MIDDLE EAST: What can Obama do to restore confidence in peace process?

Voices of skepticism and disdain abound when it comes to United States' efforts to promote peace in the Middle East. Many in the Arab world regard the Obama administration's steps to restart talks as too little too late by a government too beholden to Israel. 

But some also proposed ideas for moving forward, even after Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, where peace was overshadowed by Israel's announcement of plans to expand settlements in the West Bank.

“They shouldn’t allow Israel or a part of the Israeli government to sabotage this baby step,” said Paul Salem, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Most described Israel’s controversial announcement to expand West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements as underscoring what they consider Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contempt for the peace process, analysts said. 

“They see the visit as a humiliating experience for the Obama administration and Biden himself,” said Oussama Safa of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a Beirut think tank. “They see it as a deliberate and calculated move to add insult to injury to send the message that [Israelis] are the ones pulling the strings.”

Television news broadcasts showed footage of Biden and Netanyahu greeting each other warmly in front of Israeli and American flags as newscasters described Israel’s decision to expand settlements considered illegal by much of the world. 

Generally the initial Middle East euphoria that greeted the election of Obama has dissipated as his administration’s position has moved from demanding Israel halt settlements to asking Israelis and Palestinians to participate in murky proximity talks. 

“They feel the U.S. administration is not putting pressure on Israel,” Salem said.

He said the U.S. should move forward with its proximity talks despite what he described as this week's “fiasco," which may have been meant at damaging the Democratic president at a time when he’s vulnerable back home. 

He suggested the U.S. also try to revive indirect talks between Syria and Israel and work toward a removal of the siege on the Gaza Strip.

If Obama wanted to bolster the credibility of negotiations, he himself could issue a clear and unambiguous condemnation of settlement activity, produce a precise road map for the proximity talks and bring European nations into the process, Safa said. 

“This will create an international consensus against the settlements and support the proximity talks, and in a way kind of put pressure on Israel to freeze the settlements,” he said. 

Anything short will boost the power and credibility of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas, which argue that peace is not possible with the Jewish state. 

“Failure in peace talks will strengthen the radicals in the region, and vindicate them," Safa said.

-- Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: Palestinian laborers work on a construction site in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Sholmo on March 11. Credit: Gali Tibbon / AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[since1982]

Arabs never had any proper representation in this "democratic" government. There are thousands of acres of land, originally owned by arabs in jeurusalem (West and East). Many of these arab owners did not pocess any paper work to prove their ownership (because the system of having a deed or any proper paper work did not exist before the creation of Israel). Also, the Israeli government reluctantly refuses to give out land deeds to arabs that have any claim to their land. These lands eventually become confiscated in the most corrupt manner possible. A good example are those lands which surround east and west jeurusalem. Almost all of the land (homes and farms) that surrounded the wailing wall belonged to arabs. Many of the olive farms owned by the Israeli government were stolen from palestinian families in similar fashion. Any palestinian family who had a relative or even a friend that was involved in any uprisings or demonstrations had their homes destroyed and land confiscated. This process eventually robs palestinians from their land one step at a time. Jeursalem is undergoing a first of its kind type of ethnic cleansing. No matter how hard the international communitee condemns the actions that go on in Jeurusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli will find a way around them...

[smhh4]

The striking irony is that the victims of the Jewish holocaust during the World War II are now the perpetrators of the the neo - holocaust against the innocent Palestinan people who had nothing to do with the original crime. Naturally this is happening with the full support of the US to the Jewish state at the expense of poor Palestinians for more than 60 years now. Israel is nothing but another former South Afrcia.Palestinians,being moslems or Christians, are treated like subhumans. Their houses are being demolished,their children are being jailed or killed on daily basis,their little farms are being bulldozed.Any Jew from all over the world is entitled for Israeli citizenship upon his arrival at Ben Gorion Airport, while the orginal land owners are not permitted even to visit the houses they were kicked from in Israel.The whole world should be ashamed of tolerating such an apartheid regime to cintinue in the 21st century. Israel as a pure Jewish state should not be permitted to continue anymore. Israel does have the right to exist but within its legal borders under UN resolution 181 and as a secular state for all its citizens regardless of their religion.Palestinian refugees must be given the right to return to their stolen homes and belongings in Israel.The only solution for this chronic Dlemma is establishing one secular state on all the land of Historical Palestine for Jews,Moslems and Christians with equal rights and responsibilities and without any kind of descrimination.

[Dale Johnson]

Since the bane of mankind, Religion, can't be eradicated, the best thing the US can do is create a level playing field by secretly and equally arming Hamas and the Palestinaians. Then let them and the Jews annihilate each other until there is no one left. End of problem - finally resulting in peeace.

[Joe]

US can withhold her financial handout and stop vetoing resolutions in UN for Israel misdeeds, if Israel on US payroll can humiliate her then why expect other nations which are not dependent on US to take her seriously, US can't afford to be a laughing stock of world and be the world leader at a same time!