Monday, May 23, 2011

Poor President Obama, no one in the Middle East listens to him any more

President Obama yesterday spoke at the annual conference of the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and attempted to explain his speech of last Thursday.   In last week's speech President Obama had made clear that he had accepted the Palestinian position that any peace deal  between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on the 1967 pre-6 day war border between Israel and Jordan.  Yesterday Obama explained that this was because wanted a peace deal and this policy would be required to get the Palestinians to agree to peace.

However, Prime Minister Nentanyahu made clear last week that Israel has no intention of agreeing to peace based on 1967 borders.  This agreement would be unachievable and would result in an and indefensible Israel.  We can now clearly see that while Prime Minister Netanyahu will continue to work with President Obama to ensure a stable Middle East and to continue to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear programme, he has no intention of intensively striving for peace in what is now an unstable region.

Obama has also called for the Palestinian's to completely reject a negotiated peace deal with Israel.  The Palestinian's also are rejecting Obama's plea in this respect by forming a united government which includes the terrorist group Hamas, who continue not to recognise Israel.  Abbas also reacted to the speech this weekend by rejecting the plea by Obama not to declare a Palestinian State unilaterally, by saying that he still intends to request that the UN in September recognise the Palestinian State.

Obama's plan for peace therefore seems to be going nowhere and after 20 years of failed peace negotiations based on a negotiated two state solution, it is clear that some new ideas are required.  Hopefully Netanyahu will deliver these this week.

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