"The terrorist Hamas has come
out the political winner of the war. … The entire peace process that the United
States led must be rebuilt - with a new willingness to treat Israelis,
Palestinians and their Arab neighbors on an equal footing."
Among the many foreign policy
challenges confronting Barack Obama, the question of the Middle East [Israelis
and Palestinians] is as much a priority as the American withdrawal from Iraq or
the fight against Islamic terrorism. All of these pressing issues are linked by
an Gordian knot of hate that conflates Israel, the United States and the West
in general. Palestine, which is undefined in a geographic sense, serves as a
pretext for all forms of extremism, from Hezbullah to Hamas and including
various splinter groups. All under the orchestration of the grand organizer,
Iran.
There is considerable fear that
the bloody Israeli offensive in Gaza will even further exacerbate these
passions. Even if the ceasefire seems to be respected, even if the Israel
Defense Force has withdrawn its armor, nothing is settled there and won’t be as
long as the borders of that miniscule territory remain closed. Authorizing the
passage of humanitarian convoys or fuel trucks allows the population to
survive, not live.
The continuing Israeli
blockade will not soon erase the memory of hundreds of children and civilians
killed in the indiscriminate fire that destroyed schools, U.N. buildings,
hospitals and mosques. The “excuse” that Hamas fighters were hiding behind the
population - which, moreover, is true - no longer flies. Complaints about war
crimes and use of prohibited weapons (white phosphorous bombs) are piling up.
Israel has lost much of its capital of sympathy in Europe and has alienated
Turkey, its only Muslim ally. As for the Arab countries who were close to
Washington and who early on proposed a peace plan based on the pre-June 1967
borders, they now seem to be regretting the initiative, Riyadh most of all. This
could definitively isolate the Hebrew state.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEAKS TO THE MUSLIM WORLD
Unfortunately, that's not
all. The terrorist Hamas has come out the political winner of this war, the
military goals of which have not been met. Weakened in the West Bank where the
Palestinian Authority exists only as a shredded power scattered among
increasingly invasive Israeli colonies, Mahmoud Abbas
is proposing a “national union” to his Islamist opponents. The time is not far
off where Hamas, without recognizing Israel but by renouncing violence, will
become a viable interlocutor. Already, several European capitals, including
Paris, are in touch with the organization which has long been held in contempt.
President Obama is confronted
with a disaster. Even if Washington’s support
for Israel
will never be in doubt, the Bush era, with its blank checks to successive
Israeli governments, is over. Meanwhile, the entire peace process that the
United States led must be rebuilt - with a new willingness to treat Israelis,
Palestinians and their Arab neighbors on an equal footing.
