Obama Needs to Make a Hard Choice

By Samia Khoury.

Unable to admit the failure of  US diplomacy,  Mr. Obama suggests a pause in the peace negotiations because “Israeli and Palestinian leaders are unwilling to make hard choices.”  Really Mr. Obama!!  You cannot be joking after all the compromises that the Palestinians have made since Oslo, when you were still maybe in college or working your way through your political career.  Just to remind you of  but a few of those hard choices that the Palestinians did take for the sake of peace and only peace:

1) As early as 1988 The PLO, the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinians passed a major resolution in its Palestinian National Council in Algiers  to recognize the State of Israel.

2) In 1993 the PLO representatives at a special meeting in Gaza for the PNC  and in the presence of Mr. Clinton, amended the charter of the PLO to abandon armed struggle.

3) With the signing of the Oslo agreement, the PLO acknowledged the State of Israel on 78% of historic Palestine

I am not going to delve into the absurdity of the Oslo  agreement.  But it was signed and the Palestinian National Authority that came out of this agreement could not have been more compromising on all issues regarding Israel.  The hard choices that Israel has been asked to take is to return to the Palestinians only the 22% of Palestine which it captured in 1967, and to stop grabbing more and more land for settlement building and expansion during the years of negotiations.   At the same time the hard core issues of borders, Jerusalem, refugees  and the  right of return were all deferred, and eventually shuffled under the carpet.

We are all keeping our fingers crossed regarding the reconciliation between Fateh and Hamas.  Against the ongoing onslaught of Israel supported by the US administration, and the inability of the Arab world to stand up against  what is happening, and especially  in Jerusalem, all the Palestinians are hoping that this reconciliation will be a hopeful step in the right direction.  It is no surprise to see how supportive the US administration is of  Israel’s reaction towards this reconciliation.  After all it is the US that put pressure on the Palestinian Authority when Hamas won a democratic election in 2006, and which was the beginning of this long era of in-fighting.

Yet how ironic it is that while the US and Israel were trying to prolong the period of negotiations beyond  April 29 despite the failure of Israel to meet its commitments, and especially regarding the prisoners,  Mr. Netanyahu so arrogantly announces the end of the negotiations, once the news of the reconciliation was announced.  And trying to be a little diplomatic, Mr. Obama is suggesting a “Pause” because “both leaders refuse to make hard choices.”  I think it is Mr. Obama himself who needs to made a hard choice, and stand up for international law and for the implementation of United Nations resolutions, and try for a change,  and before the end of his term to be an honest broker and truly earn  the peace prize which he won a priori.

Posted by Philip Giraldi on Apr 26 2014 . Filed under Commentary & Analysis . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . Both comments and pings are currently closed.