Israeli complaints

"'I think the United States lost control,' said Oded Eran, aformer Israeli ambassador to the European Union and to Jordan, now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. 'They failed to prevent the Palestinians from going to the international community, they failed to salvage the peace process and to get Israel to carry out the fourth prisoner release, and they have failed to stop the knee-jerk Israeli announcements of settlement construction every time something doesn’t go their way.'"

It's sad that Israel can prance and posture and build up a huge military, but apparently they cannot make conscientious political decisions without the Americans forcing them to.  Let me tell you what I find objectionable with this sentence:

A. There's no reason a people should not be heard by the international community when they feel they are being oppressed and treated unfairly by another nation or another people within their own nation.  Every people should represented and heard by the international community. This is especially true when, as with the Palestinians, the end goal of peace talks is to establish a sovereign state.

B. The United States supports the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.  Peace between all communities is the best interest of the entire world.  The US freely acts as liaison between Israel and Palestine.  The US supports both nations in their work toward peace.  The US however in the end cannot be held responsible if another nation reneges on a promise, becomes recalcitrant, or irrationally bellicose.  Israel did not uphold its promise; it did not carry through with the fourth prisoner release.  This was Israel's responsibility and not that of the US.  Israel is not known for always carrying through with its commitments when it comes to Palestine and its failure this time is no surprise to anyone.

C. How can the US stop Israel's irrational settlement constructions whenever it decides Palestine must be punished?  How can the US stop Israel from moving forward with settlement construction even when Israel says it is attempting to work with the Palestinians?  If Israel is committed to peace, it will demonstrate this.  But there is little evidence that Israel wants a Palestinian state, a Palestinian presence in the international community.  Statements like this only prove that Israeli officials are more worried about maintaining the Israeli status quo in America, both in terms of opinion and the monetary support America provides to Israel.

I think we could be on the cusp of seeing a very different American stance when it comes to Palestine.  Not that we will abandon Israel or the peace process between these peoples.  But America has seen the rest of the world support Palestine and it's time we don't always follow Israel's lead to condemn Palestine's actions.  We must be able to remain neutral, and thereby demand that both sides come to the table willing to sacrifice, negotiate, and move forward.