America’s short sighted foreign policy on the Palestine question plays well in the current presidential elections.  The Arab-Israeli conflict is an attractive medium for pandering to campaign donors and to voters. As a result, the presidential primaries add fuel to the tension between the two sides. With jaws dropped Palestinians watch leading US presidential candidates compete in their display of unbound support to Israel’s questionable occupation policies and resistance to peace negotiations.

Rising instability in the region has given Israel and its US allies in Congress a pretext to ignore Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories. For over seven decades Washington has supported Zionism unconditionally; yet over this long period successive US governments have proclaimed to be sincere and balanced in the promotion of peace in the Middle East. The Arab and the wider Muslim world are alarmed by Israel’s extended and expanding occupation.

Despite a rising tide of Islamophobia in the US, Arab Americans continue to be proud of their relative ease of assimilation in America. Isn’t it telling that the majority of Arab Americans of Detroit have voted for a Jewish primary candidate: Bernie Sanders? This same community voted for George w. Bush – against Al Gore- in the presidential race of 2000. This politically sophisticated minority is wise to find common ground in an authentic Jewish presidential candidate.  

Despite the media’s tendency to focus on negative news, relations between Arabs and Jews in America remain on the whole civil and cordial. That is how it should be. It is my feeling that many in the Arab world can visualize Israel as a future business partner, should the occupation end with a peace treaty. This attitude underlies the 2002 Arab Peace Plan. It is not accidental that Israel’s peace with Egypt and Jordan has survived despite the frustration with Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the isolation of Gaza. Arabs today still believe that Israel standing parallel to a future Palestinian state could serve the region as an engine of creativity and social change. However, sadly, peace is an illusion today, given the dominance of corrupt leadership among Israelis and Palestinians alike