The Clinton administration is about to unveil a proposal for divvying up disputed territory on the West Bank. It will do so knowing that the Israeli government will reject the plan, that U.S.-Israeli relations will then go into a deep freeze, and that the whole diplomatic fiasco will absolutely delight Yasser Arafat, who has agreed to the American scheme only because he knows it will be rejected by Israel and will destroy U.S.-Israeli relations. Why would anyone in the U.S. government think this is a good idea?
To understand the origins of this impending American diplomatic disaster you'd have to know a few things that the State Department correspondents of the New York Times and Washington Post don't tell you.
You'd have to know, for instance, that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright felt humiliated during the recent Iraq crisis when she traveled through the Middle East and found little support for the Clinton administration's anti-Saddam policies. She caught an earful from American allies about the breakdown of the Middle East peace process and Israeli intransigence. The word is she came back from that trip furious at the Israeli government and insisting on a plan to get the peace process going again, which meant putting pressure on Israel to make more concessions.
Enter assistant secretary of state Martin Indyk. Indyk, who recently served as Clinton's ambassador to Israel, disapproves of Israel's present Likud government, and especially its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. While he was ambassador, Indyk was so favorable to Netanyahu's opponents in the Labor party that he was all but declared persona non grata by Netanyahu. As if he needed more reasons to harbor a grudge, Indyk was also apparently a target of Albright's wrath during her infamous tour of the Gulf.
The idea to impose an "American plan" on Israel, knowing that it will be rejected, is Indyk's. Clinton's Middle East negotiator, Dennis Ross, opposes this strategy. And therein lies another irony. Ross and Indyk have worked hand-in-glove on the Middle East for more than a decade. But since being elevated to assistant secretary, the ambitious Indyk, long working in Ross's shadow, has split with his erstwhile colleague.
Who will be the victim of all this palace intrigue? U.S.-Israel relations.