Stop treading water
The time has come for Obama to summon both sides for serious, continuous negotiations, accompanied by a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Haaretz Editorial Tags: Barack Obama Middle East peace Israel newsA year after Barack Obama's election as president of the United States, it has become clear that with regard to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the change he promised boils down to high-flown rhetoric and a confused policy. Instead of restarting negotiations on a final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, and promoting the two-state solution with all his might, the world's greatest power is treading water in the swamp of the settlements.
Ever since the current Israeli government took office, the highest levels of the U.S. administration have been demanding that it completely halt construction in the settlements, as required by the road map peace plan. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to implement a total freeze. Instead, he proposed that construction continue in East Jerusalem, in the large settlement blocs, on public buildings in isolated settlements and on thousands of housing units on which work is already in progress.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has made a freeze in settlement construction a precondition for resuming negotiations. In so doing, he relied on the American stance. But America's messages have been mixed. On May 19, the day after Obama's White House meeting with Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that the president insisted on a complete halt to building in the settlements, including "additions, natural growth, any kind of settlement activity." But last weekend, that same Clinton praised Netanyahu during her visit to Jerusalem for his "unprecedented" offer to restrict construction - and rejected Abbas' demand that a total settlement freeze precede negotiations. It's no wonder these contradictory positions have infuriated the Palestinians and the Arab world, forcing Clinton to try to explain herself.
The crisis of trust between Netanyahu and Abbas, and the huge gap between their positions, necessitates a determined and consistent American stance whose goal is to restart the negotiations and conclude them, instead of wasting time and prestige in endless discussions over empty formulas for limiting settlement construction. It is not enough to urge the prime minister to bolster Abbas in order to keep the West Bank from falling into the hands of Hamas. The time has come for Obama to summon both sides for serious, continuous negotiations, accompanied by a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the basis of the June 4, 1967 borders. There could be no clearer expression of the United States' commitment to Israel's security and its future as a Jewish and democratic state.
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If the Palestinians under Abbu Mazen rejected Ehud Olmert's peace offers to Abu Mazen, which were generous and not even close to being accepted my mainstream Israel, what can more peace talks now accomplish? As long as the Palestinians claim not to know what we Israelis are doing here in Israel, I can't see how there is a common basis for negotiations. I'm referring to recent newspaper articles in which a leading Palestinian archeologist claimed that Jews have no historical connection to Israel,but that Palestinians have a 5-6,000 year connection.This understanding is 100% incorrect, and a sign of the total lack of honest communication between the sides.To make peace it's not enough for Israel to recognize the Nakba.
Netanyahu and Lieberman will not curtail settlements. In that atmosphere, there is little likelihood that any settlements would be abandoned for use by Palestinians. Israel will not relinquish its military presence in the Jordan Valley or the settlements. What remains for a Palestinian state are pockets of Palestinians separated by Israeli settlers, IDF and Israeli highways. We have now seen the USA commitment to peace is not real if any difficult positions need to be taken. No viably governed Palestinian state can evolve without the assistance of a super power. Israel is embarked on the path to a single state constantly at odds with the surrounding Arab world. Palestinian population growth will eventually outnumber Jews. The nature of a Jewish state will become more fragile unless, of course, military suppression of Palestinians intensifies. After Gaza, the world will be very attuned to that evolution. I believe that Israel is self-destructing in its fervor settlements
in his zeal to win over the angry muslim street, obama foolishly in haste boxed himself in by demanding a total halt to settlements, as well as well as things like propaganda stunts like closing guantanamo..both of which were ill thought out...and so only he is to blame for the mess he is now in...peace is actually FURTHER away as a result of his naive foerigh policy moves...and all for what? to get the islamists to back off with their blackmail of having sleeper cells in obamas back yard? welcome to the fight barry....
The natural affection of the Israeli left (the 4% 0f Israelis who still like Obama) and the worst U.S. President, atleast since Warren Harding, is easy to explain. They have much in common. The Israeli left is fast declining as is Obama. The Israeli left is fighting for political survival as is Obama. The Israeli left is almost invariably wrong on domestic and foreign issues as is Obama. Having just lost atleast two bellweather elections, Obama has his own problems. Attetion: Israeli left. Obama WON'T save you and we will never let him create a new terror state in Israel.
BY ACCEPTING ISRAEL'S CONTINUED LAND GRAB The Obama administration MADE an early resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over a Palestinian state IMPOSSIBLE.
Our administration has to tread very carefully because of political implicatiions. Read it as you wish. I am a Jew, Holocaust survivor and an American War veteran so I can express myself as I see fit. Who instigates the constructiion of the illegal settlement. it is not your average Israeli. No, we have our religious extremists who go by what was written 2 thousand years ago and NO LONGER is applicable. The reality is what it is. We could not annex after 1967 and 1973 the territories taken because the huge number of Palestinians.We should have left them to their own destiny at that time. Occupation is NEVER good.. I know since I saw how the underground dealt with the nazis. So, let us allow rational to return, get the illegals out permanently and let the Israeli act tough as did Ariel Sharon. It is just too bad that the whole matter was dealt with too late. First the Israeli government encouraged settlers to occupy, get the Palestinians to say the Israelis are bad.The world bought this
Despite what Israeli's may think, the world doesn't revolve around the interminable Israel/Palestine conflict. Obama has a more pressing issue before him at the moment. That is issue is called "America". He can't risk stirring up conflict or drawing attention away from the effort to reform the health care system in the US. Additionally, Obama never said that freezing settlement growth was a pre-requisite for peace negotiations. Clinton didn't say she thought Israel's level of compliance with a settlement freeze was acceptable. She only said that what had been done was good. She was praising progress, not declaring the efforts were sufficient.
a palestinian state in the current form is definately not viable. Israel needs to pull out of settlements, end the blockade against gaza and then we will see if a palestinian state is viable or not. To assure israeli safety, a U.N force could enforce security along the green-line in order to keep both sides in check. There will always be extremists on both sides but we must not allow future incidents to side track the larger goal.
It is the Jewish people's GREATEST tragedy, becoming those they loath the most, war criminals and colonizers. Those who live by the sword, will die by it.
This can be cleared up very easily. Why doesn't Abbas or some Palestinian have to guts to ask Clinton why doesn't she speak to (scold) the Israelis the way she speaks to the Pakistanis? She talks tough to to the Pakistanis but she quickly looses her nerve when she gets to Netanyahu.
"The time has come for Obama to summon both sides for serious, continuous negotiations, accompanied by a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the basis of the June 4, 1967 borders. There could be no clearer expression of the United States' commitment to Israel's security and its future as a Jewish and democratic state." Hear, hear!
One cannot make a Palestinian state out of thin air and as of yet the Palestinians have made no attempt to make one so what will it be made from and of what and of whom? It seems the PA has no interest in nation building or in peace so how will Obama force them to make a state they have no interest in?