This week President Obama will talk a lot about the Middle East. Not only will he deliver a major foreign policy address aimed at the Arab and Muslim worlds, but he will also offer remarks after meetings with King Abdullah of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and make a speech at AIPAC.
People around the world -- and particularly in the Middle East -- will be listening closely and critically.
Everyone knows the president is a brilliant speechmaker, but inspiring words and soaring oratory won't suffice this time. His audience in the region and around the world will be looking for proof that Obama means what he says, particularly when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- a conflict that holds a prominent place in their hearts and minds, no matter how much some of Obama's advisors wish it weren't so. They will welcome his words of support and his appeal to shared values of freedom and democracy, but they will judge his seriousness by whether they see evidence that he is personally engaged and taking dramatic action -- like presenting his vision of Israeli-Palestinian permanent status and laying out how he plans to achieve it -- to end the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate.
No doubt some of Obama's advisors are telling him that doing anything on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at this point in his term, other than seeking to placate the American Jewish right, is a losing bet. They are mistaken.
There is nothing President Obama can do to placate the tiny segment of American Jews, and a certain segment of American Christians, that opposes any realistic peace agreement. He could provide billions more in aid to Israel, veto a hundred more UN Security Council resolutions, pledge his unshakable support for Israel a more thousand times -- it wouldn't matter. Because these people believe that no matter what he says or does, he still has it in him, under the right circumstances, to do what they fear most: get serious about peace. Soft-pedaling peace efforts today will likewise not satisfy them. And it will harm U.S. national security interests -- including security and stability in the Middle East.
These advisors also fail to understand a simple fact: history will show that the most pro-Israel U.S. president was not be the one who provided the most weapons to Israel and vetoed the most UN Security Council resolutions, but the one who brought peace, and with it, real security, to Israel, and independence to the Palestinian people.
President Obama's foreign policy plate is overflowing, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can't be shunted to the side. The Middle East is in flux, and this issue won't wait until after the next presidential elections. It is cliché to say that there is no stable status quo in this conflict, but this past weekend was a demonstration of the truth behind the words. The world saw how easily the situation on the ground - in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, on the Syrian and Lebanese borders - can spiral out of control.
The Palestinian people are today asking why the Arab Spring, with its promise of freedom and democracy, doesn't apply to them. It is fantasy to expect them to remain quiescent under occupation as the rest of the region rises up and demands change.
Palestinian leaders, too, have finally given up waiting for U.S. peace efforts to deliver Palestinian dignity and self-determination. After two decades of disappointments and more settlements, they have concluded that unless and until the U.S. is ready to get serious, they must pursue their own course -- not through violence but through diplomacy -- irrespective of what the U.S. thinks.
And the international community is increasingly sympathetic to this paradigm shift, with even our closest allies apparently ready for the first time in decades to pursue their own independent foreign policies in this arena, reflecting their growing disillusionment with a U.S. policy that is clearly at odds with their vital interests.
They are not alone in this assessment. Some of President Obama's own officials have acknowledged that the continuation of the conflict harms U.S. interests in the region and around the world. Indeed, the absence of a credible, serious U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis this conflict directly undermines America's ability to project leadership across the full spectrum of the foreign policy challenges the U.S. faces today.
This is a pivotal moment for the Middle East -- a moment that demands courageous American leadership, not just great speech-making. People around the world -- including most American Jews -- still want to believe that President Obama can live up to his principles and his promises when it comes to Middle East peace. Dramatic action from the President to prove them right is critical, and can no longer be postponed.
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So until or IF the Palestinians and fellow Arab states EVER demonstrate any signs of peaceful intent, those walls and fortifications are the only security the Israelis can depend on to secure the safety of their people and country.
I have included a link to List of Middle East Peace proposals and Arab-Israeli Peace Diplomacy & Treaties - combined about 30 different initiatives, in a attempt by many countries to bring peace to the area. Again, I say let the people of these areas demand peace from their leaders!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Middle_East_peace_proposals
Sad.....how again.....we are baited to hear the "new" US ME foreign policy and again....it coincides with a Bibi visit and the annual AIPAC conference.
2% of the population=98% biased foreign policy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703421204576327094275297416.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion
Maybe I have moved some toward the center but my ideals of social justice have not changed.
You do realize a new state of Palistine could be 63yrs old like Israel.
It's not because they chose war.
Fast forward to today NEITHER side now owns the moral high ground.
I root for peace but not your way - I recognize two injured parties not one - and hope individuals far smarter than I can help BOTH solve their differences and work for a two State solution.
http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.background-resource.php?resourceID=945lestine,
What could Obama possibly say. Nothing. Unless the EU and Russia join him in advocating a split the gap of where Olmert - Abbas ended, what is there to say.
Globalizatin and the rise of powers other than the Us will soon shift the center of power away from the US. The emeerging powers do not have the same unconditional support for Israel's occupation of the 1967 borders. Either the Us and Israel get serious, voluntarily, about giving the Palestinians back their land or they will be forced to do it under coditions less than optimal.
This weekend's marches from three different borders confirm that there is a storm brewing. The demographics and world opinion are against this intolerable situation. A just peace process for the Palestinians is the only solution otherwise Israel and the US will have to prepare to face a loomig tornado in the region.
