Israel sees Palestinian unity as possible casualty of kidnapping

During the discussions held by Israel’s defense and political establishments in the first two days after the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers on June 12, one question was largely debated: Why had the Palestinian Authority, or its leader, not yet condemned the act?

One participant in those discussions, a seasoned Israeli diplomat, suddenly stood up and pointed out, “The Americans haven’t condemned the act, either.”

The man was both right and wrong. Technically speaking, he was right. On Saturdays and Sundays — the weekend in the United States — the American establishment is off duty, and for all intents and purposes, nonexistent. In the United States, the sanctity of the weekend is compromised only on rare occasions. Our case — namely, the kidnapping of three teenagers — constituted nothing out of the ordinary.

But the diplomat was also right because US-Israel relations — in particular, the relations between the White House and the prime minister's office in Jerusalem — are at an all-time low, as discussed here in Al-Monitor last week. In this regard, one of the most knowledgeable and experienced people on the White House-Jerusalem axis, told Al-Monitor this week: “Never before has there been such a rupture between an American president and an Israeli prime minister. Right now, there is no communication between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Americans do not want to hear from Netanyahu and the White House shuns any direct or intensive link with the Israeli premier.”

The senior official went further into detail and said the “hotline” that used to exist for many years between US presidents and Israeli prime ministers is out of service. But there's more. Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, is an unwelcome guest at the White House, and national security adviser Susan Rice would not meet with him at all. Messages are not being communicated regularly. There is no coordination or continuous and close communication. According to the source, the only one who remains welcome at the White House and is able to relay messages is Netanyahu’s special envoy, attorney Yitzhak Molcho. For those needing a reminder, Molcho is a private attorney who is neither a civil servant nor an Israeli official, and whose offices Netanyahu uses on a personal basis. Apart from Molcho, the senior official added, nothing else is going on. A cold, hostile gulf separates the White House from the prime minister's office in Jerusalem.

This may have been why the Americans were the first to come out with a clear statement to the effect that, in terms of intelligence and operational activity, the Palestinian Authority’s security bodies were fully cooperating with the Israeli forces in an effort to track down the abductors. Eager to excoriate Israel and “set it straight,” the Americans incriminated Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, shaming him in public before his own people. At the time, the US statement was issued, countless Palestinians were in a state of euphoria over the kidnapping. All of a sudden, however, they realized that their leader was taking action to find the Israeli teenagers or track down their kidnappers, who are considered to be national heroes in Palestine.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/abbas-hamas-palestinians-kidnapping-hebron-idf.html#ixzz35HgHpft5