American Foreign Policy and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Enduring Madness

The US ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, has come under fire for comments made at a conference on anti-Semitism in Brussels, which included the following:

"It is the area where every new settlement announced in Israel, every rocket shot over a border or suicide bomber on a bus, and every retaliatory military strike exacerbates the problem and provides a setback here in Europe for those fighting hatred and bigotry,"

"Were a lasting peace in the Middle East to be reached, were joint and co-operative Israeli-Arab attentions turned to focus instead on such serious, common threats such as Iran, this second type of ethnic tension and bigotry (referring to anti-Semitism) here in Europe - which is clearly growing today - would clearly abate."

Gutman’s suggestion that failure to reach a peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians has contributed to a growth in anti-Semitism in Europe was instantly latched on to by prominent Republicans, including presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, as an example of the Obama administration’s hostility to Israel. Consequently, calls for retraction of his statement, an apology and even his resignation have abounded.

Gutman was not defending, excusing or even trying to downplay anti-Semitism; he was simply offering an explanation of why it exists. While racism in all its odious forms is always unjustified, history has taught us that it is more than anything the child of circumstance. Are senior Republicans trying to imply that anti-Semitism just happens to be a naturally occurring phenomenon within the warped minds of Europeans?

It is also important to bear in mind that those who equate Judaism and Jewishness with the unjust practices and policies of the state of Israel represent a minority; the overwhelming majority of critics of Israel, who include many Jews, make a clear distinction between the two. That anti-Semitism should have reared its ugly head again in Europe is tragic and deplorable, but no less so than any other form of racism or religious hatred. Take Islamophobia for example; also on the rise in Europe at an alarming rate. To regard anti-Semitism as a unique contemporary form of hatred is therefore to fly in the face of reality. It is however a convenient tool for those extolling the virtues of unconditional American support for Israel, the slightest deviation from which leaves one open to admonishment. This was Howard Gutman’s crime. By suggesting that certain actions of Israel had not been helpful to the ‘peace process’ and had helped to fuel anti-Semitic sentiment, he was guilty of sacrilege at the altar of American foreign policy. Yet remarkably, Howard Gutman is in fact Jewish and the son of a Holocaust survivor. In other words, he is the last person you could expect to downplay anti-Semitism.

There is a striking parallel between the Republican reaction to this case and the general Republican reaction to Palestinian violence that encapsulates the American paradigm of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In both cases, there is condemnation without any attempt to understand. Anti-Semitism and Palestinian violence are seen as equally inexplicable. The notion that Palestinians have genuine grievances and feelings which need to be understood and dealt with is simply too much for Republicans to take, for it is the first step to acknowledging that Israeli occupation and oppression precipitates Palestinian resistance. Instead, they prefer the comforting familiarity of an enduring Orientalist mentality which frames Palestinians, along with other Arabs and Muslims, as inherently irrational, uncivilised and addicted to violence. Effectively, there is no 'reasonable' Palestinian voice to be understood; they might as well not exist as a people.

The Howard Gutman controversy is not merely an example of how low Republicans will stoop to generate political mileage in the run-up to the 2012 US presidential election. It is symptomatic of the madness of American policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obama’s Democrat administration, as demonstrated by its recent decision to cut funding from UNESCO in reaction to the UN agency’s admission of Palestine as a full member, has shown itself to be no friend of the Palestinian people. What the latest controversy does demonstrate is that it still has a way to go before it catches up with Republicans in the lunacy stakes.