The Case for U.S. Peacemaking
August 13th, 2008 by Adam
Rami Khouri of the Daily Star expresses the need for the U.S. to involve itself in the Middle East peace process. Khouri says the U.S. can play a positive role by wisely using its diplomatic toolbox to assure that both sides can make the choices necessary for an agreement. Furthermore, acting on the peace process has a positive impact on many other American interests. Failure to engage in the peace process, Khouri says, “…as during the past eight years - contributes to aggravating multiple local conflicts and radicalizing trends throughout the region.”
Posted in Diplomacy, Mideast Peace Plan, US foreign policy | Comment »
Democracy For Peace
August 8th, 2008 by Adam
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Natan Sharansky and Bassem Eid suggest that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians requires democratic reform and an empowered civil society in the Palestinian Territories. The two suggest that Israeli and American passivity towards Fatah’s corruption and flattening of civil society allowed Hamas’ political rise and made peace unlikely. They suggest peace efforts not be based on who is ruling, but on how they rule. Sharansky and Eid conclude by saying, “It is high time that Palestinian civil society be fully recognized by the international community as a prerequisite to peace, not as an obstacle to it. If Palestinian civil society is not empowered, the Fatah-controlled West Bank may soon be ruled by Hamas, and Fatah leaders there may find themselves one day having to rely on Israel’s Supreme Court to save them.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Hamas, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine | Comment »
Convoluted Elections In Israel
August 7th, 2008 by Sarah
Bernard Gwertzman of the Council on Foreign Relations interviews Gerald M. Steinberg on Israeli Prime Minister Olmert’s plans to step down from office. Gwertzman illuminates the Israeli political scene, and shares insight into who may emerge as Israel’s new leader and why the electoral system is so convoluted.
Posted in Elections, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan | Comment »
Syrian Intentions
August 5th, 2008 by Adam
Alex & Qifa Nakbi at Syria Comment write on how Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can build up confidence in his intentions so that Israel-Syria peace talks are taken seriously by regional actors and are not undermined. One option would be to gradually implement political reforms so that Assad can lessen his isolation and make himself more palpable of a figure to the West. A second option would be to help push for a simultaneous, yet parallel Israel-Lebanon track. The final option would be for Syria to embrace the Arab Peace Initiative to smooth over relations with Saudi Arabia in order to limit their willingness to act as a spoiler.
Posted in Israel, Lebanon, Mideast Peace Plan, Saudi Arabia, Syria | Comment »
Palestinian Security Forces as a Move Towards Peace
July 23rd, 2008 by Sarah
Anthony Cordesman in an op-ed in the New York Times argues that the U.S. should help build a Palestinian security force in order to promote peace between Palestinians and Israelis. “Unless there are effective Palestinian security forces, Israel will never trust in a Palestinian state or be able to act on the quiet progress being made toward reaching a final settlement.”
Along those lines, Cordesman denounces the State Department for acting as a “key barrier to the first real step toward peace,” by preventing U.S. actors from “working in the field and developing critical personal relationships with Palestinian officers and officials.”
Posted in Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Military, Palestine, US foreign policy | Comment »
Undermining the Palestinian Movement
July 21st, 2008 by Adam
Omran Risheq at the Daily Star writes an interesting piece about how disillusionment with the Palestinian national movement and chances for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict have bolstered the political fortunes of Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami, a Salafist movement seeking restoration of the Caliphate. The party rejects modern conceptions of human rights and democracy, and has gained credibility with Palestinians as the lack progress on peace has undermined other groups’ ability to claim they can end the occupation.
Posted in Islamist movements, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine | Comment »
2008: Dennis Ross Joining Obama on Mideast Trip
July 17th, 2008 by Matt
Time magazine’s Massimo Calabresi reports on Barack Obama’s choice to have Dennis Ross accompany him on his Middle East trip, what Ross’ presence might mean to Arab and Israeli observers, and whether or not Ross might have a future role on Obama’s negotiating team for the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Posted in Election 08, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
The U.S. and the Israel-Syria Talks
July 15th, 2008 by Adam
Over at Syria Comment, they have posted excerpts of a position paper written by several prominent academics and diplomats about the U.S. role in Israel-Syria negotiations. The paper contends that the U.S. facilitate, and if necessary, join the Israel-Syria talks as without American assistance it might not be possible for painful concessions to be made on either side. However, they state that Syria must not assume that a new U.S. administration will necessarily embrace talks, as without Syrian accommodation on Lebanon and Iraq, it is unlikely the U.S. will be willing to spend the political capital necessary to help Syria recover its lost territory.
Posted in Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Syria, US foreign policy | Comment »
Syria’s Diplomatic Move
July 14th, 2008 by Sarah
Hussein Shariatmadari warns Syria of the negative impact that peace with Israel will have on relations with Tehran.
Meanwhile, Tony Barber in the Financial Times noted that the inaugural session of the Mediterranean Union was the first time an Israeli and a Syrian leader had been seated in the same room.
