Netanyahu channels Jefferson

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke last night at AIPAC. The speech was notable for three things:

• No vision of what peace with the Palestinians would look like–he promised that for today in Congress.
• His assertion that “Israel is America’s indispensable ally.” I thought it was the other way around.
• His welcoming of the Arab Spring, and his related claim that Arabs have equal rights in Israel.

On this last point, I’m glad Netanyahu took the line he did on the Arab Spring, but I’m afraid he was as insincere as the slave holder Thomas Jefferson, whose memorial he visited.  Rather than debate complex issues, I’ll quote the State Department’s last human rights report:

Principal human rights problems were institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against Arab citizens…

In Israel proper, see the New Israel Fund. For the occupied territories, pay a visit to B’tselem. Prepare to not like what you read.

The question of whether Israel is indispensable to the U.S. or the U.S. is indispensable to Israel is an important one.  The fact is that the U.S. is indispensable to Israel.  The United States would survive without the Jewish state, but Israel would not survive without American support.

Like most Americans, I am glad for that support, which helps to ensure Israeli security.  But when an Israeli prime minister gets the basic relationship backwards I’ve got to wonder what we are doing wrong.

The answer is too much support and not enough questioning.  President Obama did well last week to make clearer what everyone (including Israeli prime ministers before Netanyahu) has always assumed:  that a peace settlement would include 1967 borders with land swaps.  Putting Netanyahu on the spot was far better than conspiring with him, as Aaron David Miller would have preferred.

I’ll be listening today for what Netanyahu has to say about his vision for a peace settlement between Israel and Palestine.  I hope it proves better than what I expect.