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A Fiasco

Thursday 12 November 2009

by:   |  Le Monde | Editorial

photo
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority and chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Executive Committee, a man, Le Monde's editorialist declares, "of exemplary dignity" and "one of the few leaders in the region to have publicly attacked the sacrosanct model of 'armed struggle' so popular with the Palestinians." The absence of any sort of progress in peace negotiations has totally undermined his credibility with his own people, so that today he is on the verge of resigning. (Photo: World Economic Forum / Flickr)

It's time to stop the verbal pretense. In the Near East, there is no negotiation "process" underway. Furthermore, there is also no prospect for peace. The situation is nonetheless not in a state of status quo: it is regressing. Dangerously. The United States bears the primary responsibility. Several months ago, Barack Obama had placed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the top of his priorities. He demanded that Israel stop the expansion of settlements within Palestinian territory on the West Bank. It was, if not a prerequisite, at least a condition to allow the reopening of negotiations with the Palestinians.

The Israelis said no: settlements will continue to expand, but at a somewhat slower rate, replied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United States just took it: speaking through Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it flatly endorsed Mr. Netanyahu's, position.... Within a few weeks, Mr. Obama lost the credit in the Arab world that his remarkable speech in Cairo in June had gained him. Even in diplomatic language, that's called a monumental fiasco.

The head of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas, reckoned he was betrayed by Washington. The United States had already manhandled him by compelling him to neither defend nor bring before the UN a report that stigmatized Israel's behavior during the Gaza War. Seventy-four years old, Mr. Abbas is a man of exemplary dignity. He is one of the few leaders in the region to have publicly attacked the sacrosanct model of "armed struggle" so popular with the Palestinians. Today, largely repudiated by the population for the meager results obtained peacefully, he is threatening to resign. With what result? The other branch of the Palestinian national movement, the Islamists of Hamas, exult.

Mr. Netanyahu has consolidated his majority on the right. He is supported by public opinion in Israel which deems that Israel has also been betrayed, obtaining nothing but volleys of rockets in return for leaving southern Lebanon and Gaza. By continuing settlement, Mr. Netanyahu knows that he makes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel less likely than ever.

Small-minded calculations here, weakness and cowardice there. And yet, the settlement of a question that is at the heart of Arab-Muslim world resentments would change the face of the region. All conflicts would be presented in less-acute form, beginning with the Iranian nuclear issue. Here's our question: Is the 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate up to the challenge?

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    Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.

  

Comments

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When I see President Obama

 Fri, 11/13/2009 - 18:56 — Anonymous (not verified)
When I see President Obama shuffling his cabinet to get rid of weaklings and appointing strong defenders of economic, health, home and job rights in the United States, then I will believe he is up to the challenge of the Nobel Prize for Peace in the Middle East and/or anywhere else on the planet.

With great sadness, I concur

 Fri, 11/13/2009 - 20:29 — Anonymous (not verified)
With great sadness, I concur with this report. I also was hoping for President Obama to put his foot down and tell the Israeli's to stop playing the game of chicken with the Palestinians and the United States.

At the risk of being

 Fri, 11/13/2009 - 21:29 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)
At the risk of being interpreted as (completely?) cynical, "...a monumental (INTENTIONAL) fiasco..."! Almost everything Obama, "Hitlery" Clinton (as well as her husband, "Bubba"), Netan(Yahoo---pronounced, "Yeh-hoo!"---and who is also, of course, a yahoo), AND Mahmoud Abbas, etc., have said is to buy time for their lord and master, Satan (yes, I'm VERY serious), to carry out and fulfill his plans to continue to carry out genocide in Palestine, etc.; to completely dismantle and destroy the sovereignty of the U.S.; to bring about his (Satan's) "one-world government"; to enslave the entire world without ANY True Freedom(s); and to bring about the loss for eternity of the souls of the vast majority of the billions of human beings on the Earth. The Obamas, etc., are puppets of evil, one and all; and that is ALL they are. So, also of course, "the 2009 Nobel 'Peace' [as in, "War is (supposedly) peace"---and its inverse that is inferred, 'Peace is (supposedly) war'] 'Laureate'" is NOT up the challenge(s), except for nothing but show.

Boycotts, Divestment and

 Sat, 11/14/2009 - 00:23 — Jade Queen (not verified)
Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions have been proposed by Ben Gurion University professor Neve Gordon in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. Palestinian Mohammad Othman is held by the Israeli government without charge after a visit to Norway where he spoke of the conditions for his people and his support for boycotts. Jewish conscientious-objector teens have been sentenced to Israeli prisons. Israeli Air Force pilots have refused to fly bombing raids they were ordered to do. Inside and outside Israel, there is understanding of the risks of an Israeli defense establishment whose behaviors have been flashed around the world in vivid and undeniable brutality. In the U.S., we are reminded how trauma anywhere comes home to be dealt with again. The taking of lives, health, land, homes, and means of support in Palestine must be addressed by those who have done the taking. The U.S. bears a heavy responsibility. Pressing campaign donors directly has to happen. By the time the donors have elected someone, it is too late to get access. The trappings of office allow too much insulation.

To answer your question.

 Sat, 11/14/2009 - 12:15 — Anonymous (not verified)
To answer your question. Hell NO!!!!! And , like Iraq's puppets now clinching Oil deals with US Corporations, he will have his corrupt Afghan President clinch the deal with more US Corporations to build the Pipeline through Afghanistan despite how many Afghans or Pakistan folk he will have to kill to permit this deal to not go to Argentine. Remember the WTC buildings were demolished not felled by fires and no airliner flew into the Pentagon.

I fear our government is

 Sat, 11/14/2009 - 15:16 — Robert the Cynic (not verified)
I fear our government is ever more captive of the Israel Lobby -- Hard-line Division, insofar as the "peace process" is concerned, as well as with many other issues. It continues to be heresy in the US to criticize ANYTHING Israel does, no matter how heinous, illegal or destructive, and the US taxpayer is more or less mandated to pay their way. This morass will not be exited until and unless the US government MANDATES strict terms and conditions under which Israel can continue to access US support, conditions the violation of which will result in immediate defunding of their operation and removal of ANY military, financial or political "cover" for their terrorist regime. That may also entail locking up a whole bunch of the christofascist enablers/co-conspirators hiding behind religion to encourage an End-times conflagration in the Middle East to "substantiate" their sick, delusional mythology. Somewhere, this cr*p has to stop, lest it completely destroy us, and move our nation permanently into the same category of rogue, totalitarian terrorist state now occupied most prominently by Israel.

The American people are

 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 16:36 — Anonymous (not verified)
The American people are under the impression that its their government which decides American policy in the Near-Middle East,its about time they come to terms with the fact that the Israeli Government goals are the deciding factor of the decisions made in Washington.