The lovely United Nations stamp represents how much the upcoming negotiations with the Palestinians are worth. Following in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, our current Peacemaker-in-Chief has invited Israel and the Palestinians (whoever they are) to the White House to reach an agreement to establish an independent Palestinian state.
Here's how it works. A Democratic president, in trouble with the electorate, brings together a real nation and a ragtag group of terrorists, they jaw for awhile, Israel agrees to major concessions, the terrorists make no concessions but plenty of demands, and the grinning Democrat gets a big boost for being a peacemaker. A peace agreement is signed. Shortly after the next American election, the terrorists realize they didn't make enough demands, begin killing Israeli civilians and blowing up buildings in Israel, then declare victim status when Israel defends its right to exist. Rinse and repeat. With friends like the Democratic presidents, Israel doesn't need any enemies.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama represents a nation and Netanyahu represents a nation. It's unclear exactly what Abbas represents, since there is no such nation as Palestine, and the "Palestinian Authority" is a magical creation of the United Nations pretending to be a nation, or a people, or something. One thing is sure. Abbas represents the group that replaced the former Fatah "government" of Yasser Arafat. Fatah was a terrorist organization. Abbas represents the new Palestinian Authority formed by Hamas, an organization that makes Fatah look like sissies.
Obama has already decided, publicly, that Israel has no right to the territories it has controlled ever since the first round of Palestinian terrorists made it necessary to expand Israel's security perimeter. He has already determined that those nebulous Palestinians are entitled to a nation of their own, carved out of Israel. And he has made it clear that he believes that about half of Israel's capital and historical heart should also go to the Palestinians. It also seems that along with the land, those rich Jews will be expected to come up with some kind of monetary reparations to the dirt-poor Palestinians.
Unlike Bill Clinton before him, it does appear that Obama has actually succeeded in getting the Palestinians to come to Washington to meet with Israel's top official. Very generous of them, I'd say. Particularly since everyone knows that Israel never negotiates in good faith and is nothing more than an oppressor of Muslims and Arabs. But maybe having "honest broker" Obama already stacking the deck in their favor gave them some impetus to show up at world citizen central.
The current plan is that they will follow the agenda set by shuttle diplomat former Senator George Mitchell. First, the president will meet with Netanyahu, then with Abbas. Then they will meet together with the additional honest brokers Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt, and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Mubarak and Abdullah are very much acquainted with the Palestinian problem since their countries played a major part in creating the problem. After telling the poverty-stricken and land-hungry Arabs of the newly-founded nation of Israel to leave the country while the Arab nations crushed the fledging Zionist entity, they miscalculated, lost the war big-time, and were stuck with the Palestinians. They re-created the problem when they got fed up with the violent freeloaders and sent them back to the border regions of Israel.
Obama knows that it is too early to reach a formal agreement. It's an agreement to agree. That way, the grinning messiah can say that he told them to "come now, let us reason together." Almost Biblical, isn't it? He needs to time it so that there are grandiose plans for peace that he can tout to the American people just before his reelection bid, but before a final agreement is reached which will ultimately fall apart during his second term (if such a thing happens).
Unlike the Camp David accords put together by Jimmy Carter and his peaceniks, further talks and negotiations preceding a formal agreement will take place in the Middle East, starting with Egypt. Abbas has made a preliminary statement regarding the talks, holding an olive branch in one hand and a club in the other: "We hope that the Israeli government would refrain from settlement activities, incursions, siege, closures and provocative acts like demolishing of homes, deporting people from Jerusalem in order to give this peace process the chance it deserves." Not exactly a demand for unconditional surrender, but it has the makings.
Abbas neglected to mention anything about missiles being lobbed into Israel from across the UN protected and promoted Palestinian Authority border. Mention of such a thing could cause reasonable people to think that Abbas's laundry list of suggestions to Israel was really just a dodge to prevent anyone thinking that Israel's actions might be simple self-defense.
