ProSemiteUndercover

[Bobo]

Obama is Fumbling a Chance for Middle East Peace
Only four percent of Israelis see Obama as a friend. That's a big problem for everyone
By Mortimer Zuckerman
Posted September 14, 2009
President Obama has divided foreign opinion. In the eyes of Western Europe, he is doing just great. Support for his handling of international affairs has quadrupled by comparison with the meager levels of President Bush, according to a survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and its partners. But that is only part of the story. In Eastern Europe, there is more skepticism about what he is doing regarding Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. And the disenchantment in Eastern Europe is nothing compared with the fearful majorities in the Middle East's most thriving democracy: Israel.

The numbers are startling. Obama's popularity in Israel has plunged to the point where now only 4 percent believe he is a friend. Obama should worry about this. So should we all, for the alienation has significant consequences for peace.

American support and American credibility are crucial for Israel. It is the confidence in America's friendship and support that will enable Israel to fulfill hopes for peace in the region. Alas, the American pressure campaign following Obama's ascent has had one clear outcome, and not one we had hoped for: It has made a peace deal much less likely. Obama has not exerted pressure equally. He ignores what Israel has done in recent years to advance the cause of peace and what the Arabs have failed to do. The onus has been on Israel and Israel alone. This has allowed the Arabs yet again to abdicate responsibility. It has reinforced the long-standing Arab belief that the United States can "deliver Israel" if only it has the will to do so, thereby reducing Arab incentives to make concessions in direct negotiations with Israel. The moderate Arab states, whose principal concern is not Israel but an expansionist Iran seeking domination in the Middle East, have been unwilling to raise a finger to advance the process—not Egypt, not Jordan, not Saudi Arabia.

snip
Obama has misdirected his political capital by focusing on the idea that the Arab conflict is fundamentally about Israeli West Bank settlements or about Israel's denial of the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for a state of their own in the West Bank and Gaza. It is not. It is not about the territories that the Arabs lost to Israel in a war they provoked in 1967. The Arab cause against Israel and Zionism is not about "settlements," it is about the very existence of Israel. It is a centurylong war based on the conviction that all land governed by the Jews in Palestine, including Israel within its pre-1967 boundaries, is Arab land, and thus no Jewish state can achieve legitimacy in Arab eyes.snip
http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/mzuckerman/2009/09/14/obama-is-fumbling-a-chance-for-middle-east-peace.html

[COASTIE]

The Arab policy may not yet be a Nazi style physical extermination of the Jewish people, but it is certainly a delegitimization of the Jewish people.
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