Don't expect much from the Obama administration's latest push to promote Middle East peace negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is talking a good game, but he has been trying to kill the talks from the very start.

The evidence is manifold and clear. But consider just one incident. About a year ago, Netanyahu, out of the blue, told Palestinians they should publicly recognize that Israel is a Jewish state. The Palestinians refused, of course. More than 4 million of them live in exile, hundreds of thousands of them still in refugee camps. Many still dream of moving back to their homes in Israel -- something that will never happen. But should their putative leaders stand up and betray them, even before negotiations have begun?

A few weeks after Netanyahu issued his demand, I was chatting with a senior Israeli official, a Netanyahu confidant, and asked him about the prime minister's request. You had to know, I said, that the Palestinians could never accede to that. Didn't you do it for just that reason?

He nodded and said, "Yes, you're right." It was simply a cynical ploy.

Well, last month Netanyahu made that demand once again, saying he would freeze Jewish settlements if only the Palestinians would publicly recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Once again, the Palestinians instantly refused. Israeli officials took that opportunity to brand them as intransigent.

Now President Obama is offering a bribe -- fighter jets worth $3 billion, security guarantees and other amazing inducements in exchange for a 90-day settlement freeze. Israeli hardliners and Palestinian leaders all seem equally unhappy. But whatever happens, Netanyahu will find a way to be sure he reaches no agreement with the Palestinians. He doesn't want one.

Think about it. Every time in recent weeks Netanyahu has proffered one of his belligerent proposals, like requiring Arab immigrants to swear an oath of allegiance to Israel, commentators have consistently guessed that he was throwing a bone to his right-wing coalition partners, softening them up for the eventual concessions he planned to make.

Nonsense. I know Netanyahu. He is not trying to assuage the right. He's a member of the right. He is making provocative statements and gestures simply to hobble the peace talks that he never wanted to start.

Last winter, when Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel to promote negotiations and show the friendly side of the Obama administration to a skeptical Israeli public, the government suddenly announced plans to build 1,600 new apartments for Israelis in East Jerusalem, the Arab part of town. Biden was understandably furious. The government plaintively explained that the plans had come from the bowels of the Interior Ministry, and Netanyahu hadn't known about it.

A few days ago, the Israeli government announced still another East Jerusalem housing plan, 1,000 new homes for Israelis. An Interior Ministry spokesman once again said publishing the plan was simply a technical issue; the prime minister was not informed.

Don't believe it.

Yes, Israel annexed East Jerusalem decades ago (though not one nation recognizes that). But Netanyahu is not a stupid man. Publishing that plan, right now, is an incendiary act. No one does that by accident. Given the international embarrassment Netanyahu suffered during Biden's visit, if he cared he would certainly have made sure no one made an announcement like that again without his approval. So clearly he does not care. His belligerent response after Obama complained demonstrated that.

"Jerusalem is not a settlement," he declared. "Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel."

As Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official who spent decades working on Middle East peace negotiations, told me: "No, Netanyahu doesn't want this -- or wants this in the least painful way possible." For negotiations to work, he added, "we need leaders who are not prisoners of their constituents." Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is obviously a "prisoner" of those more than 4 million Palestinians in the diaspora. But does he actually hold the same dreams they do? It's hard to tell.

I don't see Netanyahu as a prisoner of his right-wing coalition partners. He is one of them. He believes what they believe.

So who will benefit if the peace negotiations fail? Most Israelis will be disappointed once again, as will most Palestinians. But Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, will cheer. So will Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militants in southern Lebanon, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran.

In truth, Netanyahu's tactics are simply empowering the extremists who are intent on destroying his state.

 

Available at Amazon.com:

The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?

Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource

Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water

Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization

The Great Gamble

At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes

 

 

(C) 2010 Joel Brinkley