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Obama Mideast speech - a tangled web woven for campaign spin
Flopping Aces ^ | 05-19-11 | Mataharley
Posted on May 19, 2011 9:49:13 PM EDT by Starman417
It's another day, and yet another Obama speech. The campaign season has kicked off, and a POTUS, laboring under the ineffectiveness of his own economic policies, and a sketchy history of foreign policy calls, is planning on mustering his full orative skills to redefine history and paint a rosy face on what many call the "Arab spring".
As is central to just about every POTUS in recent history, Israeli-Palestine lies in the forefront. But despite Netanyahu's willingness to resume talks just months after Obama's inaugural, 2009 brought not even a blip of success. That same year proved Obama's hope that Iran would be receptive also fell flat on it's face. Come fall of 2010.... Netanyahu and Abbas show up at the WH. Despite Obama warnings that, paraphrased (and with apologies to Seals & Croft), "we may never pass this way again", the negotiations yield nothing. Come campaign season, and this POTUS at least needs to look like an effort has been made... especially after all the posturing about those "democratic uprisings".
The reality is that the words and events are merely a sideshow, and the peace process is more unlikely to go any where than at any time in our recent past. What both nations envision as a "two-state" solution are worlds apart. Steven Walk at the Foreign Policy Magazine seems to believe this is because Obama refuses to put pressure on Israel, and only focuses on twisting Abbas' arm. This seems a naive observation, considering this admin's constant cold shoulder to the US's greatest ally in the Middle East, and their policy that demands Israel cease all settlement activity.
Obama, in a sweeping address tackling the uprisings in the Middle East and the stalled peace process, stunned Washington and Jerusalem by endorsing Palestinians' demand for their own state based on the pre-1967 borders. The break with longstanding U.S. policy appeared to immediately aggravate the Israelis, who want the borders of any future Palestinian state determined through negotiations.
Right..... like Israeli withdrawal is going to happen. Maybe Obama was happily ensconced in junior IL Senator dreams in 2000, but Bebe is astutely aware that the Israel offer to redefine borders went no where in the Camp David talks between 2000 Arafat and Israel PM Barak. New day, new leaders, same attitudes.
In fact, this pipedream for peace is even more unlikely with each ME chaotic uprising. One by one, the nations surrounding Israel are undergoing change. And as a Spiegel article today notes, that supposed move to democracy is not only not happening, but is either stalled, or in the process of a failed revolution.
