The London Times reports that "the spokesman for President Abbas revealed that Mr. Obama had told the Palestinian leader that their conversation was his first with a foreign statesman since taking office...Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said that the talks with Middle East leaders underlined a 'commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term'.”
This symbolic gesture by President Obama is not good news. That he would choose the leader of Fatah for his first phone call is troubling. There are countries that have stood with us in our fight against Islamoterrorism and it would make more sense for those nations to recieve that first phone call rather than the head of an organization that includes the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
It is important to keep a careful eye out to see what exactly the Obama administration means when they say they are committed to "active engagement." Hopefully this "active engagement" does not come in the form of forcing Israel into concessions, as it usually does. Let us hope that this phone call is not a harbinger of things to come.
In terms of actual policy rather than symbolism, one can already see the beginning of "active engagement." The International Herald Tribune reports that the Obama administration is expected to announce the appointment of George Mitchell "as special envoy to the Middle East, an area where he has worked before. In the waning days of President Bill Clinton's administration he was appointed to lead an international commission to investigate the causes of violence in the Middle East. He released a report in the spring of 2001, during the early days of the Bush administration, that called for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism." A special envoy is useless when it comes to dealing with the conflict in the Middle East, and is even more useless when the envoy is a person that thinks Israeli settlements have anything to do with the current war. The withdrawal of every Israeli settler and soldier from Gaza in 2005 proved that settlements were not the cause of the Palestinian terrorism aimed at destroying Israel.
George Mitchell is credited with helping broker the peace in Northern Ireland. If Obama thinks the Palestinians are like the Irish, he has a lot of learning to do. The International Herald Tribune writes that "Mitchell became Clinton's special envoy to Northern Ireland and played a major role in the peace agreement reached in 1998 - and in getting the process back on track when it collapsed the next year. At one point, Mitchell took the Catholic and Protestant leaders out to dinner and ordered that they talk about anything but politics; eventually, the talk turned to opera. 'You know why I love opera?' Mitchell asked. 'When I go home and put on La Bohème, I know Rodolfo's going to sing the same words every time, and it gets me prepared to come back to Belfast because the one thing I know is that I'm going to have to sit here and listen to you guys saying the same thing over and over again every time.' His listeners were men with no history of enjoying being made fun of. But they laughed." I do not think the Palestinians are going to sit down with Mitchell and talk about opera. The Hamas charter declares that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." The Palestinian jihadists cannot be talked into making peace with Israel.
Mitchell is wasting his time, because he will not be able to convince Iranian-backed genocidal suicidal Islamists to make peace by sitting down at the negotiation table. On the other hand, that may not be his goal. His goal may be to try and pressure Israel into making further concessions. It may be to hold Israel back from defending her citizens. For now, let us remain optimistic. For all we know, opera talk may just be the missing ingredient to bringing about peace in the Middle East.
The appointment of a high-profile American envoy is not the only step Obama has taken. Barack Obama has drawn another contrast between his presidency and that of his predecessor when it comes to Israel. The Financial Times reports that "President Barack Obama urged Israel on Thursday to open its borders with Gaza" which "signalled the new US administration’s shift from Bush-era policy on the Middle East and the world as a whole. In a high-profile address on his second day in office, just hours after he signed an executive order to close the centre at Guantánamo Bay, Mr Obama proclaimed that the US would 'actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians' in the wake of this month’s Gaza war... Before Mr Obama gave his speech, an Israeli official said there would be tough conditions for any lifting of the blockade, which he linked with the release of Gilad Shalit, a soldier held captive by Hamas since 2006. 'If the opening of the passages strengthens Hamas we will not do it,' the official said."
Suffice it to say that the early indications of Obama's approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians are not promising.
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This symbolic gesture by President Obama is not good news. That he would choose the leader of Fatah for his first phone call is troubling. There are countries that have stood with us in our fight against Islamoterrorism and it would make more sense for those nations to recieve that first phone call rather than the head of an organization that includes the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
It is important to keep a careful eye out to see what exactly the Obama administration means when they say they are committed to "active engagement." Hopefully this "active engagement" does not come in the form of forcing Israel into concessions, as it usually does. Let us hope that this phone call is not a harbinger of things to come.
In terms of actual policy rather than symbolism, one can already see the beginning of "active engagement." The International Herald Tribune reports that the Obama administration is expected to announce the appointment of George Mitchell "as special envoy to the Middle East, an area where he has worked before. In the waning days of President Bill Clinton's administration he was appointed to lead an international commission to investigate the causes of violence in the Middle East. He released a report in the spring of 2001, during the early days of the Bush administration, that called for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism." A special envoy is useless when it comes to dealing with the conflict in the Middle East, and is even more useless when the envoy is a person that thinks Israeli settlements have anything to do with the current war. The withdrawal of every Israeli settler and soldier from Gaza in 2005 proved that settlements were not the cause of the Palestinian terrorism aimed at destroying Israel.
George Mitchell is credited with helping broker the peace in Northern Ireland. If Obama thinks the Palestinians are like the Irish, he has a lot of learning to do. The International Herald Tribune writes that "Mitchell became Clinton's special envoy to Northern Ireland and played a major role in the peace agreement reached in 1998 - and in getting the process back on track when it collapsed the next year. At one point, Mitchell took the Catholic and Protestant leaders out to dinner and ordered that they talk about anything but politics; eventually, the talk turned to opera. 'You know why I love opera?' Mitchell asked. 'When I go home and put on La Bohème, I know Rodolfo's going to sing the same words every time, and it gets me prepared to come back to Belfast because the one thing I know is that I'm going to have to sit here and listen to you guys saying the same thing over and over again every time.' His listeners were men with no history of enjoying being made fun of. But they laughed." I do not think the Palestinians are going to sit down with Mitchell and talk about opera. The Hamas charter declares that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." The Palestinian jihadists cannot be talked into making peace with Israel.
Mitchell is wasting his time, because he will not be able to convince Iranian-backed genocidal suicidal Islamists to make peace by sitting down at the negotiation table. On the other hand, that may not be his goal. His goal may be to try and pressure Israel into making further concessions. It may be to hold Israel back from defending her citizens. For now, let us remain optimistic. For all we know, opera talk may just be the missing ingredient to bringing about peace in the Middle East.
The appointment of a high-profile American envoy is not the only step Obama has taken. Barack Obama has drawn another contrast between his presidency and that of his predecessor when it comes to Israel. The Financial Times reports that "President Barack Obama urged Israel on Thursday to open its borders with Gaza" which "signalled the new US administration’s shift from Bush-era policy on the Middle East and the world as a whole. In a high-profile address on his second day in office, just hours after he signed an executive order to close the centre at Guantánamo Bay, Mr Obama proclaimed that the US would 'actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians' in the wake of this month’s Gaza war... Before Mr Obama gave his speech, an Israeli official said there would be tough conditions for any lifting of the blockade, which he linked with the release of Gilad Shalit, a soldier held captive by Hamas since 2006. 'If the opening of the passages strengthens Hamas we will not do it,' the official said."
Suffice it to say that the early indications of Obama's approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians are not promising.
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