In the past few days alone, President Obama signed a new law greatly
expanding military cooperation with Israel and awarded $70 million – on
top of an existing $210 million donation – for it to develop the Iron
Dome missile defence system; the Pentagon arm-twisted Lockheed Martin into
collaborating with Israeli firms in revamping the new F-35 fighter jet; and
Congress approved a four-year extension of US loan guarantees to make it
cheaper for Israel to borrow money on the international markets.
 
Meanwhile, Obama’s rival for the presidency, Mitt Romney, has criticised
Obama for being too miserly towards Israel. As he stood shoulder to
shoulder with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday, Romney issued a press
release suggesting that his administration would spend even more US
taxpayers’ dollars on Israel’s missile defence system.
 
All this munificence is coming from the two dominant parties to the
Quartet - the international group comprising the US, the EU, the United
Nations and Russia. The Quartet's role is to champion the very two-state
solution Israel is striving so strenuously to destroy.
 
In a further irony, the World Bank issued last week its latest report on
the state of the Palestinian economy, concluding that its situation was so
dire the Palestinian government-in-waiting, the Palestinian Authority,
could not be considered ready for independent statehood. The report noted
that the Palestinians were heavily reliant on foreign donors and that local
private businesses, agriculture and manufacturing were all in decline.
 
With feigned obtuseness, the World Bank recommended that the PA increase
exports to foreign markets, glossing over the biggest impediment to such
trade: the severe restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of people
and goods into and out of Palestinian territory.
 
As the Quartet has grown ever more silent in the face of Israeli
transgressions, US politicians have stepped in with cynical manoeuvres to
shore up Israel's intransigence and destroy any hopes of a peaceful
solution.
 
Last week, for example, US lawmakers were reported to have put their names
to a congressional resolution recognising the recent report of Israel's
controversial Levy Committee. The report concluded that Israel was not
occupying the West Bank and that consequently the settlements there are
legal.

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