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The Forum > Article Comments > Obama: all peace, no process > Comments

Obama: all peace, no process : Comments

By Jonathan Kolieb, published 21/6/2011

America remains the essential third party for Middle East peace, and the personal, sustained intervention of the U.S. President remains indispensable.

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Jonathan Kolieb writes with a confidence that there could be peace in the Middle East between the Palestinians and the Israelis with the engagement of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton in the process. I disagree President Obama isn’t President Bush Snr. and Secretary of State Clinton isn’t Secretary of State Baker.

In fact Clinton has done almost nothing in the Middle East and there were such high expectations of her as her husband was very heavily involved in making peace hanging on to the last second of his presidency to secure an agreement.

New York Senator Clinton is very close with the American Jews whose support is almost a prerequisite to be elected in New York. Secretary of State Clinton seems almost totally detached from the Palestinian Israeli situation.

Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to prefer to remain Prime Minister of Israel and is not prepared to honour the commitments that Israel has already made i.e. a cessation of settlement building in the West Bank. Looking at a map of the West Bank today one can’t help but agree with Netanyahu a second state is already almost impossible.

President Abbas is no Yasser Arafat he is the most malleable Palestinian. Handpicked by Israel for negotiations he has made concession after concession and has got nothing in return. He isn’t blind he looks at the Maps of the West Bank and he knows it is virtually impossible to wedge a state in something that looks like a piece of Swiss cheese.

How can he be expected to accept continual Israeli building of illegal settlements? What is there to negotiate? In Netanyahu’s trip to America to address Congress he laid down so many preconditions to a resumption of peace talks it was as if he had already written the treaty.

Netanyahu is reminiscent of Golda Meir prior to the 1973 Yom Kippur war too arrogant to consider peace talks. There is one thing about Netanyahu and Lieberman I admire they call it as they see it and right now they want land not peace.
Posted by Ulis, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 7:23:46 PM
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