BEGIN-SADAT CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES
by Prof. Shmuel Sandler
August 5, 2014
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: American interventions in the Gaza conflict have been puzzling. The Obama administration chose to support the Hamas-friendly Turkish-Qatari ceasefire proposal and failed to recognize the emerging bloc between the more moderate Middle Eastern states. Its treatment of Egypt is baffling. The Obama administration seems not to understand the current power configuration in the region and the dangers of the growing Islamist movement.
American interventions in the Gaza conflict have been very difficult to understand. Washington acted against its own strategic interests in prodding Israel to pull back from clubbing Hamas, and in involving Turkey and Qatar – the lawyers and financiers of Hamas – into the ceasefire negotiations, while snubbing Egypt. Some have attributed American actions to the clash of personalities between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama. But this is an insufficient and probably irrelevant explanation. States overcome personal feelings. The strength or weakness of personal relations between leaders cannot adequately explain the foreign policy of a world power.
Washington’s reluctance to involve itself more deeply in the Middle East has also been suggested as an explanation for Washington’s policies. But this too is an insufficient explanation, since the US played an active role in trying to mediate a ceasefire. Unfortunately, there is no choice but to conclude that Washington simply does not recognize the realities of today’s Middle East, and ignores potential opportunities. Its regional foreign policy has been based on serious errors of judgment.
The Obama administration has failed to recognize the emergence, importance and opportunities presented by an axis of moderate pro-American Middle East states that developed during the recent crisis. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, many Gulf states (with the exception of Qatar), and Israel all shared similar interests in this conflict, as did Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority. They all sought the dramatic weakening of the radical Islamic, Iranian-backed Hamas. In one way or another, they supported Israel’s military operation against Hamas. Washington declined to support this emerging bloc.
The most bewildering American action was Secretary of State John Kerry’s support for the Hamas-friendly Turkish-Qatari ceasefire proposal, which undercut a much more strategically sound Egyptian-Israeli ceasefire proposal. Moreover, Turkey and Qatar are promoting the subversive Islamist forces in the Middle East, including Hamas. How can this be in America’s interests?……
ArchitectGuy on Israel 