So far, the Israelis are still refusing to reinstate a building freeze.
The latest controversy involves a draft letter that was reportedly sent by President Obama to Israeli PM Netanyahu that contained a few not very substantial carrots - and some pretty nasty implicit threats.
Along with a few military sales, Barack Obama apparently agreed only to veto any UN Security Council resolutions concerning Israel and a 'Palestinian' state for a period of one year in exchange for Israel extending the building freeze.
Obama reportedly also pledged to accept the legitimacy of Israeli security concerns, including a complete ban on the smuggling of rockets, mortars, arms, and the infiltration of terrorists into Israel.
This is a direct violation of both the Road Map and US policy as explicitly stated by both Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, that a Palestinian state could only be achieved by direct negotiations between Israel and the 'Palestinians'.
And it actually constitutes a significant lessening of any US commitment to Israel's position.
If the Israelis agreed, they're essentially committing to an implicit threat that if they refuse any of the 'Palestinian' demands and a deal doesn't happen in a year, the 'Palestinians' could simply pocket whatever concessions they get out of the Israelis and then go to the UN for the rest in a resolution granting them statehood - which Obama would see to it that the US did not veto.
That would pretty much destroy any chance of Israel actually reaching an agreement with the 'Palestinians' since it would be in Fatah's advantage to stonewall until they can go to the UN.
As for the bit about respecting Israel's security concerns, that very much mirrors the assurances Israel was given by the US, the EU and the Palestinians when the Israelis turned Gaza over to the Palestinians. That did not work out well,and there's absolutely no reason for the Israelis to believe it will work out better this time.
In fact, based on how the Obama Administration has behaved towards Israel thus far, it's doubtful the Israelis consider any commitments he makes to them to be worth much.
According to the source, Obama also threatened the Israelis that if they refuse to bend over, the U.S. will adopt as formal policy that the final borders of a Palestinian state should be based on the pre '67 lines with a few adjustments.
The White House denies that a draft letter was sent...but this could simply mean that it was 'delivered' to Netanyahu by Israeli defense Minister Ehud Barack when he came back from the US.Or that it wasn't considered a draft but a formal proposal.
In any event, this would be such an insulting and pathetic offer for Obama to present to Netanyahu that I'd almost be inclined to believe the White House denial - except that it sounds exactly like something Obama would do.
If the Israelis and the Palestinians were anywhere near a deal,Israel would probably go along with another temporary extension of the freeze, and/or the Palestinains would not be talking about abandoning negotiations. Instead, they both appear to be accepting the coming breakdown of the talks.,,because both sides realized they are going nowhere. The only one who wanted them in the first place was Obama, to try and get a foreign policy win on the board before the midterms.
The Arab League was originally supposed to meet with Palestinian capo Mahmoud Abbas October 4th to make a decision on whether to continue the peace talks if Israel. They've decided to postpone that meeting until October 6th 'to give th eUS more time to salvage the talks.'
2 comments:
It is somewhat of a mystery to me as to why the United States wastes so much time and resources on this issue. The United States faces MASSIVE problems right now. Just for starters, 1.) its economy is in the toilet, 2.)its national debt is massive and it faces the very real prospect of default in the near future on this debt, 3.)its military is worn down to the broken point so that even basic national defense may be problematic, 4.) it is almost univerisally despised around the world, 5.)its manufacturing base has been hollowed out to the poitn that it is almost irrelavent, and
6.)it is largely dependent upon others for its energy needs.
Keep in mind this only scratches the surface as to the problems this country faces. Of all of the major world powers the problems faced by the United States are by far and away the most severe. So much so that the Russian and Chinese leadership no doubt wake up every morning thanking what ever God they believe in, if any, that the problems they face are not nearly as severe as though faced by America.
Given these massive problems, it is down right stupid on the part of American leaders to be using time and energy on an issue that is literally a world away from America. Apparently the American people must understand this on some level. This may explain why the American leadership seems so unpopular among the American people right now.
Now if Barack Obama MUST have a foreign policy victory, here is what he could do. Make no effort to restrain Israel. Then when Israel moves in to eliminate Hamas, the United States could simply stay out of the way. The elimination of Hamas would also eliminate a major enemy of both America and Israel. This would be a foreign policy victory.
The end result of the current policies would likely result in the weakening of an ally and the strengthening of an enemy!! Is that stupid or what? Perhaps our leaders really aren't stupid. I'm thinking "Manchurian candidate" or something along these lines.
What's even more mind boggling here is not only does the expending of time, energy, and resources on a "peace process" between Arabs and Jews do nothing to help solve the problems faced by America that are laid about above. It actually takes drains resources that could be used to tackle these problems and it gets worse. The United States has no real conrol over what the Isralis or the Arabs actually do.
There are any number of areas where the United States has some degree of control. This is not one of them. Part of successful management is focusing on the areas you can control and not dwelling on those you cannot.
In summary, by focusing on this "peace process" between Palestinians and Israelis the United States is using resources that could be used to solve real problems plaguing the country. Even if we could somehow help in achieving a successful resolution of this conflict, it does nothing to solve the problems plaguing America right now and finally we don't have any control over what the Israelis or the Palestinians atually do. As such, we're spending resources to solve a problem that takes resources away from the resolution of our own problems and we have no control over the parties involved in the conflict. As stated before, this is STUPID on the part of the American government.
Now if we MUST solve this problem and, as a friend of Israel, I DO want to solve it, the best solution is for us to GET OUT OF ISRAEL'S WAY!! If we do this, Israel will likely eliminate Hezbollah, Hamas, and probably the Iranian nuclear program. Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran also happen to be enemies of America. After Israel eliminates them, enemies of both of our peoples will be eliminated. Now this constitutes a foreign policy victory.
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