U.S.LOSING LEVERAGE DUE TO IMPOTENCE OVER ISRAEL
April 5, 2024Listen to Richard Haass, an American diplomat and a former close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell, rebuke the US for its impotence in relation to Israel.
“The criticism looks increasingly empty.. At some point, the words become empty…there has to be trade sanctions.”
Asked whether he thinks Netanyahu gives a damn about Biden’s frustration, Haass states he is not affected by Biden’s displeasure BUT WILL ONLY care if it TRULY threatens his relations with their greatest supporter, the United States!
The US MUST increase its pressure. REAL PRESSURE! SANCTIONS!
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English Script:
Female Host: Sitting around and talking how upset we are while we hemorrhage billions of dollars.
Richard Haass: It’s the worst of all worlds right now for the president. The criticism looks increasingly empty. It’s six months. We’re reaching the six-month milestone of this war. But that’s you know, that’s one fact to begin with and two things have happened in the last few days. One is these attacks are continuing and yet so are U.S. arms transfers to Israel without conditions. They’ve been going on for six months. Why does Israel need two-thousand-pound bombs to be used in high density populated areas? Then ten days ago, what does Israel do? It expropriates 2000 acres of land in the West Bank for settlement construction. Where is the White House reaction to that? That is how you undo even the possibility. Joe is talking about it, of one day getting to a two-state solution. If you’re going to have a Palestinian state, the last I checked, states are built on territory. If the territory isn’t there to build it on, you can talk about two states till the cows come home. You don’t have a… Where’s the administration reaction to that? Sure, at some point the words become empty and the Biden administration is very close to having reached a point where their criticism of Israel is too much for the same people who criticize Chuck Schumer. But it’s not nearly enough to affect the course of what is going on. That is the worst of all possible worlds.
Female Host: It looks weak and impotent. You were in the H.W. Administration, at the State Department
Richard Haass: At the White House.
Female Host: What would James Baker have done? Seriously, that’s what we should be asking ourselves, because that was a moment when we were a diplomatic superpower.
Richard Haass: Also, we confronted Israel. And if you remember at the time, Israel was subsidizing people leaving the Soviet Union and they were going into the occupied territories.
We basically said to Israel: “You will help these people get out of the Soviet Union, but we’re not going to subsidize their going into the West Bank. That forecloses options. Well, we understand you may not have a Palestinian partner today, but we want to work, we want to preserve the option for the day when we might be.” And the administration basically said to the Israelis, “You have a choice.” They made their choices at economic consequences. This administration has got to have some teeth in it.
Male Host: So, Richard, let me put it bluntly to you. Does Benjamin Netanyahu give a damn that Joe Biden is upset and frustrated and outraged by what he’s seeing and if not, what would make him give a damn?
Richard Haass: No, he doesn’t and indeed, increasingly, he’s trying to position himself as someone in front of the Israeli body politic saying, “You may not like me, you may think I made a mistake on October 7th, but I’m all that stands between you and American pressure.”
So, he doesn’t care. What would he care about? He would care about damaging the relationship with Israel’s most important benefactor and that would mean the United States. I’m sorry to say, I’m sorry it’s come to this really, that we have to basically have some sanctioning of what Israel did, not just that stuff in the U.N. It’s got to be conditioning arms deliveries and it’s got to be, I would think, some trade sanctions, for example, against goods coming out of West Bank settlements. Why should they be able to come here, for example, you know, without certain tariffs or other economic penalties? We’ve got to basically, we can’t have a policy based on persuading Israel. We have to increasingly have an independent policy that reflects our interests and values.
