Obama's Peace Plan

[dayag]

Jim Jones (no friend of Israel) is brewing us up some Koolade:

Despite recent turbulence in U.S. relations with Israel, President Obama is "seriously considering" proposing an American peace plan to resolve the Palestinian conflict, according to two top administration officials.

"Everyone knows the basic outlines of a peace deal," said one of the senior officials, citing the agreement that was nearly reached at Camp David in 2000 and in subsequent negotiations. He said that an American plan, if launched, would build upon past progress on such issues as borders, the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem. The second senior official said that "90 percent of the map would look the same" as what has been agreed in previous bargaining...

"Incrementalism hasn't worked," continued the second official, explaining that the United States cannot allow the Palestinian problem to keep festering -- providing fodder for Iran and other extremists. "As a global power with global responsibilities, we have to do something." He said the plan would "take on the absolute requirements of Israeli security and the requirements of Palestinian sovereignty in a way that makes sense."

The White House is considering detailed interagency talks to frame the strategy and form a political consensus for it. The second official likened the process to the review that produced Obama's strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said the administration could formally launch the Middle East initiative by this fall...

Obama's attention was focused by a March 24 meeting at the White House with six former national security advisers. The group has been meeting privately every few months at the request of Gen. Jim Jones, who currently holds the job. In the session two weeks ago, the group had been talking about global issues for perhaps an hour when Obama walked in and asked what was on people's minds.

Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser for presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, spoke up first, according to a senior administration official. He urged Obama to launch a peace initiative based on past areas of agreement; he was followed by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser for Jimmy Carter, who described some of the strategic parameters of such a plan.

Support for a new approach was also said to have been expressed by Sandy Berger and Colin Powell, who served as national security advisers for presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, respectively. The consensus view was apparently shared by the other two attendees, Frank Carlucci and Robert C. McFarlane from the Reagan years.

The fact that Obama is weighing the peace plan marks his growing confidence in Jones, who has been considering this approach for the past year. But the real strategist in chief is Obama himself. If he decides to launch a peace plan, it would mark a return to the ambitious themes the president sounded in his June 2009 speech in Cairo.

A political battle royal is likely to begin soon, with Israeli officials and their supporters in the United States protesting what they fear would be an American attempt to impose a settlement and arguing to focus instead on Iran. The White House rejoinder is expressed this way by one of the senior officials: "It's not either Iran or the Middle East peace process. You have to do both."

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...040602663.html

[danholo]

So what is "Obama's Peace Plan"? How can there even be one...? Well, at least he has a plan, unlike us here, who are headed for war.

[Madeline]

So what is "Obama's Peace Plan"? How can there even be one...? Well, at least he has a plan, unlike us here, who are headed for war.

I have one frightening idea on how BHO wants to bring "Peace" to the ME, but its too horrible to go there really.
Just don't trust anything that comes from his administration via Russia,China or Iran.

[dayag]

It will be interesting to see if Netanyahu complies with the American request, especially since the Central Command is opposed.

The army has drawn up plans to withdraw to pre-intifada lines in the West Bank, if ordered to do so by the government, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Such a withdrawal was one of the demands that US President Barack Obama made to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House last month.

The demand refers to the positions the IDF held when the second intifada erupted in late 2000, before the army swept into all the Arab towns and cities in the West Bank. It maintains a presence on the outskirts of many of them today.

“The IDF has plans for this possibility and is prepared for a scenario that Israel will approve the American demand and decide to pull back to pre-intifada lines,” a top defense official told the Post recently.

The Post has learned that the IDF brass, particularly the Central Command, have recommended not carrying out such a withdrawal.

“The IDF’s freedom to operate everywhere is extremely important in keeping terrorism down to a minimum,” the senior defense official said.

As proof, the official referred to a recent IDF operation in Jenin, during which troops arrested two top Islamic Jihad operatives. Operations in Jenin are still carried out, the official said, despite the “Jenin Model” program that saw the deployment of US-trained PA forces in the city and Israel’s decision to scale back its operations.

