U.S. No Peace Broker in Mideast Conflict

by Thalif Deen

As is obvious to everyone, Arafat declared, the overwhelming number of killings were by heavily-armed Israelis firing at unarmed Palestinians.

As the death toll rose to more than 220, almost all of them Palestinians, the Israeli military is increasingly deploying its U.S.-supplied Cobra helicopters, rockets and missiles against Palestinian targets, including a vehicle carrying a Palestinian militia leader who was killed in a rocket attack last week.

"They are not my helicopters, they are not my tanks, they are not my missiles," Arafat told reporters during a visit to the White House last week. "I have only one airplane."

The ongoing battle between machine gun-wielding Israelis and rock-throwing Palestinians continues to remain totally uneven and one-sided.

"A supposed peace-broker supplies one of the sides with $2 billion worth of arms per year," says Mark Steel, a columnist for the London-based Independent. "So if they want to be truly neutral they should either cut that out or, more controversially, send the Palestinians $2 billion worth of rubble."

Traditionally, the United States has tried to play the role of the "honest broker" in mediating the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, and also between Israelis and Arabs.

But the billions of dollars in U.S. economic and military aid doled out to Israel every year -- $1.9 billion in outright military grants and $1.2 billion in economic aid -- clearly signal a far greater U.S. commitment to Israel than to the Palestinians.

A public opinion poll conducted last week by the Bir Zeit University in Israel revealed that about 97 percent of the Palestinians feel that the United States can no longer be accepted as an honest broker in any Middle East peace negotiations.

The survey, which was conducted in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, also revealed that Palestinians are increasingly of the view that future peace talks should be sponsored either by the United Nations or by some other international organization -- not by the United States.

The growing anti-American sentiments among Palestinians were also reflected in the strong support for military attacks against U.S. targets in the Middle East.

Israel, on the other hand, has continued to prevail in the Middle East largely because of its prodigious military strength built almost entirely on U.S. military aid and the uninterrupted supply of state-of-the-art U.S. weapons systems.

According to the latest "Middle East Military Balance, 1999-2000" published by the Tel Aviv University's Jafee Center for Strategic Studies, Israel continues to maintain a military superiority strong enough to face any combination of Arab forces.

As numbers go, Israel has a total of 624 U.S.-supplied fighter planes compared with Syria's 520, Egypt's 498 and Jordan's 91. Israel is also armed with 289 combat helicopters compared with Syria's larger fleet of 295, Egypt's 224 and Jordan's 68. On land, Israel has 3,895 battle tanks against Syria's 3,700, Egypt's 2,535 and Jordan's 872.

Last April, Israel announced plans to spend over $3 billion through 2005, primarily on additional fighter planes and helicopters, in order to strengthen the rapid mobility capabilities of the military following Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon after 18 years of occupation. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and pulled out in May 2000.

Last year Israel came up with a $17 billion shopping list for new weapons -- including additional fighter planes, helicopters, military transports and reconnaissance satellites -- as a part of a U.S. compensation package in return for Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

The costs of withdrawal, along with the construction of new bases, were expected to total more than $10 billion. Over a 10-year period, the eventual costs of the Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights were estimated at a staggering $60 to $80 billion -- virtually all of it coming from the United States.

Although the United States is also the primary arms supplier to Egypt providing about $1.3 billion in outright military grants annually, Washington has always ensured that the Israelis have a qualitative military edge over the Egyptians.

Major General Eitan Ben-Eliahu, Commander-in-Chief of the Israeli Defence Force, said early this year that Israel has always sought to ensure that Egypt does not receive the most advanced U.S. weapons systems.

Currently, the F-15 fighter plane, described as the most advanced in the American arsenal, has been supplied only to Israel and Saudi Arabia, among Middle Eastern nations.

Israel, which does not consider Saudi Arabia a military threat, is willing to concede the F-15 to the Saudis.

Ben-Eilahu said that Israel wants to continue to maintain its military superiority over all of its neighbors. "To maintain this edge, we shouldn't have the F-15s delivered to any other country except Israel."

And, as always, Israel will continue to have the last word because no U.S. Administration or Congressman would agree to provide any Arab country with weapons that could help outshoot the Israelis in combat.