Middle East Peace In Crisis Again.
Ahmed Hany
October 11, 2009
While the US strategists are occupied with their nightmares in Asia, and the US administration faces internal crisis over the health insurance system, President Obama tries to start the peace negotiations in the Middle East without the proper frame within which peace could have a chance. He still talks faithfully about peace in the region. However the region does not need preachers; it needs mediators who could devise solutions and impose them.
He said in the UN that the Israeli building settlements in the occupied lands are illegal. While he did not use the means the US has to oblige Israel to freeze settlements, he asked the Arabs to take steps towards normalization relations with Israel. In fact all settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are illegal, old and new. Freezing settlements expansion is a gesture of good intention but this does not mean that the Palestinians should accept what were built before. While the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused freezing the settlement that was requested by the US administration, the Pentagon sent troops for military exercise with the Israeli army.
When Mr. Obama invited President Mahmood Abbas and the Israeli premier, he should have formulated some decisions that facilitate restarting negotiations. When he asked them to negotiate then he wanted them to negotiate for negotiations; the same old vicious circle.
The US administration is hesitant to provide a framework or a plan to start negotiation because it face a fierce battle over its internal policies with the Neo Cons, not only about the national health program but also about the economic crisis, investigating torture in detention camps, strategies for Afghanistan and relations with Russia. Opinion polls show that Mr. Obama is losing his popularity and the Zionist lobby is pressing hard to tame his ability to take strategic decisions. However in the capacity of being the US president he has the authority to take decisions needed to safeguard the higher interest of national security.
The Israelis play the same old trick. They instigate Palestinians to start violence. This time is expanding settlements in Jerusalem so that the Palestinian Authority reacts nervously and while Israeli actions gives Hamas a cause to attack the authority and to fire rockets. The result will be another wave of violence that gives Israelis an opportunity to escape from peace obligations.
Most probably the Americans do not want to propose or to impose a solution until they finish their strategic revision. For the US any permanent solution in the Middle East should build a strong alliance in this region. The US, Britain and France gave Iran a period of two months to solve its nuclear file problems or face more sanctions. The result of their negotiations whether positive or negative will directly affect the Middle East file. As the US could convince Russians to press on Iran and to share in the proposed new sanctions, most probably the Russians will not object to the new American plan for the Middle East. The nuclear disarmament negotiations between the two superpowers may affect the nuclear files of the Middle East as a whole. As president Obama wants to see the world without nuclear weapons, and then there is an opportunity that the Israeli nuclear file would be discussed.
The Arabs should devise a policy that gives them the ability to regain initiative. The Egyptian proposal of evacuating the Middle East of the nuclear weapons should be part of the Middle East solution. The subject of building security for all in the Middle East is a suitable step that the Arabs may take to have a role in the American proposal of solving the Palestinian problems and to have a role in the American-Iranian talks.
The great powers were supposed to negotiate with Iran in Turkey. Suddenly Geneva was chosen for this negotiation. This shows the Western intentions of balancing powers in the Middle East. In other words the Western powers want to balance forces in the region.
The Arabs should be increase pressure on Israel by more activating investigations on war crimes against Israeli leaders who ordered their soldiers to kill civilians. A media campaign should be directed towards the Israeli soldiers and officers to tell them that war crimes will be prosecuted as a part of the solution and the Arabs should insist on that.
Settlers should know that they will pay compensations for destroying lands and homes of Palestinians and those who killed Palestinians should be tried. The Israeli government should know that any destruction of Aqsa mosque means the end of the peace process.
Still the Arabs have two peaceful options. The first is to declare the Palestinian State and to recognize it and asking to world to do so. The second is the One-State solution that creates a democratic secular state for two nations.
The most serious development that Arabs should avoid is having two types of orators, resistance orators that block solutions and peace orators that lecture on them from Washington while the Israelis confiscate more Palestinian lands. The Two-State solution will not have a chance if there will not be two states soon otherwise a strategic shift towards the One-State solution may be the practical one.
He said in the UN that the Israeli building settlements in the occupied lands are illegal. While he did not use the means the US has to oblige Israel to freeze settlements, he asked the Arabs to take steps towards normalization relations with Israel. In fact all settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are illegal, old and new. Freezing settlements expansion is a gesture of good intention but this does not mean that the Palestinians should accept what were built before. While the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused freezing the settlement that was requested by the US administration, the Pentagon sent troops for military exercise with the Israeli army.
When Mr. Obama invited President Mahmood Abbas and the Israeli premier, he should have formulated some decisions that facilitate restarting negotiations. When he asked them to negotiate then he wanted them to negotiate for negotiations; the same old vicious circle.
The US administration is hesitant to provide a framework or a plan to start negotiation because it face a fierce battle over its internal policies with the Neo Cons, not only about the national health program but also about the economic crisis, investigating torture in detention camps, strategies for Afghanistan and relations with Russia. Opinion polls show that Mr. Obama is losing his popularity and the Zionist lobby is pressing hard to tame his ability to take strategic decisions. However in the capacity of being the US president he has the authority to take decisions needed to safeguard the higher interest of national security.
The Israelis play the same old trick. They instigate Palestinians to start violence. This time is expanding settlements in Jerusalem so that the Palestinian Authority reacts nervously and while Israeli actions gives Hamas a cause to attack the authority and to fire rockets. The result will be another wave of violence that gives Israelis an opportunity to escape from peace obligations.
Most probably the Americans do not want to propose or to impose a solution until they finish their strategic revision. For the US any permanent solution in the Middle East should build a strong alliance in this region. The US, Britain and France gave Iran a period of two months to solve its nuclear file problems or face more sanctions. The result of their negotiations whether positive or negative will directly affect the Middle East file. As the US could convince Russians to press on Iran and to share in the proposed new sanctions, most probably the Russians will not object to the new American plan for the Middle East. The nuclear disarmament negotiations between the two superpowers may affect the nuclear files of the Middle East as a whole. As president Obama wants to see the world without nuclear weapons, and then there is an opportunity that the Israeli nuclear file would be discussed.
The Arabs should devise a policy that gives them the ability to regain initiative. The Egyptian proposal of evacuating the Middle East of the nuclear weapons should be part of the Middle East solution. The subject of building security for all in the Middle East is a suitable step that the Arabs may take to have a role in the American proposal of solving the Palestinian problems and to have a role in the American-Iranian talks.
The great powers were supposed to negotiate with Iran in Turkey. Suddenly Geneva was chosen for this negotiation. This shows the Western intentions of balancing powers in the Middle East. In other words the Western powers want to balance forces in the region.
The Arabs should be increase pressure on Israel by more activating investigations on war crimes against Israeli leaders who ordered their soldiers to kill civilians. A media campaign should be directed towards the Israeli soldiers and officers to tell them that war crimes will be prosecuted as a part of the solution and the Arabs should insist on that.
Settlers should know that they will pay compensations for destroying lands and homes of Palestinians and those who killed Palestinians should be tried. The Israeli government should know that any destruction of Aqsa mosque means the end of the peace process.
Still the Arabs have two peaceful options. The first is to declare the Palestinian State and to recognize it and asking to world to do so. The second is the One-State solution that creates a democratic secular state for two nations.
The most serious development that Arabs should avoid is having two types of orators, resistance orators that block solutions and peace orators that lecture on them from Washington while the Israelis confiscate more Palestinian lands. The Two-State solution will not have a chance if there will not be two states soon otherwise a strategic shift towards the One-State solution may be the practical one.
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