“We still operate there whenever we believe there is a threat,” the official said.

In addition to the IDF withdrawal, Obama has asked Netanyahu to extend the 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction which the cabinet approved and which is set to expire in late September.

He also asked Netanyahu to stop Jewish construction in east Jerusalem and to release Fatah prisoners in a goodwill gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Netanyahu has yet to respond to the list, which is often reported in the media but has never been formally publicized by the White House or the Prime Minister’s Office.

Last week, however, Netanyahu met several times with his inner cabinet of seven ministers.

Completion of the withdrawal plans comes in advance of a much-anticipated visit by US special envoy George Mitchell. As of press time, however, neither the State Department nor the Prime Minister’s Office had a date for that visit.

On Monday, in a lengthy interview with ABC, Netanyahu set down his “red lines” when it came to US or Palestinian demands.

“To stop all construction – Jewish construction in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem – is totally, totally a nonstarter,” said Netanyahu.

In Jerusalem Tuesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman rejected any attempt to divide the capital city by giving control of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians. He said Jerusalem must remain in Israel’s hands.

“It cannot be divided directly or indirectly. It is our eternal city,” Lieberman declared.

Still, Netanyahu told ABC that “the issue of Jerusalem... will be discussed in the final settlement and negotiations.”

It would be a mistake, he said, to halt construction in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem prior to talks. Such a demand prevents peace, Netanyahu said.

source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=173568

[curlyg]

Obama has 0 credibility with either side. He promised to extract concessions from the Arabs to reciprocate Israeli concessions - but that has completely disappeared from the agenda, and meanwhile the list of Israeli "good will gestures" just keeps on growing. Now neither the Jews nor the Arabs believe that this man's word is worth anything - both sides will try to maneuver and exploit him instead of actually negotiating in good faith.

I don't think we have seen this level of sheer incompetence and plain old stupidity since the Carter presidency.

[Madeline]

Obama has 0 credibility with either side. He promised to extract concessions from the Arabs to reciprocate Israeli concessions - but that has completely disappeared from the agenda, and meanwhile the list of Israeli "good will gestures" just keeps on growing. Now neither the Jews nor the Arabs believe that this man's word is worth anything - both sides will try to maneuver and exploit him instead of actually negotiating in good faith.

I don't think we have seen this level of sheer incompetence and plain old stupidity since the Carter presidency.

In addition to incompetence and lacking in credibility, he is also very naive in thinking that his condescending cockiness will lead to anything even remotely resembling peace.
He's playing into the hands of tyrants, and they are eating it up.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137133

