US Secretary of State Antony Blinken completed his Middle East tour, which began from Egypt and ended in Israel and the West Bank. This visit took place amidst major incidents of violence in Jenin and other Palestinian territories. These incidents led to a logical reaction by the Palestinian Authority which suspended security coordination with the Israeli occupation authorities after the killing of ten Palestinians, nine of them in the Jenin refugee camp.
The American approach in dealing with the Middle East is not different whether it is of the Republicans or Democrats. It mainly focuses on the need to maintain the status quo, reviving peace efforts, and focussing on the need to stop escalation. However, the two-state solution has been absent this time from Blinken’s agenda. He has set his sight on further rapprochement with Israel as a strategic partner in the region, while relying on Egypt as an important mediator as it can convey messages both to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The US administration attaches huge importance to its relationship with Egypt, particularly after Cairo’s success in swift reconciliation between Islamic Jihad and Lapid government in May and August 2021.
Blinken’s visit is part of the efforts of activation and appreciation of the “Jerusalem Declaration” of the strategic partnership signed by US President Joe Biden with (the then) Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. It is also important due to Iran and the American support to Israel in the face of any Iranian attempt to obtain a nuclear weapon.
[by Fadel Manasfa in Al-Arab, London]
The US-Zionist Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s recent visit to the region perhaps doesn’t have any value. His shuttling from Cairo to meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the enemy’s prime minister, then with Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, also does not have any importance. His “frenzied” press conferences which followed each of the meetings also do not have even little significance. The discussion on the Palestinian issue was confined to the headlines which talked about calming of tension and de-escalation. The talk about the so-called peace and the “two-state solution” is now pending for a long term. The meaning is clear. It shows complete strategic congruence and integration between Washington and Tel Aviv, and resumption of plans to push Arab countries to be part of normalisation (with Israel) and coordination with the countries which have normalised their relationship with Israel to extinguish the fire of the popular armed Palestinian resistance.
The suspicious American visits have repeated a lot, particularly since 2014, when the “monologues” of negotiations between Netanyahu and the Palestinian Authority stopped, after twenty years of spinning and turning in “Oslo” agreement pages which already devoid any meaning.
What remained is the visits of American delusions. They come and go. They may be important for the servants of Washington and Israel. But they do not mean anything to the Palestinian people. Every nation has its traitors. Victory is always for those who resist, even if it sometimes delays.
[by Abdul Haleem Qandeel in Al-Quds Al-Arabi]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque