Afrasianet - Ahmed Atawneh - For more than thirty years, the Palestinians have suffered from the exclusive sponsorship of the United States of America for negotiations between them and successive Israeli occupation governments. Washington has singled out its sponsorship of the so-called Palestinian-Israeli peace process and has prevented any other country from playing a meaningful role in the process, except in the service of its strategy.
It has allowed European states, for example, to work in the areas of building state institutions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and to cooperate with civil society, provided that this serves the path of a political settlement and does not contradict Israeli occupation policies.
This monopoly on the political settlement and the accompanying negotiations continued, regardless of the nature of the Israeli governments or successive US administrations. It is as if the United States has monopolized the Palestinian cause in all its components, even when it comes to the Palestinian resistance factions classified on the US terrorist lists, such as Hamas.
The United States kept the file in its hands and delegated some countries, such as Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, to manage the negotiations. During the nearly twenty years of Hamas control of the Gaza Strip, and the wars, blockades and attempts at political solutions, the United States was the most influential, and often decided, party in the course and results of this political movement.
The United States has always claimed to be a mediator between the two sides, that it seeks to reach a just solution to the Palestinian issue, and that its efforts are focused on achieving what is known as the two-state solution. But a closer look at the behavior of the United States finds that it has never been an honest broker, but has always supported the occupation in its policies and supported all its measures that undermine all chances for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The following evidence is part of this:
• Provide military, economic and political support to the occupation continuously, without linking it to the development of the political track or progress in the settlement process.
• Providing Israel with permanent protection before international institutions, especially in the Security Council, and using its veto power many times against resolutions that serve Palestinian interests and rights, and in favor of Israel's evasion of its international obligations.
• The US administration has always been ready to wash the hands of the occupation leaders after every crime they commit, especially the wars on Gaza since 2008 until today.
• Turning a blind eye to the settlements that have swallowed the West Bank, and tolerating settler crimes, which means undermining any chance of establishing a Palestinian state on the territory of the West Bank and Gaza.
• Support Israeli policies that impede political solutions and prevent any political settlement. One example is tolerating, if not participating in, the assassination of Palestinian leaders and national symbols, from Yasser Arafat to Ismail Haniyeh.
• Helping Israel escape from the Palestinian entitlement.
• Confronting all Palestinian attempts and efforts, political, legal and militant, aimed at embodying the Palestinian state and obtaining international legitimacy for it, and confronting these attempts in the international arena and in the relevant international institutions.
Deep misinformation and strategic deception
Thirty years ago, the United States has used a single strategy in dealing with Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and it is the same one it uses today in the ongoing negotiations to stop the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip. This strategy can be described as "deep disinformation and strategic deception," as it is based on the illusion that the United States is serious and committed to ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Among the most important pillars of this strategy:
Political hypocrisy and the gap between rhetoric and practice: While the United States repeatedly expresses its desire to stop the war and conclude a prisoner exchange deal, it continues to provide all necessary support to the occupation army and government. The US administration does not hesitate to continue lying, on the basis of the Nazi Joseph Goebbels "lie and then lie until people believe you", and impose on many parties to believe its lie and treat it as if it were true.
Disregard for Palestinian political rights: The United States has completely condoned the suffering of Palestinians and made little commitments. It has used Arabic and Muslim states, and even some European countries, to distract Palestinians from detailed and minor issues and distract from core political issues.
Double standards: The United States unequivocally supports Israel, considers its security unchanging, and considers the Israeli narrative ahead of others. On the other hand, it labels the Palestinian struggle and its factions as terrorism, describes legitimate acts of resistance as brutal, and participates in the pursuit of resistance fighters and their leaders by all possible means, including physical liquidation, without adhering to any international laws or norms.
Participation in conflict management: The United States works to enable the occupation to achieve its short- and long-term goals, and to help it gain time to accomplish them. Today, it uses the same strategy it used in managing the Oslo settlement negotiations, when it provided the occupation with thirty years to deepen its occupation, settlement and Judaization of the land, by distracting Palestinians and Arabs from negotiations, and establishing institutions of authority and the state and peace conferences.
The Palestinians must learn from their long experience with American patronage, and they must make every effort to put an end to this American manipulation of their cause, especially when time is bloody. They must also rearrange their ranks and build their programs, narratives and tools, in a way that helps to seriously search for alternative paths that impose different equations and push for the involvement of other international sponsors, perhaps more serious and fair.
U.S. behavior in negotiations to stop the war on Gaza should be seen within the framework of managing the battle and completing the objectives of the genocidal war against the Palestinian people, and the United States should be treated as a full partner in it.
Arabic and Muslim countries, and friends of the Palestinian people, must be frank with their people and the world about the reality of the American position, and help the Palestinians get rid of the oppression of this false patronage and mediation.
Director of Roya Center for Political Development