How US Duplicity Undermined the Peace Process

If this administration's foreign policy has a hallmark, it is probably alienating friends while cozying up to enemies.  Still, even in that context, Wednesday's BuzzFeed headline, "The U.S. Has Been Speaking to Hamas Through Back Channels for More than Six Months,"  is shocking.  http://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/the-us-has-been-speaking-to-hamas-through-backchannels-for-o

It's not speaking to Hamas itself that is so problematic -- it is true that we speak to plenty of enemies and plenty of terrorists all the time.  What is appalling, however, is that the U.S. was, if the allegations are true, conducting secret talks to facilitate the formation of a unity government between Fatah and Hamas, at the very same time that it was publicly pressuring Israel to make more and more concessions in negotiations that the U.S. was supposedly facilitating.  Even more shocking, is that Kerry sat before Congress and blamed the failure of the talks on a few apartments in a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem, when it now appears that it was the U.S. itself that was undermining those very talks.  http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Israels-deeply-disappointed-with-Kerrys-poof-speech-348039   

If the allegations are true, it seems likely that the reason for the PA's actions in applying to fifteen UN treaties, an action it must have known would signal the de facto end of the negotiations, was neither building in Jerusalem nor a delay in the release of prisoners.  The reason, instead, was that the Fatah-dominated PA saw that the U.S. would sanction an alliance with Hamas, and it chose to throw its lot in with Hamas rather than make compromises with Israel. 

The U.S. has, of course, denied this report.  But this version of events seems to explain why Hamas and Fatah were successful in setting up a unity government this time, when they were not successful in this endeavor in the past.  It seems likely that Abbas had some assurance from the administration that U.S. aid to the new government would continue.  It also explains why the U.S. State Department spokesperson rushed to recognize this unity government so quickly. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4526707,00.html  To many watching from within the U.S., moreover, this scandal-ridden administration does not have much credibility left.  

This administration's behavior with respect to its supposed ally Israel has been shockingly duplicitous.