Take down “Peace-Processing-Is-Us” sign and just go home.
To would be peacemakers, Israel represents not the promised land but shoals to flounder on.
Why should the US want the peace process more than the parties? Peace will come only when the world leaves the Palestinians and the Israelis to sort it out.
(IsraelNN.com) An about-face in American liberal newspapers’ views of the Middle East reached a new extreme Sunday with The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman writing, “The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play.”
Most of the largest American newspapers in the past two decades have followed the Palestinian Authority policy that eastern Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza are “occupied territories,” the dateline usually used in their articles from those areas.
However, U.S. President Barack Obama’s switch of gears from the Roadmap Plan has left his policy in quicksand, according to influential newspaper columnists. The liberal Washington Post surprised observers this past summer with a number of editorials and op-ed articles highly critical of President Obama for driving up expectations in the Arab world by demanding Jews stop all building in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
The newspaper’s senior columnist Jackson Diehl wrote three weeks after President Obama’s “reaching out to Muslims” speech in Cairo, “How foolish it would be to squander it over a handful of Israeli apartment houses.”
Friedman, who once equated Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria with terrorists, wrote Sunday,
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“The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play….This peace process movie is not going to end differently just because we keep playing the same reel. It is time for a radically new approach. And I mean radical. I mean something no U.S. administration has ever dared to do: Take down our “Peace-Processing-Is-Us” sign and just go home.”
Echoing sentiments voiced for years by nationalists in Israel and in the Diaspora, the popular columnist added, “Right now we want it more than the parties. They all have other priorities today. And by constantly injecting ourselves we’ve become their Novocain. We relieve all the political pain from the Arab and Israeli decision-makers by creating the impression in the minds of their publics that something serious is happening. “Look, the U.S. secretary of state is here…. Look, I’m doing something important! Take our picture….
“Stay out of our lives. We have our own country to fix.”
Friedman’s “radical” approach was published two days before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is to meet with President Obama, whose administration is being blamed by many observers for the announcement by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that he will not run for reelection in January.
His announcement came after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly praised Prime Minister Netanyahu for “unprecedented” steps in reducing Jewish construction.
Friedman is right, for once. The Palestinians are not serious about peace. They refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist and continue to send rockets into Israel. Israel, also does not want peace and refuses to call a halt to settlement expansion. Friedman says, then, let the two sides keep doing what they always do if that is what they want till such time as they see fit to get serious.
Blame Obama? nah. The two sides did exactly what they continue to do under all the previous administrations, so blaming Obama is foolish. Do you seriously believe Israel is doing all it is to do to achieve peace? If so, your bias is showing. Most Americans I have discussed this with blame BOTH sides.
Comment by davidstill — November 9, 2009 @ 5:25 pm
Just curious davidstill, why is Peace between Israel and anybody else important to you? Why is it important to anybody if your not a Palis scum maggot, A rodent Syrian, Greedy Europeans and Americans? Why isn’t your concern for peace anywhere else in the world just as troubling to you as our conflict. Neither Israel or our Plais Cousins have any serious natural resources , we are both small insignificant entities economically and our global impact and influence is close to zero. So tell us why is it a concern for you or anybody else for that matter. Pakistan isn’t? N. Korea isn’t? Venezuela isn’t? Iran isn’t? Egypt about ready to be taken over by MB isn’t? Jordan succumbing to Hamas or Al Queda isn’t? Iran using shia Muslims to take over most of Saudi oilfields and Iraqi southern oil fields doesn’t?
Only insignificant Israel and a small tribe of Pali Arabs does? Beggers rational explanations unless you are a self hating Jew hater as well. Are you?
Comment by yamit82 — November 9, 2009 @ 7:18 pm
david , no doubt these so-called Americans are leftists. Who needs you back? Why don’t you and peskin stay away for good?
Comment by Laura — November 9, 2009 @ 11:40 pm
Again david , Israel surrendered Gaza, removed all its troops and civilians and was rewarded with rockets. If anything, Israel has bent over backwards for peace and with every gesture made, it has received more terrorism in response. So why don’t you crawl back into your hole and quit spewing these leftist lies and moral equivalencies.
Comment by Laura — November 9, 2009 @ 11:43 pm
I have deleted the name-calling.
Comment by Ted Belman — November 10, 2009 @ 6:51 am
But they deserved it, Ted.
Comment by Laura — November 10, 2009 @ 8:03 am