Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank won’t bring peace to the Middle East, no matter what the White House says.
By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ
Israel has no better friend than the United States. Israeli governments and the Israeli public listen eagerly to the advice proffered by Israel’s American friends. Sometimes we tend to agree and take the advice, other times we respectfully disagree. We know that the intentions are always the best. The two countries’ common strategic goals lead one to believe that generally what is good for America is good for Israel, and what is good for Israel should be good for America. But what if an administration in Washington adopts a mistaken policy, one that’s not good for America and is not likely to be good for Israel?
Unfortunately, the record of American foreign policy in the Middle East over the past four years has not been good; mistakes have been made. In an essay in The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, Walter Russell Mead, a Democrat, a former senior fellow at the American Council on Foreign Relations and now a foreign affairs professor, writes: “The Obama administration had a grand strategy in the Middle East. It was well intentioned, carefully crafted and consistently pursued. Unfortunately, it failed.”
Mead lists five big miscalculations about the Middle East made by Barack Obama’s White House: misreading the political maturity and capability of the Islamist groups that America supported, misreading the political situation in Egypt, misreading the impact of America’s strategy on relations with its two most important regional allies (Saudi Arabia and Israel), failing to grasp the new dynamics of terrorist movements in the region, and underestimating the cost of inaction in Syria.
Most Israelis will agree with this assessment. American attempts to bring democracy to Iraq have failed, as have American attempts to promote democracy in Egypt. To the list of misjudgments might be added the American misreading of the situation in Iran and of the political situation in Israel.
To the list of Obama’s misapprehensions, Mead adds the president’s misreading of the character of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he once referred to as one of his five best friends on a wide range of issues, but who has more recently been condemned by the U.S. government for offensive anti-Semitic charges against Israel. Remember that on Obama’s recent visit to Israel, still during his honeymoon period with Erdogan, he convinced Benjamin Netanyahu to swallow his pride and apologize for the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident. The expectation that this uncalled-for apology would normalize Israeli-Turkish relations quickly turned out to be no more than fantasy. It was bad advice.
So what advice is Obama, through his emissary John Kerry, giving Israel these past few months? He’s telling Israel, in almost so many words, to abandon Judea and Samaria. The Middle East is aflame from Iraq to Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, while Jordan is in an unstable equilibrium. Israel is the only island of stability in the region, but Obama turns his attention to the one area that’s relatively quiet because it’s under Israeli control – Judea and Samaria – and advises Israel to abandon it and turn it over to Mahmoud Abbas.
This presumably will bring peace and quiet to the Middle East. It must be said that this judgment is likely to be mistaken, as have so many other judgments on the Middle East made by the White House in recent years. It’s more likely that rockets launched from the areas to be abandoned would fall on Israel’s population centers, and Israel would be forced to take military action in defense of its civilian population. For Israel it would be a high-risk venture, for America a mistake. It’s bad advice.
NormanF Said:
this will sound far out but I would not be surprised to see attempts at deposing hamas in gaza or a unification of a “new, reinvented” hamas with the PA under a coalition of Abbas and a “re-invented” Meshaal. There is talk of Abbas running again, of Meshaal seeking some top position in the pal hierarchy, of the Tamerod egyptian movement having started a twitter movement against gaza hamas. Anyone who can deliver gaza back to abbas would probably be giving an offer which cannot be refused. gas off gaza cna be of value to gaza, pa and Jordan. Qatar,the worlds leading gas field owner equal to Iran, requested Israel to be allowed to invest in the redevelopment of Gaza at the same time of the Gaza cease fire. Israel has offered to help PA develop offshore Gaza gas. Just some speculative thinking regarding possible potential outcomes.
@ Shy Guy:
Trying to duplicate strike HTML how did you do it?
yamit82 Said:
& M’s
M
NormanF Said:
No arguments there.
May G-d bless and keep
the CzarNetanyahu far away from us!Shy Guy Said:
Netanyahu could pull off a Sharon – this is the course the Israeli Left has been stampeding him into taking in the event the negotiations go nowhere. It would simply bring Arab terrorists and rockets within range of Israel’s major population centers. Netanyahu may not be able to sign a peace deal with Abu Bluff but he doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to Kerry and Obama where it counts. And that could end up doing Israel a lot of harm and leaving it with the worst of both worlds – further delegitimization of Israel on the international stage along with the absence of real peace. Leaving thousands of homeless Jews in Judea and Samaria among its casualties.
Obama and Kerry will be out of office in the next three years! They won’t have to live with the consequences of their advice to Israel to essentially turn over Judea and Samaria to Hamas.
Israelis will have to live with that outcome. Israel’s decision to enter into these make-pretend negotiations with the Arabs was a huge mistake. They will not lead to peace.
Eldad says what we all know
This article is too kind to Obama.
I don’t believe he is a friend.
I don’t believe he means well.
I believe that like many inferior people he suffers from inferiority and hates Jews who’s overall intelligence and success surpasses that of the Blacks and Muslims.