by Shoshana Bryen, American Thinker
Almost lost in the terrible events in Boston is the Obama administration’s dire warning last week that the window for diplomatic success in the Middle East is closing — not on Iran’s quest for nuclear capability; not on the Syrian war; not on sectarian violence in Iraq; not on the spread of al-Qaeda in North Africa; not on the devolution of the Pakistani government or rising discontent in Jordan or the rapid downward spiral of Egyptian finances and civil liberties. No, the diplomatic problem that engages the administration — as it has prior administrations — is the Israeli-Palestinian “two state solution.”
President Obama dragged out the old “window of opportunity” saw in a meeting with U.N. President Ban Ki Moon. And Secretary of State John Kerry told Congress that the U.S. has about two years to achieve a “two-state solution” between Israelis and Palestinians before the opportunity is lost.
I believe the window for a two-state solution is shutting. I think we have some period of time in the year to year-and-a-half to two years or it’s over… I’ve been struck in my travels, incidentally, by how many people, everywhere, raise this subject and want us to move forward on a peace effort. They’re all worried about the timing here. So there’s an urgency to this in my mind and I intend, on behalf of the president’s instructions, to honor that urgency and see what we can do to move forward.
We’ve heard that urgency before. In May 2000, Ambassador Dennis Ross told an AIPAC audience in Washington:
What’s needed now is earnestness and a profoundly serious approach because we have a hundred years of conflict to resolve and it’s no easy matter… there is an historic moment now and to lose it will impose a very heavy responsibility on everybody. Now, we all have a heavy responsibility to try toseize this moment and ensure that in fact we do forge an agreement that ends the conflict, at least between Israelis and Palestinians. And that is possible.
So what happened? Not much, apparently, because precisely eight years later, President George W. Bush’sSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice went to AIPAC and said:
The expansion of violent extremism in the Middle East makes the creation of a peaceful, effective Palestinian state more urgent, not less… The present opportunity is not perfect by any means, but it is better than any other in several years, and we need to seize it. We need to take this chance to advance the historic and long-held aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis have waited too long for the security they desire and deserve. And Palestinians have waited too long, amid daily humiliations, for the dignity of an independent state.
If the United States is so certain that a “two-state solution” is possible, and so certain that the “window” for its success is limited, why aren’t we successful? Certainly it isn’t lack of desire, time or money spent, or earnest belief in our own rightness and our own capabilities.
The failure is in understanding that the priorities of the Palestinians and the Israelis are not the same, and that neither shares ours. The Americans want to find a way to reduce violence in the Middle East, which both Democratic and Republican administrations have said is exacerbated by the lack of a Palestinian State. Their priority, then, is to find the path to that state with Israel’s agreement.
Israel’s priorities, on the other hand, are:
- “Secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force,” the promise of UN Resolution 242. These may or may not coincide with the pre-1967 Green Line.
- The guarantee of “End of conflict; end of claims,” meaning any agreement with the Palestinians will be the last claim made on Israeli territory, political legitimacy or finances.
- The Capital of Israel in Jerusalem.
Palestinian priorities are:
- Independence in whatever territory is first available, but reserving the right to add territory later; thus, without “end of conflict; end of claims.”
- The return of the original 1948/49 refugees and their descendants to places in Israel from which they or their parents/grandparents came; the “right of return.” Refugees won’t be citizens of the new Palestinian State.
- Jerusalem as the Capital of Palestine.
Beneath the priorities lies a fundamental divergence: the Israelis are determined that at the end of the negotiation, the Jewish homeland will be accepted by the neighbors as a legitimate, permanent country in the region. The Palestinians believe that the 1948 independence of Israel was a mistake that needs to be erased. Israelis see independence as the restoration of their sovereignty after a 1,900-year lapse. The Palestinians see it as a spasm of Western guilt over the Holocaust.
Secretary Kerry is no more likely than Secretary Rice or Ambassador Ross to bridge those gaps. Rather than spending America’s diplomatic time and muscle on the “two state solution,” Mr. Kerry should firmly shut the “window of opportunity” and turn his attention to problems more urgent and perhaps more inclined to resolution.
yamit82 Said:
Upon clicking,I was “forbidden”
Caption this photo
Boston Marathon Bombing Conspiracy Theories
@ yamit82:
Thank you for the background information. It says a lot that such behavior gets rewarded by the Israeli elite, while good Jews are demonized.
Bill Narvey Said:
You are very very fond of that word.
Interesting that America never conditioned aid to any Arab country or group with making an accommodation with Israel. So much for their really wanting peace. Who would they sell all those expensive and mostly useless weapons to if there was peace? Mali?
@ Canadian Otter:
Mickey Levy was a Past police commander of the Jerusalem district he got passed over for the top job and was kicked out of the service after he was caught in lies about ordering beating Haredim which he did and to Women in Green, Matar. They gave him a traditional outgoing prize of being the Israeli police liaison in the USA for two years. A very ambitious and nasty guy, not even very smart for a flatfoot pig.
