Whose 'soul searching'?
At a White House meeting with representatives of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations this week, President Obama once again urged 'soul searching' by Israel and its supporters over efforts to make 'peace' with the 'Palestinians.' But Rick Richman points out that given the epic failure of the Obama administration's efforts, it's not Israel but Obama that ought to be doing the soul searching.In the past two years, Obama discarded the prior definition of a “settlement freeze” (no new settlements or expansion of borders of existing ones); refused to abide by the 2004 Bush letter on defensible borders and major settlement blocs; decided to put “daylight” between the U.S. and Israel; publicly humiliated the Israeli prime minister; adopted a position on settlement construction more radical than that of the Palestinians themselves; lectured Israel at the UN; lost the confidence of both sides, and … achieved nothing.I think there's another group that needs to do some soul searching here: The group of American Jews that calls itself pro-Israel but doesn't show it also needs to do some soul searching. If - God forbid - Obama is re-elected in 2012, I have little doubt that Israel will be pressed to accept an imposed 'solution' that could endanger the Jewish state's continued existence.
The Palestinians are still in no position to implement Phase I [of the road map]; yesterday they rejected Phase II again (concerned that Netanyahu may be preparing to offer it to them); and they are engaged in an end run around Phase III – preferring to work toward international imposition of a state without the need for negotiations. The process obviously requires some serious soul-searching — but by whom?
Labels: Barack Obama, Middle East peace process, pro-Israel, road map
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:44 PM
2 Comments:
The reason there is no "peace process" has nothing to do with the presence or absence of a peace initiative from Israel.
Even if Netanyahu offers a new one, there is no chance the Palestinians or other Arabs will take him up on it. No amount of new unilateral Israeli concessions will attenuate Arab hostility in the slightest.
There will be no peace in our lifetime and the Obama Administration and the Western Left seem incapable of coming to terms with this reality about the Middle East.
Do you really expect a community that was " deafeningly silent " during the Holocaust to speak up?
Non ortho Jews are more interestednin gay rights, civil rights, islamo nazi rights etc...
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