Obama Should Remember James Baker When In Cairo: Roger Cohen

nytimes.com:

NEW YORK -- I hope President Obama has been reading James Baker in preparation for his speech Thursday to the Muslim world. It was in the time of the former secretary of state, two decades ago, that the United States last had a balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[JohnnyLee]

After President Bush (41) lost the election James Baker went from Secretary of State to Senior Counselor to the Carlysle Group, an investment firm. The Carlysle group is a major partner in United Defense an arms vendor who counts Saudi Arabia as one of their biggest customers. That should tell you everything you need to know about the role of the industrial military complex in the US government. When the individual responsible for meetings heads of foreign states is simultaneously meeting future customers while performing his role in government a.k.a if you do what we want we will buy lots of stuff from you when you are in the private sector.

So please Mr. Obama DO NOT TAKE ADVICE FROM JAMES BAKER.

[dganit]

I'm Israeli and I'm Jewish, and the best thing Obama can do for us is save us from ourselves, and make us leave The West Bank. If Netanyahou plays around (and he is) - please stand firm president Obama. We must withdraw from the West Bank for our own good. Occupation has eaten away any good that had ever existed in Israeli society. Please president Obama - Stand firm. Save us from ourselves. Help bring this nightmare that is called occupation to an end, and QUICKLY.

[Brillig]

As a non-Israeli who lived in Israel ( Haifa) for 3 months, I was struck by the fact that most Israelis I met seemed to feel as if there was a "warmongering" (my word) group within that had hijacked the peace process over and over.

I do believe that most well-thinking Israelis will be able to adjust to a peaceful solution in that area, but that they recognize a group of radicals within, who, just like the radicals of Palestine, will not let the bitterness go.

Obama has to stand firm and ensure that Israel pays more than lip service to this process by clearly showing their resolve to change as much as they expect change from Palestinians.

[ntmessage]

James Baker? Are you kidding me? Old news. Old backward thinking. We need a fresh new start to fix the mess of Baker and others once and for all.

[whoa20]

No peace until "Palestine" renounces radical jihad.

[Doomestic]

Resistance is legitimate under occupation.

[SadButWiser]

How about no peace until Israel ends its occupation of Palestinian lands. That should be the new slogan.

[Thabit]

No peace till Israel removes settlements around east Jeruselem and out of the entirety of the west bank (1967 borders)

[Thabit]

No peace till israel moves back to it's 1967 borders either

[Sentientbeing09]

Palestinians arent fighting Jihad. Theyre fighting for their freedom against a brutal, illigitimate Israeli occupation.

They just want Israel to leave them and their land alone.

[rsprags]

NYT please give it a rest; President Obama is a very intelligent and strategic President. He did not begin to prepare for this yesterday!

[Ergon]

(cont'd) screw up both the Palestine but also the Iran negotiations?

[Ergon]

Then again he could channel Dennis Ross, who managed to scrww

[Rog49Thomas]

A critical analytic skill is making the distinction between form and substance, between words and deeds.

[foxbat]

From what I've seen of President Obama's approach, you can be sure that he's read up on Baker as well as Kissinger and others who have had both success and failure in that part of the world.

There was recent article about former President Bush reading more than President Obama. Apart from the fact that Obama governs and reads in his spare time whereas Bush read and governed in his spare time, Obama seems to be a much more effective reader. He understands the what should be read and when it should be read and is very good at operationalizing what he's read.

[bigberta]

Commenting against the Joos is prohibiter on the Huff.

[JohnnyLee]

I love how this article quotes James Baker. The same James Baker who was senior counselor to the Carlyle Group. A company with major holdings in United Defense which counts Saudi Arabia as one of their biggest customers.

[Adeyemo]

Roger Cohen's article is great but he fails to mention that Israel has nuclear weapons. James Baker is an excellent diplomat but he failed to guide former President Bush (43) about being fair. It is never late and I hope that peace reigns in ISRAEL and all over the world. As John Lennon said: IMAGINE!!!!!!

[JohnnyLee]

Yet another one sided argument putting all the blame on Israel.

Let's put a few things to light.

1. The Foreign ambassador who had the most access to both President Clinton and Bush was Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia. Clinton never had time for his own CIA director but Prince Bandar could arrive unannounced to the White House anytime he wanted to. President Bush affectionately refers to Prince Bandar as Bandar Bush. Bush just used Israel as an excuse to further his own objectives in the Middle East.

2. Before the wall went up there were how many suicide attacks on Israeli proper? And how many are there now? Seems like the wall is doing it's job.

3. Israel lost a war in Lebannon to Iran's proxy Hezbollah. It is therefore not surprising that Israel has major security concerns. The biggest of which is to turn the West Bank over to Hamas enabling them to launch rockets into every part of Israel.

[Rog49Thomas]

If Hizb is Iran's proxy, is Israel, the USA's?

[JohnnyLee]

Are you arguing Hezbollah is not Iran's proxy or are you just pointing out that the US and Israel are allies?

[vinny]

is the USA Saudi's proxy? noticed that Obama just became a standing member of the Order of King Abdulaziz...

[breakfast]

It is the other way around. The U.S. is Israel's proxy.

[msfsi]

Doing its job? hundreds of thousands of palestinians sneak into Israel illegally for work every year. If the wall cannot stop them, it certainly wouldn't be able to stop a suicide bomber intent on entering Israel. If the wall was truely for defensive purposes the it would be along the green line or inside Israeli territory and not cutting across palestinians lands and segragating palestinian towns.
Just because Iran supplies Hizbollah with arms does not mean it is Iran's proxy. By that rational every country that USA supplies with arms is their proxy... this includes Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt. I'm afraid the international scene is more complicated then that.

[JohnnyLee]

OK, so Hezbollah (a Shia paramilitary group) which found it's inspiration from the Ayatollah Khomeni, whose soldiers were trained by the Iranian revolutionary guard who receives it's arms and funding from Iran is not an Iranian proxy? How you would define a proxy then?

Please enlighten me.

[JohnnyLee]

I forgot to mention that the Hezbollah manifesto listed the Ayatollah Khomeni as "the leader whose orders we obey.".

[JohnnyLee]

You can read the Hezbollah manifesto for yourself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah_ideology

[CigarGod]

Correction: The rockets are non-guided.

[JohnnyLee]

Hezbollah's charter clearly states they follow Iran's orders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah_ideology

[Ergon]

Myths and fairy tales seem to be the stock and trade of religionists and Israeli apologists

[baba2nde]

Telling it like it is hurts sometimes. Mr Cohen points out, for example, that Israel has (for the most part) ignored UN resolution 242. Fact, not blame. Juxtapose with UN resolution 1441. No consequences v/ serious consequences.

[bigberta]

The only thing Israel understands is money and land. Sanctions is the only way to being the TERRORIST state of Israel under control.

[commarcos]

That statement is dead on. However, James Baker and Bush 1 did nothing to back it up.