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Heaven On Earth
Is Obama’s Pressure for Direct Israeli-Palestinian Talks Pushing Region Towards War? (Updated)
My latest report for Pajamas Media on the Negotiations
Is Obama’s Pressure for Direct Israeli-Palestinian Talks Pushing Region Towards War? (Updated)
Byzantine politics have nothing on negotiation strategies in the Middle East between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Headlines July 29 initially announced that the Arab League — meeting in Cairo and under heavy pressure from the Obama administration — had approved Abbas’ return to direct negotiations with Israel. Comments from Jerusalem, including from Netanyahu, hailed this welcome gesture as a chance to get back on track towards a two-state solution.
All sounds good: the Obama administration applying pressure on the Arab side, the Arabs respond and move forward; Israelis welcome the move.
But to those familiar with the nature of these negotiations, none of this made any sense.
Read the rest at PJMedia
Looks like it started already:
http://www.debka.com/article/8947/
There’s no guessing as to what happens when arabs are pressured to negotiate with Israel.
Israel has been in denial for decades. It refrained from destroying Hamas and Hezballah when it was feasible and it allowed them — with the direct support of the west — to reach a level when it will be extremely costly (given Syria, Turkey and Iran circumstances and the US bogged down and losing in Iraq and Afghanistan).
How does the post-west world look? Not pretty and you ain’t seen nothing yet.
RL,
I think you figured where all this is going, but then every sane person with knowledge of 60 years of evidence and ability to reason can.
It’s only those in denial — the majority in the west and a minority in Israel (including the elite) are in denial. This time the awakening may well be too late, but it certainly be ugly.
And, BTW, if he has played with fire and will induce a war, no crisis will go to waste: he will use it as an opportunity to achieve what he has wanted from the start: to use the dumping of Israel to join the radical arab coalition, for which the US has become too weak to confront.
Hold on to your seats.
http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/klein-israel-lebanon-clashes-staged-provocation-sources-say-hezbollah-looking-to-divert-attention-from-un-murder-probe/
After all, the loss of Lebanon is another great achievement by the west and Obama.
RL, an excellent analysis.
of course, Obambi is part of the problem, not the peaceful solution. Btw, Aaron David Miller, one of the State Dept gang, also deplored direct negotiations, which are actually a sine qua non of proof that PLO/PA or the other Arabs really want peace.
rl, good analysis.
How does one renounce denial? I suggest getting mugged by reality… hoping that mugged will be enough, and that exterminated won’t be the new reality.
The Lebanese army emerges as Israel’s new pro-active foe
http://www.debka.com/article/8948/
IDF keeps deteriorating to the point of losing even to the Lebanese army. Yuckh.
How does one renounce denial? I suggest getting mugged by reality… hoping that mugged will be enough, and that exterminated won’t be the new reality.
1st, the west keeps getting mugged by reality, yet it does not renounce denial.
2nd, that suggests that nothing short of extermination or subjugation will do the job.
Yuckh:
Schalit: Pressure Hamas prisoner swap
Noam and Aviva call on Palestinian people to press for exchange deal.
They seem to have lost their mind.
incognito,
Israel did have a chance to remove Hamas from Gaza, but in the end retreated. I think this was a matter of politics and Israel-US relations: Obama was due to get inaugurated in a few days, and it would have been bad to have tensions in the very beginning of a new US administration. Now I suspect, after the Gaza flotilla farce, that Israel will pursue more aggressively its interests (eliminating terrorists, economic development with peaceful palestinians).
Mark,
I know all about the reasons given for stopping the war in Gaza (as well as in Lebanon). The problem is that the consequences were as predictable as taxes and death: murders from both directions, worse weaponization, UN shielding them, and the west which Israel appeased by stopping the war, more and more delegitimizing Israel.
Now assume that Israel ignored the world and destroyed Hamas and Hezballah’s capacity ruthlessly. And let’s suppose that the west would have continued to be against Israel even more — what could happen with Hamas and Hezballah’s power gone?
Israel should have as first priority its security. Kissing western ass is a delusion which may well result in Israel’s destruction.
Here’s Navon expressing the same idea:
Yossi Beilin’s Intellectual Ghetto
http://navonsblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/yossi-beilins-intellectual-ghetto.html
i dont really understand why obama is involved into israeli-palestinian conflict-he is not an international peace organization, he is president of usa. still he is the firsdt person that netanyahu decided to meet after the terract in hebron. though obama does not look like person who supports israel, this time official position of palestinian side looks much better then usual.
HERE is our problem:
Don’t try to tell me Obama is not a Muslim!