July 20, 2010
Source:
E-mail from FLAME
Dear Friend of FLAME:
By any measure, conditions are so far from conducive to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that you have to wonder what President Obama and his aides are thinking. As this week's FLAME Hotline article outlines below, even if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu were to agree on peace terms---a most unlikely scenario---the Palestinians are simply in no position to carry out any such agreement.
Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, gave a hint of the Administration's strategy last week when commenting on the current "proximity" talks he'd been conducting with Abbas. The U.S., he said, understands "the difficulties and complexities" in trying to realize the vision of a comprehensive Middle East peace contemplated by Obama.
So it's not just peace between Israel and the Palestinians that Obama wants and why he has been fervently courting other Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and, infamously, Iran. The President knows that these Middle Eastern nations have long used Israel as an excuse for the lack of stability and social and economic progress in the region (though Israel itself is very stable, socially progressive and an economic powerhouse).
Thus, Obama seems to want to placate the Arabs and Muslims with cooler-than-normal (if not at times outright hostile) behavior toward Israel, coupled with a seemingly sincere and robust effort to negotiate peace. If he can win their trust, he seems to think, he can achieve peace in the entire region.
The Arabs and Muslims must be laughing up their sleeves at the President. So far, his efforts to woo these Middle Eastern countries have brought zero warming of relations with our enemies---only mockery---and not much cooperation from our "friends," Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. These countries realize, too, that for all Obama's show, there's virtually no chance of bringing the Palestinians together, let alone Israel and the Palestinians.
First, the Palestinians won't (can't) even consent to direct peace talks with Israel, which Netanyahu has been requesting for months now. Mitchell is reduced to a farcical shuttle diplomacy, communicating Abbas's futile, fantastical and ultimately impotent demands to Netanyahu.
Second, there's almost no indication in Palestinian society that the Palestinian people or government actually desire a long-term peace. Forget the rampant anti-Semitism in the Palestinian press and mosques, forget the fact that Israel doesn't even appear on maps of the region in the Palestinian territories. But just last week, Abbas, appearing in Jordan, said that "We are unable to confront Israel militarily . . . [but at the Arab League Summit] I turned to the Arab states and I said: 'If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don't have the ability to do it.'" (To that we can only say, thank goodness!)
In short, the proximity talks seem to be a thin cover Obama is using to show the Arabs and Muslims that he can be trusted. But surely the President, to say nothing of the regional states he's trying to convince, realize the sad truths spelled out in Israel-Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh's article below.
Please pass this analysis on to your friends and colleagues using the "Forward to a Friend" button at bottom of this email.
Best Regards,
Jim Sinkinson
Director, FLAME
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