During his recent meeting with Egypt's President Mubarak, President Obama expressed cautious optimism about the progress being made in the Arab-Israeli peace process. While both presidents noted that there was "movement in the right direction," eight months of American direct engagement in the Arab-Israeli conflict has produced few tangible results. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who has been shuttling back and forth to the region to negotiate between parties, has yet to persuade the Israelis, Palestinians, and the surrounding Arab states to undertake the necessary parallel confidence measures needed to breathe life back into the process. The Netanyahu government's ongoing refusal to declare a moratorium on settlements expansion has been met with Arab leaders' obdurate resistance to offer Israel concessions of their own, raising questions about Mitchell's strategy and the viability of the process. For this reason, the Obama administration can no longer afford to wait for the Israelis and Palestinians to see eye-to-eye and instead it must interject itself more forcefully by establishing the general parameters for a peace agreement.
Before the Obama administration launches this new initiative it must first take a number of corrective measures to create a more positive atmosphere in the region, especially among the Israelis. As a proponent of the two-state solution based on 1967 borders, President Obama's envisioned peace agreement between the Arabs and Israelis does not differ much from his predecessors', including the efforts at Camp David and Annapolis. Yet President Obama's strategy and advocacy have been much more pronounced since his first days in office, where he has championed the role of a committed and evenhanded interlocutor. In his efforts to repair the relationship between the US and Arab world that was left in tatters after the Bush administration, President Obama has along the way created an atmosphere of doubt among many in the Israeli camp.
A growing number of Israelis are concerned that in his efforts to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world, President Obama has not been as sensitive as his predecessors to Israel's specific plights on national security issues. Moreover, many Israelis have become less trusting of President Obama and feel that his speech from Cairo to the Arab and Muslim world sought improved relations with Arab states at Israel's expense. As a result, an increased number of Israelis are showing greater forbearance to Netanyahu's rejection of Obama's demand to freeze the settlements -- even at the expense of creating tension with Washington.
It is critical at this juncture that President Obama now personally appeal directly to the Israeli public. This must include a massive public relations campaign, where the US President can reach out to Israelis through op-eds in Israeli papers, interviews on Army Radio, and appearances on Israeli television channels. The purpose would be not only to restate America's unshakable commitment to Israel's national security, but also to show that Israel's ultimate security and prosperity lies in peace with the Arab states. The President ought to explain that he seeks to realize what President Clinton attempted to achieve at Camp David in 2000 and what President Bush continued with his efforts to strike an Israeli-Palestinian peace through the Road Map. He must make it abundantly clear that his focus on the settlements is not arbitrary, but represents a critical point of departure if Israel is to ever to seek peace with the Palestinians. Indeed, the settlements not only reinforce the occupation practically and psychologically, but they also diminish the Palestinians' hope for establishing a state of their own. President Obama in his own words must make it clear to Israelis that as much as the Palestinian extremists will never be able to build a Palestinian state on Israel's ruins, Israel will not see peace unless an independent Palestinian state is established in the West Bank and Gaza.
The requisites for a peace agreement have been discussed and negotiated at length by countless administrations; what the President ought to project now to the Israelis is a vision of an overall solution consistent with previous discussions between the parties. While parallel confidence-building measures are still vital to the process, they must be seen as building blocks that clearly point to an endgame visible by all sides. The President must also explain that in order to keep his commitment to seeing out a final agreement, the parameters must cover all conflicting issues, especially the final border, settlements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the future status of East Jerusalem. By providing a vision of the "big picture" President Obama would be able to foster the confidence that incremental building measures will indeed lead to the desired structure of peace. For Israel to make progress on halting settlement growth, Netanyahu must be able to trust that Obama is applying equal pressure on the Arab states to deliver concessions with the goal of normalizing relations with Israel.
Finally, the President must invoke the historic dimension of the Arab Peace Initiative which offers Israel peace with all 22 Arab states in exchange for the occupied territories and a just resolution to the Palestinian refugees. The President must be vehement about this timely opportunity for the Israelis, while the conditions on the ground are ripe and they have moderate partners in the process. The choice for the Israelis, he must emphasize, will be to end more than 60 years of bloodshed and destruction and live in peace. Should they choose not to acknowledge the collective will of the moderate Arab community, they risk dealing with a much more extreme Arab world as a result.
Moreover, for the President to regain the trust of the Israeli public that has substantially diminished in the past few months, he must be more fervent in his resolve to counter Iran's nuclear agenda, which Israelis dread the most. While there is an ongoing dialogue between US and Israeli intelligence and security communities concerning Iran's nuclear ambitions, President Obama must assure the Israeli public as well that it is in their best interest that all diplomatic options are first exhausted with Iran. He must intimate that all other options, should diplomacy fail, will be thoroughly discussed with the Israeli government. To be sure, the Israelis must feel confident that the Obama administration will resort to any means necessary to eliminate what they consider the Iranian existential threat.
Whereas it was critically important for the Obama administration to improve its relations with the Arab states to regain its moral footing and influence, it absolutely cannot undermine the nature of US-Israeli special relations. This unique bond has offered successive American administrations a strong leverage with Israel, allowing it to exact important concessions in negotiations, as Clinton was able to do with Netanyahu in the Hebron agreement in 1997. Although Arab states have in the past complained about American lack of evenhandedness, they understand that the US-Israeli relationship gives the American President a leverage to deliver for them. Any erosion of that relationship will create serious difficulties in future negotiations, as President Obama is currently finding out for himself. President Obama must now correct that impression before he can move the peace process forward, restoring the trust and confidence of the Israeli people.
