(MENAFN- Jordan Times) The imminent possibility of another Netanyahu-led government in Israel, apart from being an act of defiance of the 65-year-old international community decision to partition Palestine, poses a special and acute problem for Washington.
From 1997 onwards, all American governments have upheld the principle of a two-state solution to the problem of Palestine.
From Washington's perspective, the Egyptian and Jordanian peace treaties were necessary steps towards a Palestinian-Israeli settlement.
Now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thrown off the mask, repudiated the notion of a Palestinian statehood and promised his electors to continue to grab what remains of Palestinian land, Washington must make a fundamental decision: whether to continue to give unconditional support to the Israeli regime, whatever its policies, or face the inevitable consequences of a Netanyahu government that does not fulfil its pledges.
The inevitable consequences are not difficult to foresee.
Can Egypt and Jordan continue to be 'at peace' with an Israeli regime that contradicts the basis on which the peace treaties were made?
The two peace treaties have been the linchpin of American policy vis-à-vis the Palestinian problem.
If that goes, what remains of that policy, except a new and much graver climate of conflict in the new Middle East?
It is not difficult to predict a coalition of both pro- and anti-American forces in the region against Israel, and specifically against an Israeli government led by a man who recently claimed that Israel and America are 'one family'.
It is America that will pay the price of Netanyahu's new adventurism, unless it is checked.
There remains only a small chance of averting this situation in which all parties will be the losers, namely, if the smaller Israeli parties that won seats in the assembly decide that Israel's future is more important than Netanyahu's 'triumph' and make common cause with the new Zionist Party and the Arab united front, the Joint List.
Surely there must be a majority of intelligent Israelis who realise that the 'security' Netanyahu promises cannot be but temporary and fragile, and it will never give them 'tranquillity'.
The writer, former professor at AUB, is a self-employed writer and an observer of Middle East events. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.
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