Posted on 01/02/2009 3:03:40 PM PST by BuckeyeTexan
WASHINGTON, Dec 18—During the campaign, President-elect Obama emphasized the need for greater diplomacy and a willingness to engage with hostile regimes. This commitment to “return to diplomacy” will not be enough to break the deadlock in the Middle East. Obama should break from traditional U.S. posture and support peace initiatives originating with Arab countries, urges a new paper by the director of the Carnegie Middle East Program.
Marina Ottaway explains that the United States lacks the legitimacy and capacity to monopolize leadership in the peace process. The new administration should signal its support for three key Arab undertakings: Syrian–Israeli negotiations under Turkish leadership, Hamas–Fatah talks brokered by Egypt, and the Arab–Israeli initiative most recently proposed by Saudi Arabia.
Key Conclusions:
Supporting Arab-sponsored talks transfers responsibility to regional players, who have not yet made the sustained efforts necessary to turn a proposed plan into a workable agreement.
By engaging in talks with Iran and Hamas, the United States would send a clear signal to the region—it is impossible to make peace without dealing with your enemies. If Arab countries want peace with Israel, they need to negotiate directly with Israel.
By sharing the burden with regional actors, the United States can avoid repeated diplomatic defeats. The Obama administration should abandon efforts to build a Cold War-style coalition against Iran. Despite enthusiasm about the new president, Gulf countries remain extremely vulnerable to attacks by Iran and have no interest in provoking one. The United States should support—but not initiate—a regional dialogue with Iran and its neighbors on common interests.
Ottaway concludes:
“The new administration needs to rethink the U.S. role in the politics of the Middle East, abandon the assumption that it must be at the center of every initiative, build on what the regional countries are trying to do, and, in the process, encourage them to take more responsibility. At a time when American solutions appear deadlocked and the new president will have to concentrate his attention on the economy, sharing the burden provides a way forward.”
Which Gulf countries, besides Israel, have been threatened by Iran?
What is “Arab-led” code for?
Don't worry, he will.
And it's all going to be bought with your tax dollars, Mr and Mrs America! Well, maybe the Euroweenies will kick in a few bucks, too.
It’s code for non-Persian. Iran is not an Arab country. They may all be mooslims, but they aren’t all Arab. AND they all want to be the supreme power in the area.
ROFL. Liberals are unbelievably dense. Stoooopid. Mind-numbingly moronic. After all that's happened over many decades this bimbo thinks that if the USA sends a "signal" to negotiate with enemies by kissing up to Hamastan and Iran, then somehow all the Arab govts. in the region will jump to negotiate directly with Israel.
Life doesn't work that way, and the Middle East most definitely does not work that way.
There is no Arab-led proposal of which I am aware that does not in the end require the destruction of the State of Israel.
It’s code for me a good Dhimmi, you infidel dog.
This article is insane - literally. The Carnegie ME Program is allowing the publication of shear gobbledygook in its name. The Saudi's are hardly moderate dispassionate intermediaries in anything regarding Israel. The Turks are not Arabs, and the Turks and Syrians have their own issues, both present and historical, including the fact that the Turks are not raving nutters like most of the Arabs they used to control. The notion of brokering anything between rival factions of the Palis is completely nuts since each party to that conflict is nuts - what Palestinian idiot claiming poverty spends lots and lots of money for not very effective rockets and then pops them off at the Israelis.
The idiots got this part right, at last, just what I have been saying for years: If peace is to come to Palestine/Israel it will come through the Arab Capitals, not Washington or Brussels. The rest, sadly, is regurgitated bovine cud.
New U.S. administration should support Arab-led peace initiatives
The assumption here by the writer is that the Arabs States really want peace.
Why would they? If those millions of under educated unemployed and socially stunted citizens in their Country’s did not have Israel and the US to wage war against on a daily basis they would likely end up turning on the Arab state leaders.
Barf on article... LOL..
An Arab-led peace initiative is when Arabs "promise" to kill fewer Israeli women and children in restaurants and on buses if Israel withdraws from everything while all Jews promise to commit mass suicide.
Peace in Islam is when we are all converted...or dead!
I am stricken by the truth of that statement. Not many understand the implication of those three words: “converted or dead.” There is no gray between the black and white of them. No compromise, no agreement.
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