Notes from the Holy Land

While initially I had expected it to be the typical American diplomat giving his unwaivering support for Israel, there were a few recent events which ended up changing the speech's tone in a very interesting way. Last Tuesday, the day Joe Biden arrived in Israel, the Israeli government released a statement which announced the construction of 1,600 new Jewish apartments in the East Jerusalem. Now, this is a complicated issue but in a nut shell the West Bank territory is the area Palestinians want as their future state as well as the predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem as their capital. While Israel recognizes that the West Bank territory will eventually be part of this state, there are a few exceptions which cause problems on both sides. In several parts of the West Bank, there are settlements of Israelis who claim the land is theirs and whom the Israeli government defends. The other main point of contention is Jerusalem. The stance of the current Israeli government is that the city of Jerusalem as a whole should fall under the sole sovereignty of Israel. As a way of "staking their claim" in Jerusalem, over the past years there has been the construction of thousands of residences for Israelis in the eastern part of the city. While the government claims this is simply urban growth there has always been the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) motive of putting Israeli citizens on the land so Palestinians cannot easily claim it when/if a two-state solution is worked out. The US, the UN, the EU, and many other countries and international groups criticize Israel for these tactics and claim they are detrimental to the peace process as each new settlement announcement stirs up outrage amongst Palestinians.

While Israel has made these sorts announcements countless times over the years but this statement concerning 1,600 new Jerusalem apartments was especially unfortunate because of it was made public the day the US Vice President arrived in Israel. In politics, both international and domestic, timing is everything. It sends a message. And the message Israel seemed to be sending the United States with their announcement was not a good one. From this point there's alot of speculation as to who authorized the announcement and so on but here's my opinion: the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fairly conservative on many issues. There are political parties within Israel which are more progressive as far as the settlement-issue goes. Netanyahu's is not one of these. While he, himself, has to move more to the center as Prime Minister, factions within his coalition do not. One of these factions, the "Shas" party, is in charge of the section of government which has a a great amount of influence in housing decisions, the Interior Ministry. In my opinion, whether this announcement had been previously scheduled or not, the Interior Ministry did nothing to stop it, and the conservatively-minded Netanyahu failed to foresee its interpretation by western allies.

As you can tell from all the news coverage, the United States was not very happy. Soon after the housing statement was released, the Vice President's office put out their own statement condemning Israel's actions as a blow to the delicate peace talks which were slated to resume after over a year. For the United States to use the word "condemn" when talking about an ally, let alone Israel, takes a great amount of effort on that county's part. As a side note, the Vice President arrived to a dinner with the Prime Minister ninety minutes late that evening, seemingly as a subtle diplomatic snub.

So here we were: peace talks were up in the air, the US was insulted, Palestinians were outraged, Israel was doing damage control, and there I was, about to see some diplomatic acting and innuendo of the highest caliber in Biden's speech, one that was surely revised and edited several times in the days leading up to his address at TAU. The day of the speech I woke up at 6AM to join some friends in being the first in line for seats. (Note that Biden wasn't scheduled to speak until 11:30). So we lined up in an empty queue, waited for out ID checks and made our way to the auditorium where the Vice President was speaking. After a few more hours of waiting (though at the front of the line), we made our way in.

The seats were incredible. A few friends and I managed to snag the closest possible seats we could in the third row as all the other seats had reservation markers for some very important people. And maybe its just because I'm a political buff but I found it very exciting to see a section behind me labeled: "Reserved for White House Press". Following a bit more waiting the VIP's began to file in. I'm about to rattle off some names which probably mean nothing 95% of the readers of this blog, but I'll continue for that 5%. First was the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, James Cunnigham and his Israeli counterpart Michael Oren. Then came Dennis Ross, one of the main American peace negotiators and an important advisor to the President for issues in the Middle East. Then came the leader of Kadima, the Israeli opposition party, (and probably the next Prime Minister of Israel), Tzipi Livni. Not only were these very powerful politicians in the same building as myself, they were talking, mingling, and eventually sitting five feet away from me! It was cool. Very cool.

We could tell that the Vice President had finally arrived when the American press started to come in and take their seats. Although I had been hoping for it, I was still very surprised to see one of my favorite political commentators, Chris Matthews walk in wearing a VP Press Badge. After a few minutes, when people were still mingling about in the aisles I made my way over to Chris Matthews in the White House Press section and introduced myself. Shortly thereafter, Chris Matthews, myself, a few nearby TAU students, and the Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times, Ethan Bronner were discussing the ramifications of recent events in Israel. The two journalism pros gave us some questions we should ask the Vice President during the short Q&A section following his speech and I was comforted to find that Chris Matthews was the same no-nonsense journalist that he is in his television show, Hardball. One question he suggested we ask was: "On a scale of one to ten, what is the likelihood of a two state solution being achieved in the next five years? ten years?" Now, it would take a really ballsy person to throw a question like that at the Vice President of the United States while all of the keys players in the peace process from the US and Israel are sitting less than fifteen feet away. Then again Chris Matthews is a pretty ballsy guy.

After I snagged a picture with Mr. Matthews and the VIPs up front started to take their seats I made my way to mine. I won't go into too much detail about Biden's speech, you can watch it for yourself, but I will mention a few observations I made.His overall his tone seemed to mimic what has been said by Obama Administration officials for weeks and by American diplomats for decades, "We fully/completely/unwaveringly support Israel." However, the Vice President also reiterated the condemnation from the United States due to the announcement of the additional construction plans in east Jerusalem. Now, while I had been fully aware beforehand that the VP's speech would be overwhelmingly pro-Israel, there were a few moments when Biden seemed to add a little more empathy for Palestinians than is typical in a cut-and-dry speech on US/Israeli relations. One phrase he used repeatedly was, "The status quo is not sustainable", an obvious statement for anyone who lives in the region or follows currents events, yet for one of the highest-ranking American officials to say it seemed to give those words little extra heft. Interestingly enough, when he emphasized these points again and again, it seemed as if he was looking into the front row of Israeli politicians and making his case directly to them. (Either that or it may have been due to the bright stage lights blinding him beyond the first few rows, but I'd like to think it was the former.)

After about an hour Joe had wrapped up his surprisingly gaffe-free speech and took a few questions before heading off to a meeting with Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak. As I left the auditorium, I took a moment to contemplate all I had experienced that day. I sat mere feet away from several big time politicians of the Middle East, met one of my journalism idols, and watched the Vice President of the United States deliver a major foreign policy address on a major international issue. As glad as I was to have seen and done all of that I couldn't help but feel like the event wasn't as historic as it was made out to be. You see, "historic" implies that something is changed and would forever be remembered for that change. But with Palestinians still threatening to give up peace talks and Israel still unwilling ti make the necessary concessions for peace, I feel like this push for peace in the Middle East may be added to the long list of promising efforts that never came to pass.

A good Newsweek editorial on Biden's visit:

(P.S. - If you jump to 1:00:25 in the YouTube Video at the top of the post you can catch a glimpse of my blonde head. Shouldn't be to difficult seeing as it was the only one there.)