Peace Plan Shadows Obama’s MidEast Policy Speech

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Barack Obama on Friday following trips to France and Great Britain. Netanyahu is trying to build Western opposition to the Palestinians’ bid for statehood before the United Nations General Assembly in September. British PM David Cameron and French President Nicholas Sarkozy both said they would support the statehood vote in lieu of renewed peace negotiations this summer. Netanyahu’ political rival, Kadima party head Tzipi Livni, said that the premier is unwilling to take the initiative.

Netanyahu’s White House meeting will follow Obama’s Middle East policy speech at the State Department on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama will likely announce mixed aid packages to stabilize Egypt and Tunisia. After his meeting yesterday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Obama announced hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the country through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.  Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine predicts, “It would appear a stronger intervention is being tabled until at least the summer and that another major diplomatic initiative will probably not emerge until after the next American election.” Aaron David Miller argues in Foreign Policy that recent developments have made negotiation nonviable; and that consequently Obama should focus less on public diplomacy measures, like a speech, and more feeling out positions behind the scenes. Martin Peretz of the New Republic writes that Obama’s Middle East policy is based on flawed assumption including decoupling Islamic theology and Arabic politics, American weakness and Arab deception.