So, the important questions being asked at this juncture are: What can the Palestinians and other affected Arabs do in the face of America’s strong and uncritical support of Israeli lebensraum that goes back half a century and the world’s only superpower’s indifference to violations of basic human rights to the Palestinians and other Arab people? Is the situation beyond remedy as to resign to the reality of U.S-Israeli domination of the region?
“The honourable alternative to all this is a bi-national state, which is more consonant with the territorial consequences of Oslo now prevailing on the ground. That, however is unacceptable to Israel and therefore to the U.S. For a start, the U.S. can stop vetoing resolutions of the Security Council calling on Israel to refrain from grabbing Arab land, building settlements, and violating the rights of civilians under occupation”. (Dowek, 2001)
American policy framework for the Middle East will not change as long as its policy-makers are not held accountable. Washington’s policy on Israeli settlements has steadily shifted since Camp David Accords from considering them “illegal” to an “obstacle to peace” under the neo-conservative agenda of Ronald Reagan, to the present reference made to it as a mere “complicating factor” in the peace process. In other words, Israel is now given a free hand to grab land from Arabs and build colonial settlements in them. The Arab regimes in the region need to join hands and make Israel and America pay the price for their defiance of international community consensus. The Arab states should abandon its attempts at normalizing relations with Israel and should not allow Washington to continue its biased, prejudiced and inhumane policies any longer. In other words, the Arab world “needs to restructure its own policies in accordance with the dictates of self-respect, of national interests and reciprocal relations” (Dowek, 2001).
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