The New York Times recently published a number of letters on the subject, one written by Paul Schoenbaum of Williamsburg. In that letter, he reflected on an editorial that quoted aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that he was blindsided by the announcement from Israel’s Interior Ministry, led by the leader of the right-wing Shas Party. But the editorial noted that Netanyahu didn’t disavow the plan of building 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem.

    “Mr. Netanyahu has made it perfectly clear that East Jerusalem is part of Israel and as such is nonnegotiable. That said, the timing of the announcement …was a slap in the face of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as well as President Obama.

    “Mr. Netanyahu should immediately fire his interior minister to make clear that he is in charge. Nothing short of that will make irresponsible people in his administration more responsible,” wrote Shoenbaum.

    The announcement embarrassed the vice-president and was seen as an attempt to undermine his effort to restart the peace negotiations.

    In view of my familiarity with the situation in the Middle East, several readers of my column in Williamsburg, Va. as well as in Lake Placid, urged me to weigh in on the subject.

    Although the timing of the announcement was a gross violation of the diplomatic protocol, the fact that it happened, in the context of Israeli politics, has a simpler explanation. The announcement may have been triggered by competition between two right-wing ministers from the religious Shas Party to prove who is more effective building housing for orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem.

    It is in the nature of democracies, and Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, that party politics and posturing often take precedent over national interest. To prove the point, one doesn’t need to go further than to observe the political landscape in Washington.

    The pursuit of party politics in Israel, however, have international ramifications. According to press reports, Biden told Netanyahu that the Israeli policy of expanding settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem undermines the security of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and endangers regional peace.

    Netanyahu in response pointed out that Israel in all its negotiations with the Palestinians has clarified that the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem will remain in Israeli hands in any final-status agreement.

    Thus, according to Prof. Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, the Obama administration decided to make a crisis over the proposed construction in order to placate the Palestinians in hope that they will return to the negotiating table.

No doubt achieving a two-state based peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians is in the interest of not just the two parties involved, but also the whole region, and to the United States in its relation with the Muslim world. But the plain fact is that Israel is concerned, and the Obama administration will push it to make concessions to the Palestinians that could endanger its security.

    It is well to remember that at the Camp David negotiations, in the fall of 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, now Israel’s minister of defense, put on the table an offer that would have given Palestinians control over 96 percent of Gaza and the West Bank, and put East Jerusalem under Palestinian rule. But Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader rejected the offer. He demanded that all Palestinian refugees who desired to return to Israel be permitted to do so.

    When the negotiations collapsed, the Palestinians resorted to an indiscriminate terror campaign against Israeli civilians. It brought Gen. Ariel Sharon to power who, subsequently, as a certified nationalist and right-winger had the credentials to persuade Israelis to hand over Gaza to the Palestinians.

    History may repeat itself. Prime Minister Netanyahu, also a certified nationalist and right-winger, could become Israel’s Nixon who went to China and made a deal with Mao Zedong. 

Frank Shatz lives in Williamsburg, Va. and Lake Placid. His column was reprinted with permission from The Virginia Gazette.