Israel Analysis: Washington Gives Way to West Jerusalem on "Strategic Dialogue"

On Tuesday, American and Israeli officials issued the Joint Statement on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Dialogue. Here is the full text:

U.S. and Israeli delegations, headed by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon, met today in Washington to continue the semi-annual U.S.-Israel Strategic Dialogue. The delegations reviewed in-depth many of the issues that affect our mutual security and partnership. The Strategic Dialogue is an opportunity for both the United States and Israel to discuss at a senior level a variety of issues, our respective perspectives, and evaluate their policy implications for both our countries.

The United States and Israel are committed to working together to enhance regional security and stability. The present discussions helped identify ways to improve our already strong cooperation in this regard for the benefit of all in the region. The United States and Israel also reemphasized their commitment to the pursuit of lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and all of its neighbors.

While today’s Strategic Dialogue covered many subjects, it is clear that Iran is among the greatest challenges we face today in the Middle East. Iran’s continued noncompliance with its international obligations related to its nuclear program, as well as its continued support for terrorist entities, are of grave concern to our two countries and the entire international community. Continued efforts by the international community to address Iran’s actions through both pressure and engagement are critical to changing Iran’s strategic calculus and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.

We look forward to continuing the Strategic Dialogue in the spring of 2011 as an important forum to study and address the serious issues facing the United States, Israel, and the region.

As you might notice, there is no emphasis on the unfinished and damaged peace process except a naive "commitment to the pursuit of lasting peace". Instead, we have a clear threat: Iran. A threat that is big enough to overcome any commitment to peace.  

The other significant feature is the emphasis on the "continued efforts by the international community." In other words, instead of a military option, diplomatic measures are the prescription to meet the "grave concern to both countries and the entire international community" The message to Israel is clear: no airstrikes on Tehran.

Some might argue that Washington may want to steer Israel away from a drumbeat on the need to use the military option against Iran by maintaining a low-profile, gentle pressure on the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. If this is the case, the Obama Administration can only defer its pile of troubles on Israeli-Palestinian conflict to tomorrow. Giving the green light to an Israeli foreign policy, anchored on the urgent need to solve the Iranian issue first and foremost, means bypassing every opportunity to renew the peace process with the Palestinians.

This is not the end of the story. Israel's ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, referring to the Palestinians' plan for United Nations Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 lines, told reporters on Tuesday that Israel would not allow anyone to dictate its borders.

Oren continued:

The Israeli government under PM Benjamin Netanyahu has not for a nanosecond reduced its commitment to peace. But not a peace at any price. Not a peace that will impair Israel’s security or impugn its identity as the nation state of the Jewish people. 

What is the threat against the Jewish State of Israel preventing acceptance of a settlement if it was  approved by the international community? For Oren, this is trumped by the perpetuity of every Israeli citizen under nuclear and terrorist threat:

Today, too, Israel is blessed with principled and courageous leadership. While facing terrorist groups sworn to destroy every last one of us - women, children, senior citizens - and some 60,000 Hamas and Hezbollah rockets pointed directly at our homes; with so-called human rights organizations and boycott movements and campus coalitions denying our right to defend ourselves and even our right to exist, and with Iranian leaders swearing to wipe us off the map and striving to produce the nuclear means for doing that….

As Netanyahu said last year in his Bar-Ilan speech, he will not allow any future Palestinian state to become another Lebanon or Gaza.

Simply put, Oren is securitising the Israeli policy on the Palestinian case. Endorsing the solution of pre-1967 borders, with recognition of a Palestinian state, is the equivalent of crossing the red line which puts one under suspicion of collaborating with the terrorists against "every last one of us, women, children, senior citizens" in Israel.

So, back to Washington. Is the Obama Administration, after its public doffing of the cap to a strategic dialogue with Israel, still committed to a sense of "peace"? And in these conditions, what kind of "peace" can it be?