Blind spot : America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump

A critical examination of the history of US-Palestinian relations The United States has invested billions of dollars and countless diplomatic hours in the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution. Yet American attempts to broker an end to the conflict have repeatedly come up short. At the center of these failures lay two critical factors: Israeli power and Palestinian politics. While both Israelis and Palestinians undoubtedly share much of the blame, one also cannot escape the role of the United States, as the sole mediator in the process, in these repeated failures. American peacemaking efforts ultimately ran aground as a result of Washington’s unwillingness to confront Israel’s ever-deepening occupation or to come to grips with the realities of internal Palestinian politics. In particular, the book looks at the interplay between the U.S.-led peace process and internal Palestinian politics—namely, how a badly flawed peace process helped to weaken Palestinian leaders and institutions and how an increasingly dysfunctional Palestinian leadership, in turn, hindered prospects for a diplomatic resolution. Thus, while the peace process was not necessarily doomed to fail, Washington’s management of the process, with its built-in blind spot to Israeli power and Palestinian politics, made failure far more likely than a negotiated breakthrough. Shaped by the pressures of American domestic politics and the special relationship with Israel, Washington’s distinctive “blind spot” to Israeli power and Palestinian politics has deep historical roots, dating back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate. The size of the blind spot has varied over the years and from one administration to another, but it is always present. p strongA critical examination of the history of US-Palestinian relations/strong /p pThe United States has invested billions of dollars and countless diplomatic hours in the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution. Yet American attempts to broker an end to the conflict have repeatedly come up short. At the center of these failures lay two critical factors: Israeli power and Palestinian politics./p pWhile both Israelis and Palestinians undoubtedly share much of the blame, one also cannot escape the role of the United States, as the sole mediator in the process, in these repeated failures. American peacemaking efforts ultimately ran aground as a result of Washington's unwillingness to confront Israel's ever-deepening occupation or to come to grips with the realities of internal Palestinian politics. In particular, the book looks at the interplay between the U.S.-led peace process and internal Palestinian politics-namely, how a badly flawed peace process helped to weaken Palestinian leaders and institutions and how an increasingly dysfunctional Palestinian leadership, in turn, hindered prospects for a diplomatic resolution. Thus, while the peace process was not necessarily doomed to fail, Washington's management of the process, with its built-in blind spot to Israeli power and Palestinian politics, made failure far more likely than a negotiated breakthrough./p pShaped by the pressures of American domestic politics and the special relationship with Israel, Washington's distinctive "blind spot" to Israeli power and Palestinian politics has deep historical roots, dating back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate. The size of the blind spot has varied over the years and from one administration to another, but it is always present./p ul liThe book traces the evolution of American-Palestinian relations from the origins of the Israel/Palestine conflict in the early twentieth century through the Obama period in order to explain why those relations have never developed into a real bilateral relationship and what impact this has had on the U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace process./li li /li liThe book is unique in that it looks at both sides of the American-Palestinian relationship. The focus is not just on how American policymakers view the Palestinians, but on how Palestinian decision makers view the role of the United States as chief sponsor of the peace process./li /ul The United States has invested billions of dollars and countless diplomatic hours in the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution. Yet American attempts to broker an end to the conflict have repeatedly come up short. Two irreducible factors stand in the way: Israeli power and Palestinian politics. American peacemaking efforts have been hobbled by the U.S. assumption that a credible peace settlement could be achieved without addressing Israel's vast superiority in power or internal Palestinian politics. While there is no denying the roles played by Israelis and Palestinians in perpetuating their conflict, Washington's distinctive "blind spot" to Palestinian politics and Israeli power has prevented it from serving as an effective peace broker. Shaped by the pressures American domestic politics and the special relationship with Israel, the blind spot also has deep historical roots, dating back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate over Palestine. The size of the blind spot has varied over the years and from one administration to another, but it is always present. Unless and until U.S. policymakers are prepared to act in ways that constrain Israeli power and acknowledge Palestinian politics, American peacemaking stands little chance of success.-- Amazon "The United States has invested billions of dollars and countless diplomatic hours in the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution. Yet American attempts to broker an end to the conflict have repeatedly come up short. Two irreducible factors stand in the way: Israeli power and Palestinian politics. American peacemaking efforts have been hobbled by the U.S. assumption that a credible peace settlement could be achieved without addressing Israel's vast superiority in power or internal Palestinian politics. While there is no denying the roles played by Israelis and Palestinians in perpetuating their conflict, Washington's distinctive "blind spot" to Palestinian politics and Israeli power has prevented it from serving as an effective peace broker. Shaped by the pressures American domestic politics and the special relationship with Israel, the blind spot also has deep historical roots, dating back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate over Palestine. The size of the blind spot has varied over the years and from one administration to another, but it is always present. Unless and until U.S. policymakers are prepared to act in ways that constrain Israeli power and acknowledge Palestinian politics, American peacemaking stands little chance of success" (ed.)