Israel Matzav

Scowcroft: Israel not being destroyed quickly enough

Former Bush 41 national security adviser Brent Scowcroft - the eminence grise of the Obama foreign policy team - complains that Barack Obama isn't moving fast enough to destroy the Jewish state.

Resuming the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is not a matter of forcing concessions from Israel or dragooning the Palestinians into surrender. Most of the elements of a settlement are already agreed as a result of the ‘Clinton parameters’ of 2000, the Oslo Accords, and the ‘road map’ of 2003.

What is required is to summon the will of Israeli and Palestinian leaders, led by a determined American president, to forge the various elements into a conclusion that all parties have already publicly accepted in principle. Indeed, a broad-based Israeli group has just announced its ‘Israeli Peace Initiative’ that endorses these elements, and there is strong support from the leaders of Europe, especially Germany, France and the UK.

Thus the time has come for Mr Obama to lay out his view of the parameters of a fair and viable peace agreement. Four issues should be highlighted.

First, territory and borders should be addressed. Two states, based on the lines of June 4, 1967 with minor, reciprocal, and agreed-upon modifications as expressed in a 1:1 land swap is needed, to take into account areas heavily populated by Israelis in the West Bank.

Next, there has to be a solution to the refugee problem that is consistent with the two-state solution that does not entail a general right of return to Israel and addresses the Palestinian refugees’ sense of injustice, while also providing them with meaningful financial compensation as well as resettlement assistance.

Third, Jerusalem has to be made the undivided capital of both Israel and Palestine, with Jewish neighbourhoods under Israeli sovereignty and Arab neighbourhoods under Palestinian sovereignty. There should be a special regime for the Old City, providing each side control of its respective holy places and unimpeded access by each community to them.

Last, on the issue of security, Mr Obama must push for a non-militarised Palestinian state, together with security mechanisms that address Israeli concerns while respecting Palestinian sovereignty, and a US-led multinational force to ensure a peaceful transitional security period.

These parameters would serve as a basis for substantive and productive discussion by the parties to move the peace negotiations to a positive resolution. They would achieve priority US national security and foreign policy objectives with respect to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Scowcroft is simply repeating a mantra that has been taken as being correct since Bill Clinton introduced the 'Clinton parameters' in the waning days of his administration in December 2000. They are what I refer to as 'what everyone knows' and I have taken them apart completely here, here, here and here (I suggest you read all four of those if you haven't already).

Obviously, things aren't as simple as Scowcroft says they are. In fact, an astute commenter on Scowcroft's article at the Financial Times got it much better than Scowcroft did (although I think he's wrong about Israel - we've just given up).

Labels: Brent Scowcroft, Clinton parameters, Middle East peace process, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:24 AM