Israel Matzav

They never give up, do they?

In yet another indication that the Obama administration is going back to 2009 again, former US Ambassador to Israel and Egypt, Dan Kurtzer, told the Middle East Institute on Wednesday night that President ma's second term has gotten off to 'exactly the right kind of start' - despite the questionable results of Obama's and Secretary of State John FN Kerry's trips here. Kurtzer also waxed prolific about how 'if only' there would be peace between Israel and the 'Palestinians' it would be so much easier to put together a coalition to stop Iran.

“The ability of the United States to marshal a coalition that will be necessary to deal with the Iran issues is far more complicated today,” Kurtzer said in an appearance at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

He attributed that to “far weaker Arab leadership and the tendency of Arab leaders to be much more attuned to what we have traditionally called the ‘Arab Street.’” Kurtzer said that in that context, working on the Arab-Israel conflict would help those leaders in dealing with their street and therefore create more space to “follow the United States’ lead with respect to an Iran crisis should it emerge.”

In pressing ahead with the peace process, Kurtzer, speaking to The Jerusalem Post after his MEI presentation, said that US President Barack Obama’s second term had “gotten off to exactly the right kind of start.”

What Kurtzer is pushing is known as 'linkage' and it's something almost no one in Israel accepts. The Obama administration tried pushing it during their first term, and finally dropped it in 2011. For that matter, 'our friends the Saudis' don't accept it either, and some on the Left have even argued that if there is any linkage, it works the other way - that you have to stop Iran to have peace.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Dan Kurtzer, John Kerry, linkage

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:32 PM