In a recent article in the Washington Post, disgraced and currently-under-police-investigations-for-corruption Ehud Olmert, Israel’s former Prime Minister, opined that the “United States' focus on freezing construction in the West Bank [is] an impediment to the Middle East peace process.”
Olmert calls for settlement construction to “be taken off the public agenda and moved to a discrete dialogue, as in the past… allow us to deal with the essential issues: the political process; preventing Iran's attempt to obtain nuclear weapons; eliminating Islamic extremist terrorism...”
good point!
ReplyDeleteM
If anyone can prevent Mr Obama from getting a resolution between Israel and its neighbours, he is or they are a cxxx. We pray that his own resolve can beat them all.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks once again for a handsome and informative page!
I enjoyed both your books enormously.Well worth a read. Sadly, I cannot share your views on Israel/peace process.
ReplyDeleteYou raise the old canard that AIPAC somehow controls US foreign policy - the Christian bible belt is more influential on such matters than AIPAC will ever be. It has just a few tens of million more votes, for one. For its own Messianic reasons, it guards the survival of Israel jealously.
AIPAC is an efficient lobby group, but there are many others and the Execeutive can pay attention or not. That is what happens in a democracy.
Olmert is right. The Iranian threat and its financial and materiel support for Hamas and Hizbollah are much more of a threat to Mid East peace than a few settlements. The life blood that sustains them comes from Teheran. It is illusory to imagine that peace can come to a region where these forces of destruction run wild. Are they Israel's future peace partners?
Settlements are indeed an issue, but one which all of Israel's political parties have flirted with when it best suits their purpose. At the appropriate time, they will take the steps that best accord with the real politik of that time and not before.
Throwing away negotiating cards before the players have arrived at the table is not the way to win.
David, in short I think land-for-peace died a sad death in Gaza. I feel your analogy is overblown between Israeli "state terrorism" and the Iran-sponsored brand of murder. Perhaps this is one of the obstacles to peace (one of many): the insistence upon moral equivalence in order to corner Israel into sealing a deal with Human Rights Watch. At the end of the day, they must live with Palestinian neighbors, not blue-helmets.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing to go must be reliance on terrorism as a means of bringing Israel to its knees (note to the terrorists: it doesn't work). The rest will follow.
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (Hardcover)
ReplyDeleteby John J. Mearsheimer
John J. Mearsheimer (Author)
This is the book which will tell you all about it!