Resolving the conflict, hard as that might seem, is the best available option for the U.S. The alternatives essentially boil down to continuing to manage the consequences of the ongoing conflict and Palestinian grievance for which America is in large measure blamed and which emboldens America’s adversaries, emaciates is allies, and sucks the oxygen of America’s credibility in the region — or America distancing itself from Israel’s occupation, an act that would fundamentally rupture the Israeli-U.S. relationship and would present a far more politically foreboding challenge than an act of cajoling Israel toward de-occupation.
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Israel appears to be entering a period of increasing domestic political turmoil. There is an undoubted rise in extremism and erosion of Israel ’s democratic credentials. Alongside that, Israelis are cognizant of a growing global trend towards taking punitive measures in response to Israeli actions that violate international law and norms of behavior (a grassroots sanctions movement that includes cancellations of music concerts in Israel , divestment from Israeli companies, and boycotts of Israeli goods connected with the occupation). Israeli cultural icons have just taken a stand with a broadly signed petition of refusal to appear at, or cooperate with, a soon to be opened theatre in the settlement of Ariel (including Israel ’s most iconic writers Amoz Oz, David Grossman, and A.B. Yehoshua). While the debate is not new, its current incarnation has a blunt and bold edge that distinguishes it and is in tune with the zeitgeist of Israeli democracy approaching a point of no return.
(...) The tantalizing thing that Obama will have to deliver here is an Israeli political yes. A solution cannot be imposed on Israel , clear choices can though be presented. If there is an Israeli yes to real de-occupation gestating somewhere in the Israeli public and body politic, then it is not going to emerge on its own, that much is clear today. If the Israeli yes is there, it is going to take a c-section (= opération de la césarienne) to bring it out into the world, and the only available surgeon is President Barack Obama.
