Obama has ruined chances for peace

David Solway writing in FrontPageMag under the title The Obama Peace Talks Sham doesn’t hold out any hope and puts the blame on Obama where it belongs

[..] But the greatest impediment to the success of the current peace deliberations—i.e., a viable and pragmatic outcome—is not the Palestinians, refractory as they may be. It is Barack Obama himself. This most partisan and indiscrete of presidents has made it plain over the last few years that he has no love for the Jewish state. The checklist is definitive: his close association with antisemites like Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Rashid Khalidi and with anti-Zionists like Robert Malley, Samantha Power, John Brennan, Susan Rice and Zbigniew Brzezinsky; his awarding the Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson, the human engine behind the infamous Durban anti-Israel hatefest; his fake paroxysm over building permits in Jerusalem, which had already been agreed upon, in order to back Israel into a diplomatic corner; his administration’s reneging on the 2004 Bush letter of understanding to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approving “secure, defensible borders”; his privileging of apostate Jewish anti-Zionist advocacy groups like J Street; his willingness to compromise with a genocidal Iranian mullocracy at Israel’s expense, under the guise of “sanctions” that will manifestly not have their stated effect of deterring Iran’s nuclear program; and his generous treatment of PA president Mahmoud Abbas in contrast to the hostility he has shown Netanyahu, to tally some of the more obvious items.

Obama and his entourage do not read the Charter documents of Hamas and Fatah in which Israel’s destruction is solemnly pledged. They do not read the translations of the speeches given by Arab leaders to their home audience in which their real, incendiary intentions are expressed. They do not compare the accomplishments of Israeli society in science, technology, agriculture, medicine and education, which materially benefit the world, with the dismal abortions in all these fields in Islamic society. Or if they do, this would render them far more cynical than merely obtuse. Obama and his cabal also ignore the fact that Hamas would not be a signatory to any hypothetical peace treaty, which means that half the “Palestinian nation” would abide in a state of war with the other half as well as with Israel. And so again, whither peace?

Moreover, as has been pointed out many times before, the Palestinians have no incentive to negotiate in good faith, knowing that Obama has turned the screws upon Israel, applied brutal pressure upon its leadership and smiled favorably upon the Palestinian camp. Therefore, they need only wait upon the sequel as the American president raises the bar on Israeli trade-offs, inflicts as much damage as he can upon both the Jewish state and its negotiating position, and quite feasibly paves the way toward a unilateral declaration of Palestinian sovereignty. Obama, as one blogger has written, is “a bad accident”—but not for the Palestinians.

Obama has failed on most of his policy initiatives

Thus he is desperate to find a feather that he can insert into his bedraggled bonnet, and a “success”—even an implausible, transient, insignificant and entirely fictive advance in the Israeli-Palestinian arbitration burlesque—which can be puffed in the compliant, leftist media as a “signal accomplishment,” has become his expedient of last resort. Obama cannot afford another policy miscarriage to add to the interminable catalogue of his stumbles and blunders, and will consequently do everything in his power to twist Netanyahu’s arm and wring yet more concessions from Israel. But this cannot be described as “negotiations”; it is coercion, and can only augment the chances of conflict rather than make it less probable.

Obama has always sympathized with the Muslim cause anyway, whether at home or abroad—anyone who denies this has been living on another planet.

To save himself, Solway writes Obama can either change his economic and environmental poliies or bomb Iran but will do neither.

Were Obama truly impartial and concerned with justice, … Obama would have recognized that the Israelis’ case is at least as strong as, in fact, historically and legally far stronger than, that of their counterparts.

He would then have been better served to put the Palestinians on notice that reciprocity and compromise are the foundation of negotiations and that they must have something to offer aside from threats on the one hand and parchment promises on the other. He would have informed them that Israel cannot be expected to make all the tangible concessions and that its security and territorial integrity remain paramount. And he would have reminded them that, according to international law, the minimal curtilage that Israel holds across the Green Line is the legitimate spoils of war. The prospect of the withdrawal of American funding and material assistance from the Ramallah government would be a powerful bargaining chip and help to level the playing field. But Obama is clearly resolved to put the squeeze on Israel while giving the Palestinians what amounts to a free pass. Such a policy coincides with both his deeper sentiments and his political calculations.

In thus seeking to force Israel’s hand to the advantage of the Palestinians, which beneath his ornamental rhetoric remains his essential strategy if he is to attain the political consummation he so desperately needs and covets, Obama will only embolden the Palestinians, alienate most of the Israeli electorate, further the explosive stalemate in the region and ensure the dereliction of his cherished purpose. But then, how could we have anticipated otherwise? After all, this is Obama.

Excellent