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his is in reference to the article titled “RI regrets brinkmanship at UN showdown” published on Sept. 23 on the front page.

US President Barack Hussein Obama understands the Israeli-Palestinian issue very clearly. Obama knows the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is at a dead end.

Earlier, Obama tried to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by mandating a complete West Bank settlement freeze, only to be forced embarrassingly by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back down.

In May, Obama had the temerity to publicly tell Israel that its current policy toward the Palestinians was untenable and unsustainable, and to modestly suggest a negotiating formula to break the impasse, and was publicly chastised by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and had to submit to the humiliation of seeing the US Congressional leaders of the Democratic Party repudiate him in favor of Netanyahu. Eventually Obama washed his hands of the Palestinian issue.

Once again, Obama is being forced to publicly support an Israeli policy position fundamentally opposed to his own. Obama knows very well that Netanyahu has no intention of permitting the formation of a viable Palestinian state, and that the Palestinians have little choice but to pursue their current course at the United Nations.

America’s lone support for Israel and an inevitable US veto of the Palestinians’ bid for full membership at United Nations will terminally undermine the US position in the Arab world, and will expose the US’ nominal support for popular Arab rights as a fraud.

The US again undermines its security and its global position, pointlessly and gratuitously, in blind allegiance to ungrateful and self-destructive Israel.

Nalliah Thayabharan
Jakarta