Ending the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Is No Longer a Vital American Interest
Since the breakdown of negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians at the end of March, the Obama administration has become openly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and more inclined to mediate between the parties rather than siding with one party against another. That has continued through the war in Gaza and the various calls for a ceasefire.
But as the here-and-gone-and-back-again ceasefire makes abundantly clear, the administration’s new stance has had little impact on the Israelis or the Palestinians or on the war, because it has not come as part of a concerted effort or a discernible strategy. That partly reflects administration disillusionment with the peace process, but it also reflects overall political changes in the Middle East. These changes have reduced the importance to the Obama administration, and perhaps to future American administrations, of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The first clear sign that the administration was displeased with Netanyahu came in Ynet reporter Nahum Barnea’s interviews in early May with senior American officials who blamed Netanyahu for the breakdown of the negotiations. Later that month, the Obama administration indicated that it would defy the Israelis by recognizing and working with the new unity government created by Fatah and Hamas. That was a complete reversal from the administration’s stance three years ago when it joined Israel in denouncing a similar unity pact between Fatah and Hamas.
After Hamas rejected the first Egyptian-Israeli ceasefire proposal (which would have ended Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket attacks, allowed Israeli ground forces to destroy tunnels, and said nothing about the blockade of Gaza), Kerry worked out with Qatar and Turkey, which were representing Hamas’s interests, a new ceasefire plan that didn’t allow the Israelis to stay and that committed the two sides to renewing negotiations, originally promised in the December 2012 ceasefire, to ease the blockade, and to address "all security issues." The Israelis angrily rejected the proposal.
On August 6, as ceasefire talks began in Cairo, Obama endorsed Hamas’s central demand. He told a press conference that he wanted the negotiations to address the removal of the blockade. The Palestinians in Gaza, he said, needed to see "some prospects for an opening of Gaza so that they do not feel walled off and incapable of pursuing basic prosperity." In each of these measures, the administration distanced itself from Netanyahu and the Israelis and attempted, by taking the Palestinians more into account, to play the role of honest broker between the warring parties.
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http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119022/2014-gaza-war-why-obama-and-kerry-have-failed-end-it