With the departure of the American babysitter, both the Israelis and Palestinians will have to deal with the bleak reality on their own.
By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ | Apr. 26, 2014 |
On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama started bringing down the curtain on the American peace initiative spearheaded by his secretary of state, John Kerry, since last March. Obama did not formally wave the white flag, but his statements to the press make it clear that he thinks that currently, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are not partners for peace.
Obama’s statements were neither planned nor orchestrated in advance. He was asked a question, and he answered honestly and directly that despite a year of supreme efforts by the American administration, both Netanyahu and Abbas were unwilling to show leadership. In Obama’s opinion, both figures, motivated by political survival, don’t want to make decisions which will begin to untie the Gordian knot called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The American president termed the new American policy toward the peace process as a “pause.” John Kerry called it a “transition to a holding period.” In simple English, the two gave the signal over the weekend for the American retreat from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Various officials in Washington are pressing Obama and Kerry to enter the “pause” only after the administration tables its principles for the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s core issues, including the issues of refugees and of Jerusalem. Kerry is toying with the idea, but Obama has no appetite for another adventure which will surely run into the brick wall of Netanyahu, Abbas and Co.
The American withdrawal will not happen in one day. Administration spokespeople will continue to stress at every opportunity that they are not giving up and not forsaking the Israelis and the Palestinians. But in reality, over the next six months the U.S. will “turn down the volume” vis-à-vis any attempt to renew negotiations.
No one will be surprised if sooner or later U.S. envoy Martin Indyk – who has become even more frustrated than his predecessor, George Mitchell – announces his resignation and returns to his previous job at the Brookings Institute in Washington. A veteran diplomat, Indyk was called to duty once more to promote a peace process, not to engage in maintenance aimed solely at preventing an escalation and violent flare-up between Israel and the Palestinians.
If Obama does indeed put his statement from Friday into practice and begins a U.S. withdrawal from the peace process – it would be a welcome move. Without the appearance of a peace process and with the departure of the American babysitter, both the Israelis and Palestinians will have to deal themselves with the bleak reality.
For the Palestinians, the implications will be a steep deterioration in economy and security. For the Israelis, the repercussions will include a worsening international isolation, increased calls for boycotts and even sanctions by the European Union and other bodies against the settlement enterprise. Tragically, it seems both sides need a crisis in order to get truly motivated to move forward.
In the coming days, Netanyahu will most likely continue his propaganda assault on Abbas and the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreement. He has already taken over the Sunday television shows on American networks, and he probably won’t stop there. In two weeks, Netanyahu will embark on a five-day trip to Japan. The 12-hour flight, the idyllic scenery and the imperial hospitality will surely allow him to forget about the everyday trials. But Netanyahu would be wise to visit the quiet Shinto shrine in Tokyo, have a cup of sake and start thinking seriously about plan B.
@ Vinnie:
A pretty good analysis of those we have to thank for Obama’s two administrations but with one important omission.
And that is the 70% Jewish vote which included many financial heavy hitters. Lets not forget those JINO’s.
True enough, “jerrylaury”, but you might have put your entire second sentence in quotes above or it sounds like you’re agreeing with them.
At any rate, while I hope this charade really is over, I am not so optimistic. The main forces behind installing Obama in the WH – I submit these are the Gulf Arabs by means of manipulating oil prices in ’08 to force the timing of the crash, plus their enormous influence over the U.S. national media, academe, and the D.C. Beltway – put him there primarily in order to shove a Saudi-style surrender plan down Israel’s throat, or failing that, to lead the charge in isolating Israel as a pariah, “apartheid” state (already, Kerry is starting to lay the poliical/rhetorical groundwork for this, as has been recently reported).
There were other forces behind Obama as well, such as the loony Bill Ayers/Rev. Wrong left, but these have always been a part of the American scene, and they’ve never had the clout to put someone in the WH. They needed an ally with $$$ and savvy to get one of their own in power, and the Arab Lobby came through on condition that Priority #1 would be screwing Israel. Yes, Obama is a left wing twit in general, but more specifically, he is a programmed anti-Israel political cruise missile, who is in the WH on a “screw Israel scholarship”, so to speak. All the rest – e.g., Obamacare – is whatever else he and his cronies think they can get away with while they are at it.
With the above in mind, I predict that with two years nine months left to go – a political eternity, especially for a president with such great talent for screwing so much up in so little time – I am afraid I have to take him at his word that this is indeed a “pause”…one of the very few times that he is very likely NOT lying.
After the mid-term elections here, when he really has nothing left to lose politically, he will come out guns blazing against Israel. He’ll conspire with the Palestinians to manufacture some kind of crisis so that he can issue some big ultimatum against Israel, which will be the prelude to him going all out against Israel in the UN. And, in the meantime, he’ll continue to do everything he can to frustrate direct Israel military action against Iran’s nuke weapons program.
Elections, rigged or not – and the one in ’12 was – have consequences.
Yes, I hope this nonsense really is over. But this is all Obama was put there to do, and like a robot, he just can’t stop doing it.
This is typical Haaretz garbage. Both Israel and the Palestinians are equally guilty of the failure of the “peace process”. The Left will never admit that you can’t make peace with terrorists and barbarians.
I sure as hell hope Netanyahu doesn’t visit the shrine to the dead Japanese warriors, or he can kiss his growing Chinese commerce goodbye.