Observers in the Middle East won’t be comforted by the foreign policy announcements from this year’s Aipac conference in Washington. The annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States – has become a major forum for policy announcements on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and regional challenges such as Iran. During presidential election years, candidates from both parties use the conference to share their vision for the Middle East while pandering to Israel’s interests.
This year is no different. Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic leader Hillary Clinton rehearsed the well-worn talking points about the “unbreakable” alliance between America and Israel. Mr Trump, having just announced the appointment of Lebanese scholar Walid Phares to his foreign policy advice team, went as far as to say that he would move America’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if elected president.
As with other policy formulations, Mr Trump’s arguments confused more than informed. He told Aipac that his first act of business would be to “dismantle” the Iran nuclear deal and then later argues that he would simply “hold Iran accountable by restructuring the terms of the previous deal”.
Mrs Clinton, on the other hand, adopted a hawkish pro-Israel line with vociferous calls against the growing boycott movement and pledges to take America’s alliance with Tel Aviv “to the next level”. Neither Mrs Clinton nor Mr Trump inspired much confidence that the United States is ready or willing to take steps to break the status quo that has enabled Israel to entrench its occupation of Palestinian land.
It was only vice president Joe Biden and Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders who spoke about Israel’s occupation and the death of the two-state solution. For those of us in the Middle East waiting for a prudent and sensible approach to breaking the status quo in Israel, this year’s Aipac conference didn’t inspire hope for change in the near future.
