US Secretary of State’s trip to the Middle East: when diplomacy turns into cowardice


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Status: 02/01/2023 04:38 a.m

US Secretary of State Blinken came to the Middle East empty-handed and without creative ideas. Instead, he seemed just careful not to upset his host in public. Such cowardice only makes people shake their heads.

A commentary by Julio Segador, ARD Studio Tel Aviv

Tom Cruise always manages to do it in the end in his “Mission Impossible” films. No matter how hopeless the situation is – he finds a solution and in the end stands there as a radiant hero. Admittedly, with a few scratches, but he triumphs.

The situation in the Middle East conflict, in which Israelis and Palestinians have been hostile to one another for decades, is many times more hopeless than in the most exciting Tom Cruise films.

Trump failed, now Biden is trying to tackle the conflict

With his “Deal of the Century,” ex-US President Trump wanted to go down in the history books as a beaming dealmaker, as the one who cut the Gordian knot with his Middle East plan. He failed miserably with his one-sided pro-Israel Middle East plan.

So now Joe Biden is trying to mediate in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And he sends his smart chief diplomat Antony Blinken to the region. Just stupid that he comes empty-handed. Not a single suggestion, not a creative solution – in short: nothing new that US Secretary of State Blinken brought to the tableau, such as the deadlock in the Middle East conflict could be at least partially lifted.

Which status quo is Blinking talking about?

Yes, the US insists on the status quo on the Temple Mount, they continue to rely on the two-state solution, no one should take unilateral steps that endanger the existing fragile balance. That’s what blinking said.

I beg your pardon? The status quo on the Temple Mount is being violated by radical forces like the new far-right Israeli minister Ben-Gvir. In view of the more than 600,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, i.e. on Palestinian territory according to international law, the two-state solution is just a chimera. And there are unilateral steps by the Palestinians or Israelis that escalate the conflict further almost every day. A look at the past weekend is enough.

Blinken does not want to upset the host

It was all too well-known generalities and empty phrases that Blinken selectively presented to his interlocutors. The fact that he condemned the construction of settlements in the press conference with Palestinian President Abbas, but did not even mention it on the same occasion with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, when Netanyahu praised the expansion of settlement construction as an effective anti-terrorist measure the day before – that only leaves people shaking their heads .

Diplomacy is all well and good – but if diplomacy turns into cowardice just because you don’t want to annoy your host in public – then you can save yourself the whole thing. In view of the difficult starting position after the many deaths in Jenin and Jerusalem, Antony Blinken should have tackled his mandate as a mediator more courageously and creatively. His boss Joe Biden should have given him more freedom.

That’s how Blinken’s “Mission Impossible” turned out to be what it is when you manage the deadlock. A job that you can only fail at.

Editorial note

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