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This is a great reinforcement principle by yourself and others to act as thought this commitment
is unbreakable, or unshakable. This is false and more people are becoming aware of
the problems of a expansionist state that the US policy blindly supports. [i.e. mondoweiss.net]
The president is attempting make a real beneficial change for the US and for the world relations, which Israel is opposed to (always using security as a crutch). It is not the president's job to tour Israel as you suggest (given the dangers involved) to reassure the people that he supports their security. Can you imagine a US president doing this in any other country?
Israel is not a colonial extension to the US, and people are asking more questions about Israel's illegal expansion policies. You, and other Jewish reporters, should work on conveying the trust and confidence of the USA to Israelis, not the president.
In fact during the primary elections, when American Democrats overseas voted, Obama won in every single nation, with the exception of two: The Philippines and Israel.
"...American administrations a strong leverage with Israel, allowing it to exact important concessions in negotiations, as Clinton was able to do with Netanyahu in the Hebron agreement in 1997."
This is a joke, right?
Or, remove the walls, remove the children, and give all of the adults guns.
I am sick of this childish, insane argument over gods. How could anyone speak of gods glory when this continues for thousands of years.
Why do we support this with our tax dollars? This is a pathetic example of the human condition.
This is not about religion this is about land theft. Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together just fine without sectarian violence before the influx of European Zionists.
This is absolutely about religion. If it was about land, they could eliminate interior borders, call it "New Hope" and live together as human beings...
This is about one group thinking their god is better than the other one. Otherwise, this would have been resolved a thousand years ago.
How else can you explain how the children can play with each other until they absorb the hatred taught by their parents?
Recommendation:
We can allow all the refugees right of return and make everyone citizens of one nation. Then a vote can be had regarding whether to name the country Israel or Palestine. How does that sound?
Not that there should have been any doubt before, but he/she admits to advocating for the elimination of Jewish sovereignty in the mid-east and the replacement of Israel with a Palestinian state. AM is entitled to his/her opinion. But it should be no surprise that Jews consider those who hold such goals to be anti-semitic.
I've always been partial to PI (like circle cool right). But you can call it Boppyland for all I care.
No sane human being and certainly none I've every backed wants you exterminated. You need to try and understand the other side shares your fear that they will be transferred/exterminated too.
As I've already said tons of Israeli and Palis already date/sleep together, drive on the non segregated roads together, and work together peacefully. They have no desire to harm each other... They've proven coexisting in one state is possible. Time for the government and religious zealots to catch up.
How is that anti-semetc?
(Pah-le-stis-re-el)(That thing after the "T" that looks like a lowercase "L" is an uppercase "I" without the serifs)
$ 7 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY in cash and Military Aide goes to Israel !!!!!!!!
Where do you people get this stuff?
No one doubts Israel's genuine security concerns, but as the regional powerhouse it holds all the cards. If Israel can't take meaningful first steps to alleviate suffering and get a dialogue going, then what hope is there for either side?
One side must take an action first. Israel has. Several times. Barak offered everything Palestinians want now and got an intifada as a response. In 67, Israel offered to withdraw from all territories conquered in the Six Day War in exchange for peace treaties with its Arab neighbors. The Arab answer was the "3 No's" of Khartoum: no to recognition, no to relations, no to peace. These are just a few examples of actions taken by Israel.
How many meaningful gestures can you expect from Israel before they eventually grow tired?
Lets not forget that most of the "intelligence" for the Iraq war came from Israel and gave Bush all he needed to start that war of choice and by the way look at where we are now with Iraq. Now Israel is offering countless bits of "intelligence" about Iran to all and sundry. Quite clever really because it takes the heat out of any peace settlement that they don't want anyway. Natty must have learned his tricks from Nth Korea ie: offering something and doing nothing.The Israelis are very good at creating wars. When they were given Palestinian land after WW11 they manufactured a war with the Palestinians in order to seize their lands. (by the way this is documented not a fairy tale).
What is happening now in the West Bank and Gaza is chillingly like what happened in WW11.
Jews around the world should unite in condemnation of the Zionist's actions. If you give "Natty" another decade there will not be any Palestinians living in E Jeusalem they will all have been evicted on some trumped up court order and replaced by settlers.
That is the modus operandi.
Closer examination of the facts show a very different desire.
Why should they ?
It is a money pit foreclouse on it we have being paying on it 40 years !!
Now that sounds extreme, but to have hope, people must work towards things that bring hope...like peace.
No, there is no hope.
There just is not. Does anyone have any evidence that anything good or kind or hopeful is about to happen? Do you? I would love to hear it. I really would.
All my life it has been nothing but misery in this part of the world: war, bombings, suicide bombers, invasions, and on and on and on.
What a depressing mess.
Middle East especially the double standards that are applied but you do get the feeling that there is no hope when both sides are being led by extremists. One thing though, what makes someone an extremist. Usually it is because they have lost loved ones through no fault of their own coupled with a deep sense of injustice and oppression. Palestinians can rightfully say they have been deeply wronged but what can you say about the Zionists?
The US should do what is in our best interest. Our best interest is a fair and lasting settlement to the illegal Israeli occupation. To get there we should not be supporting Israeli saber rattling. Israel has nukes and it is not the end of the world. If Iran gets nukes it won't be the end of the world either. Israel and Iran, under that scenario, would find a modus vivendi. MAD works.
Israel's best course of action would be to find a fair settlement for the Palestinians. Once they do that, most of the animosity against them would dissipate. The even the most radical bitter enders in the Arab community would lose their main and most effective recruiting issue. Too bad the Israeli's can't understand that simple fact.
Israel's actions over the past several decades indicate more a desire to keep the occupied lands than any real desire for a lasting peace.
Because they aren't in quite as big a hurry as we to bring on Armeggedon?
The US just did their dirty work.
Or if you crawl into bed with a snake, you are bound to get bit...!