Israel needs a peace plan

Barak Obama is not going to let go of his peace initiative, and is challenging Israel to come up with a plan... 

  

Obama and the peace initiative

03.06. 2009
http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000695.html
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Zionism & Israel Center http://zionism-israel.com

Despite all the hype about the US - Israel split, nobody really knows if there is one, as the Jerusalem Post and others have pointed out several times. Most of the supposed and rumored snubs never occurred or are unproven. Nobody knows what Rahm Emmanuel said or didn't say about Netanyahu or about linkage between peace and Iran, though rumors abound. A claim that the US was considering withdrawing support from Israel at the UN was quickly denied. A surprise meeting between Barack Obama and Ehud Barak seems to have gone well. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton's remarks about settlement expansion are certainly a matter of public record. The US is opposed to an Israeli attack on Iran, and this policy has not changed since the Bush administration. Since Avigdor Lieberman insists Israel has no plans to attack Iran, that is a point of doubtful significance at present.

If there is a "break," President Obama has thus far left the sparring to underlings and has been careful to maintain warm relations and make the right noises. The major sources of rumors about a break and pressure on Israel are extremists of left and right, who either want to show up Israel as an obstacle to peace, to show that the Netanyahu government cannot deal with the United States (Tzipi Livni is supposedly waiting in the wings) or want to generate partisan political propaganda in the United States. None of these points should be of specific interest for those who are worried about Israel as such.

What should Israel and the Israeli government do? "Just say no" is only going to accomplish the goal of those who want to isolate Israel and show that Israel is an obstacle to peace. There is a peace offensive underway, and as I noted in detail some time ago, peace offensives (see Danger- Peace Offensive) can be potent weapons for destroying the other side. Obama is rumored to be pressing Israel to come up with a peace policy by July - and that is precisely what Israel has to do.

Saying "Iran comes first" and nothing else is not an option for Israel. Nobody is going to listen if Israel is unresponsive to the US diplomatic offensive. The fact is, that nobody has a realistic plan for dealing with Iranian nuclear weapons, or for that matter, with North Korean nuclear weapons. The whole topic doesn't seem to interest Americans and there is not much that we, or the worried Asian allies of the US, can do about it. The North Korean nuclear test demonstrates that the way of diplomacy and quiet persuasion does not work, but the United States seems determined to stay on the same course, and there is nothing that any friend of Israel can do about it. North Korea was evidently building a reactor for Syria when they were rudely interrupted by an Israeli raid. But they tried once, and they will try again. If and when North Korea begins peddling nuclear weapons to terror groups and perhaps to Iran and Syria, the issue of Iran becomes secondary. At some point, some U.S. government is going to have to tear itself away from domestic concerns and face reality, but we cannot do much to change those ideas. We certainly can't do anything as long as our warnings look like lame excuses for not engaging in the peace process.

 

Continued Obama and the peace initiative