israeli desires confirms that the Egyptian side is capable of exerting pressure on the American-Zionist negotiator Blinken, who sought to grant Israel a right it does not deserve. Although this position obstructed the negotiations, it revives the Palestinian cause and the Palestinians' right to establish their state on the 1967 borders.
Al-Jamal believed that this problem with the US administration was confirmed during the call between US President Biden and Kamala Harris with Netanyahu, that he had become the only obstacle to approving the humanitarian truce, and then he would jump on the events and head from the Gaza Strip to the Lebanese front to expand the focus of the conflict and drag the region into a comprehensive war.
Netanyahu is the one who failed the negotiations.
In turn, political analyst Abbas Al-Wardi, professor of public law at Mohammed V University in Morocco, told “Y”: The failure of US Secretary of State Blinken to gather a unified opinion to cease fire in Gaza is due to Israeli intransigence. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu comes out from time to time bypassing Blinken, who sometimes heads to Egypt and other times to Qatar. There is American pressure to cease fire, and Israel must comply with international legitimacy and cease fire unconditionally.
Al-Wardi stressed that Hamas initially agreed to the American proposal and expressed its response to the agenda set by the United States, “so we cannot blame America or anyone else for the failure, but rather on Benjamin Netanyahu himself, because his era is known for its bloodiness, and he has problems even within the Israeli structure, and there is no consensus on him, but rather fierce opposition, to the point that Blinken did not coordinate with Netanyahu in any case because he knows that he is strict in his opinions and does not even respect the opinions of mediators.”
He believed that the United States should take upon itself the policy of imposing a fait accompli on Israel and direct the Arab countries with the aim of convincing Hamas to meet its conditions, and that all Palestinian factions and countries bordering Palestine and Israel that have security problems as a result of the brutal Israeli aggression should intervene.
Al-Wardi stressed that it is time to deter Israel and that all international voices must have their say and demand that Netanyahu, who has marked this stage with bloodshed that is unparalleled at the level of the international system, be used forcefully to curb Netanyahu’s excesses and impose a fait accompli policy to prepare a collective roadmap imposed on all parties, including Israel, to stop the bloodshed, preserve the right to life and ensure the continuation of the international legitimacy system.
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Blinken's ninth round... stopping the war was not on his agenda