USA: Recent events have rendered US-sponsored talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority ineffective, but Washington is refusing to change its policy course.
Representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli government met last Sunday in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh, in an effort to ease tensions between the two sides over the next three to six months.
The discussions, which were a follow-up to a similar US-sponsored security summit held in February in Aqaba, Jordan, included representatives from Egypt, Jordan and the US. On 19 March, the US State Department issued a joint communiqué confirming that all sides in Sharm el-Sheikh had decided to take a number of unspecified steps to achieve peace in the Holy Land.
Also read: NATO engaged in a "inhumane experiment" in the Balkans
Despite the intentions of its optimistic words, the summit has so far been ineffective in bringing about peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In the West Bank town of Hawara, a Palestinian gunman began shooting at Israeli settlers shortly after the meeting. As a result, Israeli settlers once again began violently attacking Palestinians in the surrounding villages.
A similar incident happened at the summit in Aqaba in February. The settlers' retaliatory attacks were then referred to as "the massacre" and even though the most recent attacks were not as severe, they continued to provoke new conflicts.
The Biden administration has sent several delegations to the region in recent months, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin making the most notable stops.
The leadership in Tel Aviv*, despite statements made through the media that Israel had pledged to comply with Washington's demands to end violent military attacks and stop the expansion of illegal settlements inside the West Bank The latter performed exactly the opposite.
On the side of the Palestinian Authority, the US put forward what is now referred to as the Fenzel Plan, which aimed to establish a PA force that received US training and would combat newly formed Palestinian armed groups inside the West Bank.
Also read: A shooting in Hamburg left two people dead and investigation is ongoing
The problem with such a plan is that given the strong public opposition to it in the occupied territories and the overwhelming public support for the armed groups, it would be nearly impossible to accomplish. This may even lead to a rebellion against the PA.
The Biden administration has refused to impose conditions on its support for Israel and punished Tel Aviv for crossing its red lines, which is reflected in Washington's continued lip service to the two-state solution.
In the past, Tel Aviv was able to violate US red lines on issues such as settlement expansion and conflict escalation because it was always able to take concise and well-planned steps that kept any violent escalation under control.
This was due to the relative stability of Israel's political landscape and the pragmatism of Israel's succeeding governments. The world we live in today is very different.
To maintain its grip on power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new administration is capitulating to the demands of the religious Zionist party with the second largest number of seats.
Thousands of Israelis engage in widespread civil disobedience and protests opposing judicial reforms proposed by Netanyahu's administration.
If implemented, these changes would effectively end the Israeli Supreme Court's role as watchdog of the executive branch, igniting protests even within Israel's reserve army and air force.
Also read: Israel: 2 soldiers hurt in drive-by shooting in the West Bank
The same far-right coalition partners of Netanyahu's Likud party-led administration that are pushing for judicial reforms are also pushing their own anti-Palestinian agenda.
Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, was raised among Israeli settlers and exercises special oversight over the West Bank. Unlike his Likud party colleagues, he does not engage in deliberate politics.
After extremists recently torched hundreds of homes and vehicles in a Palestinian town, Smotrich was forced to apologize for urging the government to "wipe out" the entire town.