Is Obama Serious about Arab-Israel Peace?

by Patrick Seale

Released: 5 Jul 2010

President Barack Obama’s meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington on July 6 may be his last opportunity to rescue the moribund Arab-Israeli peace process -- as well as his own reputation in the Arab and Muslim world. The two-state solution, to which he has repeatedly said he is committed, is already all but dead.

Can Obama act? His freedom of action is severely restricted by his preoccupation with the catastrophic war in Afghanistan, the struggle to check Iran’s nuclear programme, the faltering state of the American economy -- and by the demands of America’s Israeli ally.

In the Middle East, Obama’s foreign policy is hamstrung by a fervently pro-Israeli Congress, by powerful lobbies such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), by raucous voices in the media, such as the conservative Fox News channel, and by numerous right-wing pundits in Washington think-tanks.

The approach of the mid-term elections next November must also give him cause to pause. His advisers will tell him this is not the time to engage in a bruising contest with Israel and its many friends.

Yet, he will also have been told that unless he acts now -- unless he summons up the political will to confront Netanyahu -- the cause of Arab-Israeli peace is doomed, and with it all his attempts to affect a reconciliation between America and the world of Islam. Already, in many Arab and Muslim countries, the excitement created by Obama’s Cairo speech of 4 June 2009 has been replaced by increasingly bitter disillusion.

In Cairo, Obama had declared: “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world... America is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam.” Reality has turned out differently.

America continues to kill Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan and -- whether directly or through proxies -- in several other parts of the world. While the Palestine cause -- perhaps the only cause which truly unites Arabs and Muslims -- is in real danger of extinction.

George Mitchell, Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East, last week concluded his 20th round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders -- but with nothing to show for his efforts. Mahmud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, declared: “We haven’t received from Netanyahu even a single sign that might indicate progress.”

On the contrary, the Israeli Prime Minister has declared that settlement building in the Occupied Territories will resume in October, at the end of the very partial 10-month freeze to which he reluctantly agreed last November. Meanwhile, his extremist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called last week for the expulsion of the remaining Palestinians from Israel. Nir Barkat, right-wing Mayor of Jerusalem, has continued aggressive Israeli expansion in Arab East Jerusalem, seizing land and destroying Palestinian homes.

A report published this week by B‘Tselem -- the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories -- says that half a million Israelis now live over the Green Line. More than 300,000 live on the West Bank in 121 settlements and about 100 outposts, controlling 42 per cent of the land area, while close to another 200,000 live in twelve neighbourhoods on land annexed to the Jerusalem Municipality.

B‘Tselem calls for a real freeze on new and planned construction, an end to land seizures, and cancellation of the many benefits and incentives to encourage migration to the settlements. Eventually it wants an evacuation of all the settlements on payment of compensation to the settlers.

If Barack Obama were bold, we would adopt B‘Tselem’s proposals as his own, and insist on Israel implementing them or risk losing American military, political and financial support. This is no doubt a pipe-dream but, if Obama is ever to rein in Israel’s dangerous right-wing extremists, the time to do so is now.

There is much else for Obama to do. On the Palestinian side of the equation, he should authorise his officials to enter into contact with Hamas, in order to probe its readiness to enter into negotiations. Without the involvement of Hamas, there can be no hope of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Indeed, the United States should insist on the formation of a Palestinian national unity government to conduct direct negotiations with Israel under American and international mediation.

The American President has often said that he understands that peace cannot be restricted to Israel and the Palestinians, but must be “comprehensive.” There has, therefore, to be progress on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks as well.

Obama is at a delicate stage of his first presidential mandate. At home, he has won notable victories with major reforms of both healthcare and the financial system. He has reset relations with Moscow and he has persuaded Beijing to adopt a more flexible exchange rate policy.

But in the Arab and Muslim world his failure is more or less complete. He must stop killing Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He must persist in seeking a dialogue rather than a confrontation with Iran. And he must check and reverse Israeli expansionism. The next few months will show whether he can do any of these things.

Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East. His latest book is The Struggle for Arab Independence: Riad el-Solh and the Makers of the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press).

Copyright © 2010 Patrick Seale – distributed by Agence Global

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Released: 05 July 2010
Word Count: 845
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