An Honest Broker? The Role of the United States in the Middle East Peace Process

Abstract

The United States of America under the Trump administration has implemented the US Embassy Act of 1995 by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This decision was followed by the relocation of US’ Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. These moves were very much against the advice of Trump’s own national security team, including his Secretaries of Defense and State and attracted wide condemnation of its European allies and Arab counterparts. The actions of the US has triggered mass protest initiated by the Palestinians against the Israelis in what the Palestinians claim as unjust and US complete favorable and partial gesture towards Israel. This is in light of the fact that, as part of US global hegemonic status and it quest to remain indispensable in the Middle East region, the US has cut itself an enviable position of an honest broker in the Middle Ease Process and specifically in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In light of this, this study sought as it main objective, to investigate, using qualitative research design, the extent to which the US remains truly an honest broker or a neutral arbiter in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The study hypothesized that recent moves and decisions made by the Trump administration with regard to Jerusalem could compromise whatever credibility the US has as an honest broker. The study found that Jerusalem which has by international law been under corpus separatum is one of the thorniest issues in the conflict and that city’s disposition would only be decided on in permanent-status negotiations between the parties. The traditional idea was for Jerusalem to be the shared capital between a future state of Palestine and the now “Jewish state of Israel”. The study also found that over the past few decades in which the US has claimed the position of an honest broker, it has had a very a soft spot for Israel and despite how sometimes the latter’s actions are incongruous with the values of the US, United States is unable or unwilling to bring the huge leverage it has on Israel to bare to compel it to change its course of aberration per international law. It was found that much of this is because of the Israel lobby and its most instrumental functionary (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, AIPC). The research findings also revealed that while this has been the case the Trump’s presidency has also emboldened Israel in every step of the way with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the final analysis this study maintained that the actions of the Trump administration more than anything clearly reveals the US’s partial and favourable posture towards Israel and that compromises its position as an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process.