Unsettling developments

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s efforts to start talks between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization aren’t going well, if the countries’ actions are any indication.

For the second time in a week, according to The New York Times, the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations condemned Israel’s new building project in East Jerusalem, a section of the city both parties claim. And now the two sides are launching more rockets at each other.

Israeli Minister of Internal Affairs Eli Yishai announced the project during a visit from Vice President Joe Biden. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was embarrassed by the incident, but he’s certainly not blameless.

Israeli politics have been particularly contentious of late. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was implicated in a finances scandal and stepped down from office. His Kadima party replacement Tzipi Linvi couldn’t form a coalition with enough members of Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, to form a majority, so elections were called. Olmert’s replacement was Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is a member of the right-wing Likud party. To form the coalition, he allied with other right-wing groups such as the religious Shas, of which Yishai is a member. Shas’ goal is to settle more of East Jerusalem, so Netanyahu can’t have been too surprised that his interior minister wanted the project, or that he would jump the gun with the announcement.

Israel also sent a retaliatory bombing strike into the Gaza Strip after bombs from over the border killed a worker. As much as the two sides say they’re willing to talk, they have different goals, and Clinton is having a hard time getting them to meet in the middle on anything.

So much for her plan for a Palestinian state in the next 24 months.

What exactly Clinton and Netanyahu are discussing at this point is being kept under wraps, but Israel’s international reputation is being hurt by its efforts to contain the Gaza problem. Right now, there are only certain goods to try to stem the flow of missiles to the terrorist-controlled strip, but innocent people are suffering under the blockade.

Netanyahu’s control over his own people is slipping, as became evident with Yishai’s untimely announcement. If he can’t keep a lid on his government, how can he successfully manage this volatile situation? Likud had a hard time forming a coalition and would likely lose an election to Kadima if there were another election soon. Meanwhile, Shas and other religious right-wing parties like it that have aligned with Likud are pushing their own agendas.


With Netanyahu at the head of an unstable government made up of people who do not want to see the Palestinians gain power, it seems Clinton’s attempts at brokering peace are in vain.