US's unconditional support of Israel to blame for elusive peace

Palestinians stand amid the ruins of their homes in Jabalia, northern Gaza, after returning to find widespread destruction. [AFP]

Since 1972, Washington has used its veto in the Security Council to block resolutions on occupation, settlements and assaults on Palestinian civilians by shielding Israel. No other state enjoys such impunity. Critics call the UN toothless for this reason.

In 1993, on the White House lawn, Bill Clinton watched Yasser Arafat, who called them cousins tied by blood and land, and Yitzhak Rabin sign the Oslo Accord, opening a path to two states through mutual recognition. In 1995, Jewish extremist Yigal Amir, believing God gave all land to one people, assassinated Rabin in Tel Aviv, stalling peace.

Since then, both peoples have suffered. Israelis know bus bombings, stabbings and October 7. Palestinians know displacement from Jenin under Sharon, Lebanon invasions, expanding settlements and alleged genocide in Gaza, where neighbourhoods are rubble.

No one exploited trauma better than Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister for 17 years, turning crisis into a ladder. In the nineties, he called Oslo treason. In the 2000s, he was Mr Security. After 2009, he perfected conflict management, never resolving, always controlling.

Netanyahu allowed Qatari cash into Gaza, a policy critics say strengthened Hamas to weaken the Palestinian Authority so no credible partner emerged. When corruption trials threatened jail, wars grew larger. Bomb Gaza, push Washington to strike Iran; headlines shift from courtroom to battlefield. Perpetual war is Bibi's alibi.

His cabinet is the most extreme in Israeli history. Ben-Gvir, convicted of inciting racism and backing a banned group, runs national security. Smotrich, finance minister and de facto West Bank governor, demands settlements and emigration from Gaza.

That supremacist math was blurted on the BBC by settler lawyer Yehuda Shimon: One Jewish life equals ten million Palestinians. What God teaches that? They claim to be God's chosen, guardians of Torah, of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, yet Exodus 20:13 thunders: Thou shalt not kill.

September 30 cockpit scare on the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight was tragedy averted, but for Netanyahu it is fuel. He feeds on crisis, thrives on war, weaponises fear to cling to power, making even Trump White House look junior, chasing re-election.

Backlash at UNGA was unprecedented. Mottley of Barbados, Ruto of Kenya, Mahama of Ghana and Attaf of Algeria spoke forcefully for Palestinian rights. Ruto reaffirmed two-state support and a permanent Gaza ceasefire.

If Netanyahu faces indictment for crimes against humanity, why was he allowed at UNGA while Mahmoud Abbas was denied a US visa? If America cannot decouple from Israel, now a barrier state, the superpower stays in tenterhooks. Washington is not a mediator. It arms one side, funds one side, immunises one side. Four billion yearly: F-35s, bunker busters, Iron Dome, while Palestinians must renounce violence. America subsidises Israeli housing and healthcare, including settlers.

How does a nation under ten million hold 340 million hostage? Influence. On Israel, Republicans and Democrats speak as one: Money must flow, no questions. Dissent invites a financial blitz on Congress. This favouritism puts America in global dock, Europeans watching in disbelief.

The key to peace sits in Washington. One blunt sentence would change history: Occupation must end, settlements must stop, sovereign Palestine on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as capital. Israel would listen. Its economy, air force, and diplomatic cover depend on America. That sentence never comes because US politics rewards complicity, punishes truth.

If that is grotesque, the silence of wealthy Arab states is contemptible. Qatar, Saudi, Bahrain and UAE command trillions. They own airlines, skyscrapers, football clubs, yet are toothless for Palestinian cousins. They issue communiques, host summits, while normalising under the Abraham Accords, buying spyware, sharing intelligence, opening airspace to Israeli jets.

Qatar houses Hamas leaders in luxury while Al Jazeera screens Gaza agony. UAE trades briskly as Gaza starves. Saudi bargains for US pact sidelining Palestine. They have oil, money, holy sites, leverage, and refuse to use it.

Trump pushes Gaza Riviera through the Board of Peace led by his son-in-law and Tony Blair. Who wants a resort on the graveyards of innocent Palestinians? Which normal human wants to build luxury hotels on mass graves?

Israel will never grant freedom on a silver platter. Apartheid did not end because Pretoria awoke morally. It ended from global pressure. The danger is not only Gaza destruction, but the collapse of the rules-based order. Washington applies one law to foes, another to allies. Israel's nuclear ambiguity is unchallenged while Iran is sanctioned.

No liberation benefits both sides equally. Slave owners lost when slavery died. Colonialists lost when colonies won freedom. Apartheid architects lost when South Africans breathed free. Peace is not mysterious. Two peoples, two states: security for Israelis, dignity for Palestinians, Jerusalem shared, settlements dismantled, refugees acknowledged. Every blueprint drafted and shelved by Washington.

What is missing is will to confront patrons who veto justice, strongmen who need war to survive, and rich cousins watching from gilded towers doing absolutely nothing. The question is no longer whether two states are possible. It is whether powers claiming to want it have the courage to enforce it before another generation is buried under rubble. The clock is ticking, and history will judge silence as complicity today, finally.

Mr Nyaringo is a Kenyan public affairs commentator based in Washington, USA