Obama trying to revive moribund 'peace process'
The White House is getting desperate over the Middle East 'peace process.' The solicitation of ideas comes as the administration’s peace efforts are “utterly stuck,” as one outside adviser who consults the administration on the issue told POLITICO Wednesday on condition of anonymity.Read the whole thing.
“There’s no pretense of progress. With the State of the Union coming up and the new GOP Congress, they are taking a few weeks [to regroup and solicit] ideas to push forward and … to give a real jump-start to what would be meaningful negotiations,” the adviser said.
Ross traveled quietly to Israel last week to seek more clarity from Israeli leaders on their security requirements and ideas for advancing the peace process.
But the Middle East adviser described both the Israeli and Palestinian parties as unforthcoming on specifics, including on the two key issues — borders and security — that several veteran U.S. diplomats have advocated take priority.
“The U.S. is asking for the parties to provide substantive answers on borders and security, but they don’t see it happening,” the adviser said.
“There are three options that this administration can adopt,” former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer told POLITICO Thursday. “It can elicit an Israeli initiative. It can elicit a Palestinian initiative. Or it can develop its own initiative.”
“It’s had no success with the first two, and it hasn’t tried the third,” Kurtzer said. “So if it wants to try to develop an initiative, it’s got to come up with a substantive program that says to the parties, ‘When you get to negotiations, here are your terms of reference.’" …
Were it not for the 'fierce moral urgency' of creating a 'Palestinian' reichlet, would the White House be willing to look for another crisis on which Obama could win foreign policy credentials? How about Lebanon?
Labels: Barack Obama, Dennis Ross, fierce moral urgency, Lebanon, Middle East peace process
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:54 PM
1 Comments:
The parties are not interested in talks. Specifically the Palestinians. No matter how much Obama entices them, they won't take a bite off the American apple.
What could go wrong indeed
Post a Comment
<< Home