President Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at
the Church of the Nativity - said to be the birthplace of Jesus.
has the trip done anything to move the needle of peace talks?
Obama in Israel:
No Fuel for His Limo - or for Peace Talks (Polityka,
Poland)
"When the
president's armored limousine rolled out of a plane at Ben Gurion
Airport, it turned out that it couldn't move: someone by mistake fueled it with
diesel instead of gasoline. Similarly, despite Obama's assertions that
Palestinians have a right to their own fatherland, there is no indication they
will have one anytime soon. As of now, neither is there fuel to propel peace
talks."
One might say that a minor incident which occurred at the
start of Barack Obama's visit to Israel comprises the metaphorical essence of
all that will happen after he leaves.
When the president's armored limousine rolled out of a plane
at Ben Gurion Airport, it turned out that it couldn't
move: someone by mistake fueled it with diesel instead of gasoline. Similarly,
despite Obama's assertions that Palestinians have a right to their own fatherland,
there is no indication they will have one anytime soon. As of now, neither is
there fuel to propel peace talks.
Media have appraised the U.S. president's two-day visit
to Jerusalem as a great success. But for the most part, it was a success for a
great orator; and then only of a capable politician. Obama knew what he was
doing, when instead of a traditional speech to parliament [the Knesset], he met
with students in large auditorium.
For several years, he has been speaking over the heads of politicians.
Young people received him enthusiastically. "Living their entire lives
with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements not just of
those young people [Palestinians] but their parents, their grandparents, every
single day. It's not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes
unpunished. It's not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; or
restricting a student's ability to move around the West Bank; or displace
Palestinian families from their homes," he asked? Thousands of young
people chanted: no! no! no!
For Barack Obama, this was the voice of the people against
the occupation of the West Bank. But spontaneous reactions from students don't shape
policy, nor do they decide on concessions to the Palestinian Authority. This
was also understood by the residents of Ramallah: as Obama visited the
residence of Mahmoud Abbas, the crowd burned American
flags in the street. Almost at the same time, Hamas fighters shelled Israeli
villages near the Gaza border, and Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, in a televised
address, threatened to raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground. Whatever Obama
and his friendly audience may say, words cannot change reality.
The most important debate was taking place behind the
tightly-closed doors of Prime Minister Netanyahu's residence. On the agenda was
reaction to Iran's nuclear program, the rebellion in Syria, and the prospect of
renewing diplomatic ties with Turkey. Obama has repeatedly stressed that the
U.S. has and will remain an ally of the Jewish state. It is hard to predict to what
extent this is a diplomatic statement or a concrete commitment.
*With Polityka for the past 16years, Roman Frister
is the author of books translated into 11 languages. Arrested for sabotage as a
Solidarity activist in Wroclaw in 1982, he emigrated to Israel, where he was editor
of Haaretz newspaper and head of Tel Aviv University's
School of Journalism. He is also a long-standing contributor to Radio Free
Europe and BBC Polish.