In regard to the US and Israel being forced to give the Palestinians the land they demand, this will never occur, regardless of the duplicitous and devious ploys of the PA such as forming forming a pseudo-alliance with Hamas in order to attempt to bypass direct negotiations with the Israelis. Ultimately they will have to engage in direct talks with the Israelis and to demonstrate good faith and a clear understanding that they will not be rewarded for not recognizing Israel's right to exist and for acquiescing with their "partner's" (Hamas) charter that calls for the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of Jews who live there!
Yes, there is a storm brewing in the ME but one that does not guarantee new and more open and democratic Arab countries but the same repressive and oppressive regimes with a new "face' marked by new guiding ideologies but with similar outcomes as the current ones.
As with all "tornados", they cause indiscriminate damage and destruction, that includes Arabs as well!
Good grief!
doesnt cut it we need 23 .
http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.background-resource.php?resourceID=945
This is the paradigm British prime Minister Neville Chamberlain utilized when he handed over other countries to Hitler prior to World War 11, with the belief that this will satisfy his thirst for additional lands and would stave off war and bring about peace. As we know, the opposite occurred, but unfortunately the lesson has never been learned by individuals such as the author of this article! She obviously does not understand that the settlement of an enduring conflict as the one between the Israelis and Palestinians is complex and multifaceted and cannot be mended by blaming one country while acquiescing to the "demands or else" of the other.
One cannot buy love, and I assure the author that if Israel was to acquiesce to all the demands of the Palestinians, there would be other rationalizations for their continued enmity towards Israel and the Jewish people.
The author also speaks in glowing positive terms of the "Arab spring", revolutions occurring in many Arab countries with the purported objective of obtaining basic human rights,freedom of speech and an improved standard of life, and attempts to draw comparisons with these uprisings versus President Obama allegedly continuing to collude with the Israelis because he is apprehensive of negative feedback from so-called Right Wing Jewish groups and a certain segment of Christians who support Israel.
Unfortunately, she fails to comprehend that the democratic and humanitarian objectives the Arab people are allegedly protesting and seeking for themselves from their respective governments is fallacious if such humanitarianism does not extend to their treatment and relationship with other ethnic and religious groups, such as the Coptic Christians who are continued to be murdered, as well as to improving their relationship with Israel. In lieu of such peaceful/humanitarian intentions, we are observing Arabs seeking to rescind peace agreements with Israel and maintaining their current level of enmity and belligerence towards this country regardless of whether Israel grants the Palestinians all of their demands.
Just remember....."If you keep doing what you are doing, you will continue to get what you are getting".
Israel should try it but not after either Hamas is destroyed or decides it wants to make peace .
http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.background-resource.php?resourceID=945
Why should Israel be condemned for their so-called settlements on so-called Palestinian land when the Palestinians unreasonably expect that Palestinians should be able to live in Israel, but no Israelis should be able to live in a Palestinian state?
The Palestinians still appear to take this whole thing as a joke that violence and terror will somehow serve them if they keep their people desperate enough and wait long enough.
This BS conflict could be over in a hour if the Palestinian leadership would end their war and hate. It has not served anyone in 60 years and will not serve anyone if it goes on for 1000 years.
Yet, the settlements keep growing and the occupation remains.
The settlers have been saying for decades that they are going to take all of the land, and remove the rest of the Palestinians from it, and they have been making good on that promise.
and by the way, Jews DO live in Palestinian areas. but if an ISRAELI lives in the Palestinian state, he or she must live under Palestinian rule and law, just as Israeli Palestinians do. They can no longer have an army help them steal real estate. You get that, right? Furthermore, how many Palestinians are allowed to live in or buy houses in any Israeli settlement? 0, is the answer. (even if the settlement in smack dab on top of the land that they owned until a few days ago.
> take all of the land, and remove the rest of the Palestinia ns from
> it, and they have been making good on that promise.
Did you ever think that this is allowed to go on by the Israelis to
put some time pressure on the Palestinians to give up their
destroy Israel or nothing strategy? I don't know if they accomplish
anything or that helps their cause, but our of sheer frustration and
anger I don't blame them a bit.
You only see one side of this, and that keeps you from being
balanced on it. When the Palestinians start at Israel must be
destroyed, how do you think Israel should respond? What should
they do, just be pushed around by UN proclamations that both
sides ignore when they want to?
UN proclamations that would not even be there is there were
not so many anti-Israel Muslim states voting in a bloc against
them? Try to be reasonable and see the big picture.
And to be honest, I'm sick and tired of us meddling in the ME (which is what causes problems for the people there, and takes our attention away from issues we're having at home).
They want what they want and are used to getting, their way, with no argument, based on their corrupt idea of what God is, and they are unwilling to talk, compromise, be reasonable, or not use violence. They give birth to greater and greater numbers of children they make miserable and ignorant and enslaved to the idea of holy war.
Finally ... as a "leftist" I highly resent this issue being arbitrarily placed in the camp of Liberalism, or Progressivism, the Left, freedom, Liberation, or whatever. The human rights issue here is with the Jews. The state of Israel would not be necessary if Muslims could be tolerant of non-Mulsims anywhere in the world.
http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.background-resource.php?resourceID=945