Israel’s mind-boggling intractability and stalling tactics, not to mention frequent displays of overly brute force, have meant we don’t even much think about peace in the Middle East, or even the “peace process” anymore. Israel has become, in public consciousness, merely an immovable force, which is why, when you read the first word of this column, you stopped reading. That’s how come Israel’s extraordinarily bad recent behavior has gotten relatively little media attention: There’s no percentage in thinking about Israel—nothing ever changes; all news is stasis.
Joe Biden
went to Israel last week to do what American politicians always do in Israel, conduct elaborate exercises in great ritual and propriety, and the Israelis, cavalier about their ritual and propriety obligations, promptly announced they were putting up 1,600 new homes in disputed territory.
Even for Israel, which fairly assumes it has a lock on American political and media support, this was a pretty bold fuck-you. It was, likely, too, a test: How far can we push what seems to be a beleaguered administration?
The news is that it’s possible not only that the test failed, but that it was a historic and uncharacteristic misreading of American politics. Biden
went ballistic, snubbing the Israeli prime minister at an official ritual and propriety dinner. Then Hillary Clinton called and
delivered a tongue lashing. Then the president let it be known he was, in language perhaps never used at the White House, “incandescent with rage.”
The Obama White House may not so much be abandoning the elaborate scheme of ritual and propriety, but be seizing an opportunity provided by it. The Israelis overstepped, the Americans, long accustomed to grinning and bearing it, are dramatically demonstrating hurt feelings. Israel has to make us feel better, a lot better.
This could be real movement—a real opportunity.
I think the Obama guys are reading something subtle and strategic here. For several decades—from the Reagan years on, with only a short respite during Bush Senior years (Bush Sr. did not seem to like Israel very much)—Israel has bludgeoned the US into a kind of inevitable support. One effect of this bludgeoning is a certain dulling of the senses. Beyond the core of Israel’s political operation in the US, and an aging demographic of dedicated support, what’s left? Who really feels absolute loyalty to the Israeli position? Who doesn’t feel the subject of Israel, and the god-awful ritual and propriety surrounding it, isn’t mind numbing?
Who wouldn’t be ready to shake it up a bit?
More of Newser founder Michael Wolff's articles and commentary can be found at VanityFair.com, where he writes a regular column. He can be emailed at michael@newser.com. You can also follow him on Twitter: @MichaelWolffNYC.