housands of Americans are preparing to protest in New York this Sunday against the Obama administration's increasing hostility towards Israel. The event is scheduled to take place outside the Israel Consulate on Sunday, April 25 at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Beth Gilinsky, head of the Jewish Action Alliance that is sponsoring the event, said, "We are outraged that President [Barack] Obama is scapegoating Israel and wants to expel Jews from their homes in Jerusalem. President Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton show more anger about a Jewish family building a home in Jerusalem than Iran building a nuclear bomb," she added.
Gilinsky was referring to the brouhaha that ensued following a mis-timed announcement that the fourth stage of a seven-year plan for a housing project in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem had been approved by Israel's Interior Ministry.
The announcement, made during a visit to the region by Vice President Joe Biden, led to weeks of recriminations and condemnations by U.S. officials, beginning with an immediate, harsh condemnation from Biden himself. Less than 24 hours after he left the country, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to scold him for having embarrassed the vice president and the Obama administration, and delivered a list of concessions and demands Israel was expected to fulfill in response. Other Obama officials followed with statements of criticism of their own.
Not one U.S. official at the time made mention of the formal government ceremony held by the Palestinian Authority during Biden's visit -- the naming of a public square in Ramallah to honor Dalah Mughrabi, the terrorist who led an attack that came to be known as the Coastal Road Massacre. In 1978, Mughrabi and her band of terrorists hijacked a tour bus on the coastal highway, murdering 37 innocent civilians and wounding 71 others, including more than a dozen children.
On the night that PA officials gathered to honor Mughrabi, Biden was delivering a speech at Tel Aviv University in which he repeated his condemnation of Israel for proceeding with the three-year-old housing project in a part of the nation's capital restored to Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, and thus not recognized by the U.S. government. American officials followed up a day later, when Biden had left the country, with more harsh criticism of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his government.
“Vast segments of the Jewish community will not tolerate the president's continuing attacks on Israel. Grassroots Jewry will not be silent,” Gilinsky vowed. A long list of Jewish organizations as well as a number of Christian and other non-Jewish groups have signed on to the event as well.
The demonstration will also feature a taped statement by former New York City mayor Ed Koch, a strong supporter of Obama's presidential campaign. Koch recently expressed his shock and disappointment with the increasing anti-Israel views expressed by the president and the increasing hostility of his administration towards the Jewish State.
Among the organizations who have officially endorsed the upcoming rally are:
AISH Center
Americans for a Safe Israel
Artists 4 Israel
Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
Christians and Jews United for Israel
Coalition for Israel
Crown Heights Women for the Security and Integrity of Israel
Dr. Joseph Frager, Jerusalem Reclamation Project
NY Assemblyman Dov Hikind
IsraelAlive
Israel Day Concert in the Park
Jewish Political Education Foundation
Dr. Michael Ledeen, Center for Defense of Democracies
Unity Coalition for Israel
Dr. Herbert London, The Hudson Institute
AMCHA, Coalition for Jewish Concerns
Stand With Us
Endowment for Middle East Truth
World Committee for the Land of Israel
Zionist Organization of America
Z Street
More information is available by contacting Ronn Torossian in New York at 212-999-5585. (IsraelNationalNews.com)

[Madeline]

Y'all caught this one too, I am sure. I had posted it somewhere else before.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmi...l_letter.html#

[dayag]

From a letter from Pres. Obama to Alan Solow, the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations:

"I am deeply committed to fulfilling the important role the United States must play for peace to be realized, but I also recognize that in order for any agreement to endure, peace cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be negotiated directly by the leaders who are required to make the hard choices and compromises that take on history.

"We are determined to help them, particularly because the status quo does not serve the interests of Israel, the Palestinians, or the United States."

source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...879473,00.html

[curlyg]

Generally I agree with that statement. I don't think most of us are opposed to American mediation of peace talks per se, or even some American pushing and prodding when necessary, but Obama's approach has been completely unbalanced and unfair and coloured by his desire to curry favour with the Muslim world and Arab dictators. Nothing good will come of it unless we see a real change in his approach.

[Madeline]

Generally I agree with that statement. I don't think most of us are opposed to American mediation of peace talks per se, or even some American pushing and prodding when necessary, but Obama's approach has been completely unbalanced and unfair and coloured by his desire to curry favour with the Muslim world and Arab dictators. Nothing good will come of it unless we see a real change in his approach.

On the other hand, why would any Country not be offended by having most of the world meddle in what isn't their business?
We are sending so many mixed messages, its not funny anymore.

[dayag]

When the Palestinians read this, they will hold fast and make no concessions in the hopes that this international summit will give them everything they want. Obama has just guaranteed the proximity talks will fail. Might that be his real goal?

U.S. President Barack Obama has told several European leaders that if Israeli-Palestinian talks remain stalemated into September or October, he will convene an international summit on achieving Mideast peace, senior Israeli officials told Haaretz on Thursday.

The officials said the conference would be run by the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers - the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia - in a bid to forge a united global front for creating a Palestinian state. The summit, they said, would address such core issues as borders, security arrangements, Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166413.html