February 2, 2024
US 'actively pursuing' establishment of independent Palestinian state
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Apparently in a policy shift, the US is "actively" pursuing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state "with real security guarantees" for Israel.
The State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said Wednesday: "We are actively pursuing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with real security guarantees for Israel, because we do believe that is the best way to bring about lasting peace and security for Israel, for Palestinians and for the region."
Miller said the US has ongoing policy planning processes about how best to advance the establishment of the Palestinian state."We support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and we do a lot of work inside the government to think about how to bring that about, and you see us talk about that work publicly when we're in the region," he stressed.
It may be pointed out that the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman reported on Thursday that that a Biden Doctrine is emerging that could see a dramatic shift in US policy to the point of recognizing a Palestinian state and the biggest US strategic realignment there since the 1979 Camp David treaty between Egypt and Israel.
According to Friedman, this could very well include an unprecedented US diplomatic initiative to promote a demilitarized Palestinian state. It would involve some form of US recognition of that entity in the form of official statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that would come into being only once Palestinians had developed defined, credible institutions and security capabilities to ensure viability and non-threat to Israel. Biden administration officials have consulted experts about different forms this recognition of Palestinian statehood might take.
"Biden administration officials have been consulting experts inside and outside the US government about different forms this recognition of Palestinian statehood might take," Friedman writes.
According to Freidman, this signals an awareness within the Biden administration that the US "will never have the global legitimacy, the NATO allies and the Arab and Muslim allies it needs to take on Iran in a more aggressive manner unless we stop letting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold our policy hostage."
If a Biden Doctrine emerges with robust retaliation against Iran plus concrete moves toward a demilitarized Palestinian state, it could deter Iran militarily and politically, promote Palestinian statehood consistent with Israeli security, and create conditions for Israel-Saudi normalization that Palestinians can get behind, Freidman concludes.
Nader Mousavizadeh, founder and CEO of the geopolitical consulting firm Macro Advisory Partners and a senior adviser to then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, describes this emerging Biden Doctrine as “the dual reckoning strategy.”
“Oct. 7 revealed that our Iran policy was bankrupt and our Israel-Palestine policy was bankrupt,”
Mousavizadeh told New York Times: “Those policies enabled and empowered Hamas to savage Israel. They enabled and empowered the Houthis to paralyze global shipping, and they enabled pro-Iranian Shiite militias to try to drive U.S. forces out of the region — forces deployed there to prevent ISIS from returning and help to keep the region reasonably stable.”
All of this transpired, he added, without anyone holding the regime in Iran responsible for the way “it deploys its poisonous and destructive non-state actors across the region against the constructive aims of our allies,” who are trying to build a more inclusive region.
It is for all these reasons that I believe, hope and pray that a Biden Doctrine for the Middle East is coming — and Israelis should, too.
Israel is losing now on three fronts. It has lost the narrative war over Gaza. It is Israel that has gotten hauled before the International Court of Justice in The Hague for the civilian casualties it has caused in Gaza while trying to root out Hamas fighters who embedded among civilians.
It is losing the ability to keep Israel safe without being overextended in the long term — by invading Gaza without any plan for how to find a legitimate non-Hamas Palestinian partner to effectively govern there so Israel can pull back.
And it is losing on the regional stability front. Israel is now the target of a four-front Iranian onslaught — by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Shiite militias in Iraq — but cannot generate the Arab or NATO allies it needs to win that war, because it refuses to do anything to nurture a credible, legitimate Palestinian partner.
If a Biden Doctrine emerges, concluded Mousavizadeh, “it will be good geopolitics abroad and good politics at home.”
It could deter Iran both militarily and politically — by taking away the Palestinian card from Tehran. It could promote Palestinian statehood on terms consistent with Israeli security and, simultaneously, create the conditions for normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia on terms Palestinians can embrace.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
