Old Jerusalem, where rioting broke out among Palestinian youths. Photo credit: Francisco Martins

Yesterday, the US said that it will continue to push for a restart of peace talks between Israel and Palestine, after Israel’s ill-timed announcement during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit last week that it would build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in disputed East Jerusalem.

Today, however, George Mitchell, the US envoy to Israel, postponed his visit to Israel prompting speculation about what the US’s next move will be, while Hamas called for a day of protest over Israel’s refusal to halt construction in East Jerusalem and after Israel re-opened a synagogue in the disputed territory. Rioting broke out in Old Jerusalem, as dozens of Palestinian youths, their faces masked, threw rocks at Israeli police and set tyres on fire. The thousands of police deployed to quell the riots responded with tear gas and stun grenades, The Times reported.

Since Israel’s announcement, relations between the US and its Middle Eastern ally have supposedly hit their lowest point – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blasted Israel for the perceived “insult”, President Barack Obama is reportedly infuriated, and the media has largely sided with the US and claimed that Israel is biting the hand that feeds.

Roger Cohen, The New York Times columnist, wrote that a predictable cooling of US-Israeli relations is taking place. Where they go from here depends largely on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and whether he truly believes in a two-state peace. This is a watershed moment. Palestinian violence, Palestinian anti-Semitic incitement and jihadist infiltration of the Palestinian national movement all undermine peace efforts. They are unacceptable; Biden was right to ‘ironclad’ the U.S. commitment to Israeli security,” Cohen wrote. “But it’s past time that Palestinian failings cease to serve as an excuse for Israel’s remorseless, cynical scattering of the Palestinian people into enclaves that make a farce of statehood. That is ‘an affront’ to America.”

Meir Javedanfar in The Guardian noted that Israel’s insistence on building in disputed territory could have disastrous consequences for Western forces fighting in Afghanistan and in curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. And that has major implications for Israel – which risks not only harming the peace process, but its own security as well. “For now, the recent developments have shown that it will almost be impossible for Israel to go it alone against Iran, without American permission or participation,” Javedanfar wrote. “In fact, the recent US reaction to the settlements may have been designed to send this very message to Jerusalem: don’t take any unilateral action that could harm us.”

Israel also appears to be shifting from a strategic ally in the Middle East to a liability, Richard Beeston reflected in The Times today. “That is why Israeli leaders need to be particularly careful about how they handle relations with Washington in the current row,” he wrote, adding that they took Biden “for granted” during his visit last week. What’s changed from Israel’s relationship with the US in the past is the military atmosphere – scenes of Israeli police beating Palestinian youths can become a formidable weapon of recruitment for Islamic extremist groups. And, Beeston wrote, “If America’s unwavering support for Israel is endangering the lives of US troops in Kandahar or Baghdad, then the Jewish state has a problem.”