Words of wisdom for Obama by Daily Star Editorial

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On the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Words of wisdom for Obama

by Daily Star Editorial

17 December 2009

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BEIRUT - If US President Barack Obama wants to make progress toward his stated goal of achieving a Middle East peace agreement, he can benefit from the valuable advice offered this week by two of America’s closest Arab allies. Both Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas aired their frustrations about the stagnant pace of the peace process in interviews published on Wednesday in the International Herald Tribune and the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, respectively. Both men also identified two facets of the same obstacle to peace.

For his part, Prince Faisal lamented the fact that peace has proven elusive throughout his nearly 35-year tenure as foreign minister. More interestingly, he identified one of the key reasons that this has been the case: “Absolute US backing … has made Israel see the option of living in the area without the acceptance of the people of the area.” It is important to note that the Saudi minister wasn’t talking about ordinary forms of military or economic support, but rather about America’s “absolute” backing for Israel, even when the country is breaking the law.

A fine example of the United States’ unlimited support for Israel has been its silent acceptance of Israeli settlement expansion, which brings us to the comments made on Wednesday by Abbas. The Palestinian president told Ha’aretz that he had informed his Israeli counterparts that peace negotiations could be completed within six months if only Israel would completely halt its illegal construction in the settlements. Abbas also suggested to Israeli leaders that such a freeze could even be carried out quietly “without even declaring” it.

True, Obama has declared his opposition to Israeli settlement expansion, as did successive American presidents year after year since 1967. But like his predecessors, Obama has been reluctant to go beyond empty speech and employ other methods of demonstrating America’s displeasure, such as altering diplomatic or military contacts or threatening a change in US aid. Nor has he moved to implement even simpler changes, like not allowing Americans’ contributions to illegal settlements to count as tax-deductible donations to charity.

America’s failure to act—not simply speak—on a clear-cut issue like settlements has undermined Saudi and Palestinian leaders like Faisal and Abbas who have shown tremendous courage by publicly supporting a peace agreement with Israel. Their Arab adversaries in the anti-peace camp argue that the statements of US officials about Middle East peace are just words aimed at facilitating Israel’s gradual conquest of Arab lands. And the Arab public, which has waited decades for a sign of real American action, has every reason to believe them.

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* This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from The Daily Star.

Source: The Daily Star, 17 November 2009, www.dailystar.com.lb
Copyright permission is granted for publication.


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