VIENNA — The Obama administration has launched two major foreign policy initiatives. One is Secretary of State John Kerry’s effort to bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace. The other is to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.

Both seem worthy aims. Whether congressional behavior is helpful is another question. Sen. Susan Collins’ recent communications with me and with President Obama are not encouraging.

Sen. Collins’ willingness to meet with constituents or to have her staff do so is not in doubt. When I visited Washington recently, three staffers listened attentively as I asked that the senator co-sponsor a resolution in support of Secretary Kerry’s efforts, and refrain from actions that could derail the Iran talks. They did not, however, ask questions, which left me to wonder what they, or Sen. Collins, actually thought.

I learned more two days later. A letter sent in response to an earlier request for support of Kerry’s efforts greeted me on my return to Maine. In the letter, Sen. Collins called Israel “fully democratic.” That is a stretch.

Israel does have significant democratic dimensions. All citizens of Israel proper have the right to vote, and to stand for election. There is freedom of speech, press and assembly.

But there is also substantial evidence of discrimination in housing, employment and resources for education. And there is nothing democratic about Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and its siege of Gaza. At best, Israel is what Mideast expert Aaron David Miller has called it: a “preferential democracy,” i.e., one in which Jews are privileged over others.

The senator also advised me of a 2007 memorandum of understanding committing us to providing “security assistance to Israel in the face of threats that are … ever present.”

Memorandums of understanding are less-than-binding legal agreements. The memorandum of understanding cited was agreed to by the Bush administration, which, among other problematic steps in the Middle East, gave the Israelis a guarantee (with no right to do so) that they could retain major settlements in the West Bank in any agreement with the Palestinians.

By design, those settlements sit atop more than 80 per cent of the West Bank’s aquifers. Without substantial access to those aquifers, the Palestinians have little prospect of a viable state or economy. Whether the Bush administration’s less-than-responsible commitments ought to be perpetuated is doubtful..

Sen. Collins also enclosed a March 2013 letter signed by herself and 76 other senators lauding President Obama’s visit to Israel, and putting exclusive emphasis on Israeli security and America’s “unwavering support” for that country.

Perhaps Sen. Collins’ intent in advising me of the memorandum of understanding and the March letter was to convey the futility of trying to alter current American policy. If so, that is not what I took from it. Rather, it indicated a pathology on Capitol Hill, afflicting both parties and involving marked dissonance between uncritical backing for Israel in Congress and the more complex realities of our relationship with that state.

There is also evidence of disparity between near-monolithic support for Israel on the Hill, and attitudes out in the country. Shibley Telhami, an expert on polling in relation to the Middle East, has observed that polls over many years indicate that two-thirds of Americans want the United States to be even-handed between Israelis and Palestinians. That is consistent with my own interactions with the public in Maine.

The letter on Iran to President Obama signed by Sen. Collins may fairly be read in light of the biased communication sent me, and her failure even now to sign on to the resolution in support of the Kerry effort.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has said that the letter on Iran reflects “a growing tendency by many American lawmakers to do whatever the Israel lobby asks them to do in order to garner Jewish votes and campaign donations.” It is hard to disagree, though it also must be said that many American Jews, as well as Israelis, are as appalled as any at the situation.

MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow recently called American foreign policy “sclerotic.” In part, she was referring to current policy toward Israel.

On Dec. 9, Congress will reconvene. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to bring up a bill giving senators the opportunity to disrupt, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wishes it to be disrupted, the diplomatic process that could lead to a reasonable resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue.

Sen. Collins and her colleagues ought to be greeted by a flood of calls, emails and letters protesting any such counterproductive action. 

– Special to the Press Herald