An outdated policy stands in the way of efforts to defuse violence in Israel and Palestine.
By Jonathan Guyer | VOX | Feb 6, 2023
The US policy does not take into account how entrenched the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem has become.
It’s a particularly dangerous moment for Israel and Palestine.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Middle East last week on a previously scheduled trip after 48 hours of violence: a terrorist attack in East Jerusalem killed seven Israelis and an Israeli raid on the refugee camp of Jenin killed nine Palestinians, culminating a month in which Palestinians experienced the highest level of killings at the hands of Israeli forces and Israeli settlers in more than a decade. The situation called for US leadership.
Blinken was there to “urge de-escalation,” as the Biden administration described it, at a time when an extreme far-right Israeli government pushes for incendiary changes to the judiciary that contradict Israel’s stated democratic tenets, reorders the way the occupation of Palestinian territory is administered, and pursues a variety of policies that likely violate international law.
Yet throughout the trip, Blinken’s comments felt retrograde, like they came from another era.
HolyLandJustice.org 
You must be logged in to post a comment.