WJC ANALYSIS – Obama in Israel: a new beginning?

By Pinhas Inbari

President Obama is expected to make his first official presidential visit to Israel this week. It is widely assumed that the main issue the President will discuss with the Israeli government will be nuclear Iran. However, it is not known to what extent the Palestinian issue will be discussed, if at all. While the President is keeping the cards close to his chest, it is worth examining the past four years of the Obama administration in order to gage his perspective on the issue.

Four years ago Obama saw the Palestinian problem as key to American global interests. Accordingly, he chose Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas as the first world leader to call upon assuming office. The phone call was a core part of the administration’s policy of outreach to Islam. The basic assumption was that once the bleeding struggle between Israel and the Palestinians was removed from the global agenda, America’s relations with Islam and the Arab world will get a fresh start without the hindrance of the alliance with Israel.

President Obama was preoccupied by internal Palestinian politics as a possible obstacle to peace in the region. He supported the 6thFatah congress in Bethlehem in 2009, assuming that an invigorated Palestinian Authority led by an empowered Fatah would be able to launch fruitful negotiations that would be crowned with a peace agreement. Obama’s hopes were not realized and Fatah grew weaker by the year.

What were the lessons learned by the Obama administration from the past four years?

Reports of the President’s itinerary in the PA are indicative of the American perception of the government in Ramallah. Initial reports indicated that Obama would visit the city of Bethlehem. However, formal sources in the PA stated that they had not been consulted on the matter, hinting the Americans did not trust the same Palestinian security forces they had trained and armed. Subsequent reports suggested that the visit to Bethlehem was not coordinated with the PA and had been replaced with a trip to Ramallah.  Until last weekend, the question of the President’s visit to the PA remained unanswered, speaking volumes about the administration trust in Palestine as a successful state.

Finally it was announced that Obama would visit Ramallah, but the doubts and uncertainties surrounding the decision were quite telling.  To complicate matters further, the U.S. has not formally recognized Palestine as a state and had objected to its unilateral recognition at the UN last year. The question remains under what title will President Obama be greeted in Ramallah – as a guest of the Palestinian State or the Palestinian Authority?

Obama’s insistence to visit the cradle of Christianity and ignore Muslim sites or meetings with Sheikhs signals the administration’s reevaluation of the outreach to Islam philosophy. The murder of the American ambassador in Benghazi, by those whose lives the United States had saved from Qaddafi, has cracked the faith in Political Islam theories.  This will be tested in Syria, where the United States has thrown its support behind the Muslim Brotherhood leader, Muaz al-Khatib.

The President is not alone in re-evaluating his relationship with the Palestinians, who, in turn, may also revisit their basic assumptions about the United States. Nasser Lahham, the editor of the leading Maan news agency told IDF radio, “We believe the Israelis more than we believe the Americans. Obama made promises to us but nothing came of them. Look what he said about Egypt, and look at Egypt today. Look at what he said about Iraq and look at Iraq today.  We do not want to be like Egypt or Iraq.”

Obama’s visit to Israel this week will show if it is the beginning of a new chapter and the abandonment of a failed vision, or a second chance for Political Islam.

March 19, 2013 | Comments »

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