Abbas does not actually represent Hamas directly. He represents the Palestinian Authority. Yet Hamas has the controlling interest in the Authority. His agreement to meet with Obama and Netanyahu has caused a rift among Hamas leaders. In Gaza, where most of the Palestinians are located, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuri said: "We consider the invitation and the promises included in it empty, and it's a new attempt to deceive the Palestinian people and international public opinion." Well, I have to admit that for once, I agree with Hamas.
Obama's spokespeople expect the initial round of negotiations to take at least a year, allowing for plenty of photo-ops and announcements full of hope and change for the Middle East. Despite her differences with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the front-woman for the talks, giving her an opportunity to succeed in putting together a worthless agreement which her husband was unable to accomplish.
I leave it to you to decide which is better. A signed agreement which will necessarily fall apart almost immediately such as that put together by Jimmy Carter. Or a failure to get an agreement out of the Palestinians such as the experience of Bill Clinton. Personally, if Obama were a movie actor instead of a messiah, I might be tempted to see this whole charade as a publicity stunt.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Oh, Brother. Here We Go Again
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8 comments:
good post, hawk. first let me say the stamp really pisses me off. Why Palestine more than say, oh, Iranian women, or non-sharia law anybody.
you are so dead on with the Democrat politician peace talk script. it never really works, of course, but buys political favorability for a while.
i never can quite understand why liberalism trumps israel for so many american jews, however.
LawHawk,
The difference here is Egypt willing to back Hamas? Last time they backed Palestine and then reneged on it. Then Sadat paid for it with his life. This time Iran is backing Hamas ... er Palestine.
Now? I think that nothing will go as planned. I think that it will blow up in his face shortly after Israel destroys one of Iran's Nuclear facilities.
Such destruction, however warranted, will put tensions into high alert and Obama going, "Humina, humina."
You know, this whole issue is such a mess, I honestly have no idea how to solve it -- especially with the rules the "world community" has set down for solving it.
The only thing that makes sense is to separate them all ethnically and then seal the borders. But of course, that would bring howls from the world community about the unfairness of deporting people and of not opening Israel's borders.
One thing I do know, Obama isn't going to solve this with his standard poke America's allies in the eye and then whine that they won't listen to him.
Tennessee: Funny you should mention it. Obama has done something that nobody ever believed could happen. He's reduced the percentage of Jewish voters who favor Democrats in the next election and indicators are that it won't change when he comes up for reelection. The large majority of Jewish voters remain with the liberals, but President Peacemaker has managed to alienate a considerable number, at least for the time being. The number of far left Jewish voters who believe Obama isn't liberal enough has remained predictably constant. But those who feel he has gone too far, particularly on Middle East issues has gone up for the first time in decades.
Joel: Israel is down to the wire on the nuclear fuel rods for the reactors. If it hasn't acted by tonight or tomorrow morning, it will be too late. Radioactive waste would be dispersed throughout the Middle East including Israel once those fuel rods go into place today or tomorrow.
It's easier to back the "Palestinians" rather than an identifiable group or nation. The only things "Palestinians"have in common is their former, present, and future presence in the Holy Land, their hatred of Israel which they claim is all attributable to Israel, and their unwillingness to work and progress, choosing rather to lob rocks, mortars and missiles into the homes of the offending Jews. So the nebulous fabrication of an oppressed "Palestinian people" is easier to pawn off on gullible Westerners than a clearly identifiable puppetmaster such as Hamas.
Andrew: There are probably multiple options and multiple combinations of options which would work, but I wouldn't even venture a prediction as to which might work. I only know the one that won't work--allowing a fictional "people" controlled by a terrorist organization (Hamas) and supported by all the Islamic dictatorships to dictate to Israel how it should set itself up for its own demise.
Now you're just being pessimistic Lawhawk!
Andrew? Me? Pessimistic?!?! Never. LOL
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