Obama Falls Short

by Adam Daifallah:

Unfortunately Obama’s approach to the peace process in Middle East at the State Department last week will only lead to a repeat of past mistakes, as well as making it harder for Israel to negotiate — especially if its partner is run by Hamas, a terrorist group committed by its charter to Israel’s destruction.

Obama’s speech, by focusing on attention on the minutiae of where future borders will be drawn, rather than more pressing issues – the development of Palestinian civil society, its economy and internal political reform, for example – fails to take into account what sort of failed state he is asking a democracy to negotiate with.. Until these bigger issues are dealt with first, squabbling over borders is futile, all the more as the central argument Israel has with other countries in the region has nothing to do with borders at all, but about their inability to tolerate Israel’s existence as a Jewish state at all – within any borders. Agreeing to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state within any borders is concept to which the Palestinians and the Arabs cannot possibly agree without being regarded as heretics and traitors by their own people.

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