Obama, Netanyahu Nosh for Peace

Sally Quinn
Yehuda Ben-Meir
Mustapha Barghouthi


"Usually the trashing of the national security adviser takes longer." - Sally Quinn

"I agree that Rush is the new face of the Republican Party. Oh, wait, I'm looking at the wrong end of the elephant." - hlabadie

A most important meeting is taking place today between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu over strategies towards an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. There will be no surprises, all of the elements have been put on the table for years. There are no innocents here, either, all parties have at one time or another been the reason for negotiations stopping. A good short history is in this link to a Jerusalem Post editorial. It shows how things are more complicated than they seem to us armchair political quarterbacks... The main sticking point won't be a two state solution, but what to do about the Israeli settlements created in former Palestinian lands. Israelis who call these areas home don't want to give them up, while the Palestinians who have been displaced by the settlements would like their land back.

Either Obama will be able to cool down Mr Netanyahu and convince him negotiations are the best way to go, or they will piss each other off and go away from the meeting sulking for days on end. Hopefully, cocktails will be involved... What could improve the situation immensely is if a more lenient person were to win the Iranian elections next month, who also sees that negotiations can give more power and worth to Iran as a regional player than bluster and a continuing nuclear program...

Jason Diehl sums up the positions in the Washington Post: "Obama's strategy hopes to draw Iran into negotiations over its nuclear program while defusing the polarization between an Iranian-led bloc, including Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah, and Sunni Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Israeli-Arab peace talks are central to this vision. By moving toward a settlement with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians, Israel could coax some of Tehran's allies to switch sides and isolate hard-core extremists.

Netanyahu, in contrast, sees Iran as a latter-day Nazi Germany with which negotiation is foolish and compromise unthinkable. He campaigned on promises to destroy the Hamas movement in Gaza and to reject the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. He also refuses to publicly accept the goal of a Palestinian state -- a stance he has not changed despite public proddings from Washington.

Today that divide can be papered over. Netanyahu could promise to explore negotiations with both Palestinians and Arabs, while Obama sidesteps Netanyahu's silence on Palestinian statehood; Israel could acquiesce in U.S. attempts at outreach to Tehran with the understanding that a campaign for tough new sanctions will begin if there are no results by the fall. But these facts will remain: For Obama, Netanyahu will be an obstacle rather than an ally in any push for Middle East peace; for Netanyahu, Obama stands in the way of the forceful action he believes is urgently necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

That includes military force. Contrary to what it would like Iran and the rest of the world to believe, Israel would not attack Tehran's nuclear facilities without U.S. consent. Militarily, it would be next to impossible; politically, it would be suicidal to flout the United States on a matter of such strategic importance. If there is armed action against Iran during the next several years, it will be because Netanyahu somehow persuades or compels Obama to overrule the prevailing judgment of the U.S. government, which is that an attack is not a viable option."

Then, once again, there is Pakistan. Over the weekend there was worrying that Pakistan is making more nuclear material to upgrade its arsenal, perhaps to turn the Swat Valley into the Swat Landfill, or it will turn over the new weapons to the Pashtuns when they take over the government this summer: "But Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira denied that assertion Monday.

"Pakistan does not need to expand its nuclear arsenal but we want to make it clear that we will maintain a minimum nuclear deterrence that is essential for our defense and stability," he said. "We will not make any compromise."

Pakistan, a desperately poor country of 170 million people, is thought to possess more than 60 nuclear weapons under a program that began when its traditional enemy, India, started producing them.

The advance of the Taliban has raised some concerns in the West that the weapons may one day fall into militant hands. A more likely scenario, analysts say, is that Islamists may infiltrate its nuclear facilities and get hold of nuclear knowledge and material.

"I want to tell the world in categoric terms that, with the blessing of God, Pakistan's nuclear assets are safe and will remain safe. No one, no matter how powerful and influential, eyeing on our national assets, will succeed," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said earlier, apparently referring to a common Pakistan belief that the United States wants to seize the country's weapons." Well, duh. We feel that some folk are too emotionally attached to their isolated religious beliefs, and those attachments might make them fling those weapons in the direction of every perceived infidel... We'll give them back, promise...

It's been a good week for the empowerment of women globally. Women have been elected in India, and Yemen for the first time, and now in Lithuania.From the NY Times: "The European Union budget commissioner, Dalia Grybauskaite, was elected Sunday as the first female president of Lithuania, the Baltic nation battling a particularly deep recession.

Ms. Grybauskaite, 53, a tough-talking former finance minister with a black belt in karate, ran as an independent candidate, enhancing her popularity in contrast to the main political parties, whose standings were undermined by the economic downturn and allegations of corruption.

With 96 percent of votes counted, she secured a little more than 68 percent support. Turnout was 51 percent, just above the 50 percent needed to give her a first-round victory and avoid a runoff. In Lithuania, the president is the head of state and formally appoints the prime minister and the cabinet." She seems to be inheriting more economic and social problems than Barack Obama, let's wish her good luck and good judgement...