@ Canadian Otter:
With good reason we have a long tradition of not believing or trusting in our politicians and certainly anything they say. We mostly ignore them till they do something real that hurts. We have either very low to no expectations of them.
Michael Devolin Said:
Especially Churches.
CORRECTION!
I mistakenly identified the official who called Haredim “parasites” It really was the Deputy Finance Minister Mickey Levy, an MK from the Yesh Atid party
With red-faced embarrassment I apologize.
Otter
@ Bernard Ross:
I just posted a comment (which was swiftly zapped by Spam Filter) about Yair Lapid’s calling the Haredim “parasites” – to no real public outrage, just surprise. There is a very low bar when it comes to the kind of language used by Jews regarding other Jews, Jewish land, and Jewish rights in Israel.
Canadian Otter Said:
This stance might indicate a high degree of reality awareness 🙂
Canadian Otter Said:
Perhaps the Jews must obfuscate and pretend in order to survive the constant array of enemies, even those pretending to be friends.
catarin Said:
no possible way is that to be assumed.
Laura Said:
The established churches also do not want the Jews in jerusalem or Israel. I believe this is part of the reason for Europes current war against the Jews.
nor Arab control. No difference.
Well, it’s under Arab control now, just as Bethlehem is.
“The Church of the Nativity should be under Christian control, too.”
The Church of the Nativity is situated on Jewish land. There should be no “Christian control” of any kind within the borders of Israel.
“As long as they follow islam, there will be no Mideast peace.”
Islam is the ONLY obstacle to peace in the Middle East, Laura. Couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve said the same thing many times, long ago. People just refuse to acknowledge this inconvenient truth. It’s bad manners to condemn an ancient religion, namely Islam, even though it is a thoroughly ant-Jewish and malefic ideology. The Western pluralists will be remembered years from now as those fools who are “known by a multitude of words.”
I read a news article last night that Abbas has decided to join the Jews in preserving The Old City through UNESCO. The article said that UNESCO was pressured by some forces to drop it’s favoritism toward Arabs and get back to its original purpose of preserving without politics being involved. At last Abbas is willing to recognize the existence of the Jewish entity. I hope there will be a reversal in giving back to Jews the religious sites that were always theirs. The Church of the Nativity should be under Christian control, too.
I don’t think there’s a possibility of a two state solution ever occurring. Amen.
The only way the TSS can work is if the palestinian state is at least six feet underground
As long as they follow islam, there will be no Mideast peace.
This report by Aaron Lerner is worth reading by us in this part of the world because it gives an idea of how muddled and deceiving Middle East politics really is – including in Israel. http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=60731
~~~ Lerner writes that Likud MKs don’t really want Two States but agree that Bibi must express support for it once in a while, for whatever reason. ~~~ MK Avigdor Libermann of Yisrael Beiteinu advocates for partition with indefensible borders and surrender of the Israeli-Arab Triangle. His party’s MKs don’t object because they don’t believe partition will take place in the foreseeable future so Avigdor can say anything he wants. ~~ President Peres says that the Bibi’s support for Two States is backed by a unified Israel (nobody believes that, not even Peres). Then Peres goes on to say – with a straight face – that PA chairman Abbas is “clear in his position against terror and for peace”. Never mind that Abbas and his cohorts celebrate jihadis as heroes and provide funding for them and their families. Then again, maybe they don’t mean it. ~~~~~ Who in the world could ever understand all those layers of euphemism, obfuscation and duplicity? For such literate people, Israelis don’t seem to attribute much importance to politicians’ words, not even when they are uttered by those steering the country, driving it into the ground – or whatever.
Window of opportunity is a worn out metaphor and misguided at that, for it speaks not to opportunity, but hope that an opportunity to resolve the Israel vs. Palestinian conflict that so far cannot be found, actually does exist.
Successive U.S. administrations, other Western nations, ad hoc groups like the now disbanded quartet and other organizations using that metaphor to characterize their efforts to finding a path to peace for Israel and Palestinians have done so, not in the sense of a window of opportunity, but within the context and paradigm of THE TSS window of opportunity.
That TSS window of opportunity since it was first envisioned almost a century ago, has undergone many different window treatments, but the window itself never changes and it has never been open, if it existed at all these past decades.
Time to look for a new window and stop wishing and hoping that THE TSS window of opportunity will open or that it is actually there.
The Arabs want to destroy Israel, not to make peace.
This simple fact of Arab intentions has eluded generations of American Secretaries Of State who set themselves up for inevitable failure.
The corollary of Arab genocidal proclivities is that peace is impossible. Yet old habits of thinking die hard.
Platitudes of the last 20 years are far easier to regurgitate than its to accept the realities of the present. No “window of opportunity” exists for peace in the Middle East either now or far into the future.
John Kerry could save himself a great deal of time by staying at home.