At the session, Syria announced that it would open an embassy in Beirut and Lebanon an embassy in Damascus for the first time since Lebanese independence in 1943. “Such a step would imply Syrian acceptance of the sovereignty of Lebanon.”
Posted in Diplomacy, Iran, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Syria | Comment »
No Peace Deals with Bush in Office
July 9th, 2008 by Sarah
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says his country is unlikely to make peace with Israel while George Bush remains in office. “Frankly, we do not think that the current American administration is capable of making peace. It doesn’t have either the will or the vision and it only has a few months left.”
Israel and Syria have already outlined an agenda for direct talks, if and when they occur, with Turkey acting as moderator.
Posted in Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Syria, Turkey | Comment »
World Opinion on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
July 2nd, 2008 by Sarah
WorldPublicOpinion.Org has released the results of their 18-country study regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Most favor the U.N. playing a robust role in peace enforcement, an even-handed approach to resolving the conflict, and negative reviews of Israel, Palestinians, the U.S., Arab Countries, and Europe.
For country-by-country summaries, click here.
For the full report, click here.
Posted in Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine, Public Opinion | Comment »
Reality Check in the Middle East
July 2nd, 2008 by Adam
Rayyan Al Shawaf in the Christian Science Monitor examines the recent events in the Middle East and advises a more sober outlook. The Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Israel-Syria negotiations, and recent events in Lebanon show that even though their are positive developments there are still a plethora of conflicting interests and mistrust amongst the numerous actors. Al Shawaf concludes, “Peace negotiations and cease-fires do not in themselves indicate anything more profound than the usual political jockeying. It is almost impossible to fit all the pieces together so that everybody gets what they want.”
Posted in Mideast Peace Plan | Comment »
POMED NOTES: Does the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Still Matter
July 1st, 2008 by Sarah
The Saban Center for Middle East Policy invited Shibley Telhami, a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center and Steven Kull, Director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, to discuss polls from the Arab world and beyond on attitudes towards the Israeli-Palestianian conflict. Both speakers agreed that public opinion supports a more even-handed approach by the U.S. to resolving the conflict. Martin S. Indyk, Senior Fellow and Director of The Saban Center, introduced the speakers and moderated the event.
For POMED’s full notes, click here.
Posted in Arab media, Event Notes, Hamas, Mideast Peace Plan, Public Opinion, US foreign policy | Comment »
POMED Notes: The Bush Administration and Middle East Peacemaking: The Final Six Months
June 30th, 2008 by Adam
On Monday the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars held a panel discussion regarding the future of Middle East peacemaking in the last six months of President Bush’s administration. Speakers included, Rami Khouri, Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Editor-at-large of the Daily Star, David Makovsky, Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and former U.S. Middle East Negotiator.
For POMED’s complete notes on the discussion, click here.
Posted in Diplomacy, Event Notes, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine, US foreign policy | 1 Comment »
Lebanese-Israeli Peace
June 25th, 2008 by Adam
In light of Israel’s recent offer to begin peace talks with Lebanon, Andrew Lee Butters looks at three crucial elements of any possible agreement. In order for there to be viable peace agreement there must be a solution to the Palestinian issue, peace between Syria and Israel, and an inclusion of Hezbollah in negotiations. To Butters this is highly unlikely as, “A state of war between Lebanon and Israel has existed for so long — since 1948 — and has become so entangled in the region’s problems, that only a regional solution will bring peace between the two countries.”
Posted in Israel, Lebanon, Mideast Peace Plan | Comment »
The Turn in Israeli Policy
June 24th, 2008 by Adam
Israel’s recent regional undertakings have been very effective diplomatic gambits, according to Marc Ginsberg at Huffington Post. “Israel has secretly accomplished more diplomatically in the past few months with its adversaries than anything that Condi Rice could have or would have brokered in years — a glaring testament to the ever-shrinking influence of the U.S. in the region…”
On the other hand, Martin Peretz, sees these negotiations as doomed to fail. Peretz asserts that Israel’s negotiations with Syria are a gift and that they are unlikely to produce anything tangible for Israel’s security situation. The Israel-Hamas ceasefire will also have negative consequences in that it emboldens Hamas while marginalizing Fatah in the West Bank.
Posted in Hamas, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine, Syria | Comment »
Who Wins With the Cease-Fire?
June 18th, 2008 by Sarah
Today, Israel announces a cease-fire agreement with Hamas. Daniel Levy at Prospects for Peace gives readers the ins and outs of the agreement, and suggests some regional consequences. “Part of the Israeli logic for exploring the cease-fire is to remove a possible card from the Iranian hand and decrease the possibilities of Gaza being used as an Iranian front against Israel.”
Zvi Bar’el of Haaretz argues that the cease-fire strengthens Hamas’s position vis-à-vis Fatah. “Abbas is expected to make his first visit to Gaza since Hamas seized control of the Strip last year…But now, Abbas will find himself facing a politically strengthened Hamas, one that has seemingly forced Israel to cave in.”
Shaul Arieli of the Daily Star argues that “the absence of serious Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the weakening of Fatah, a new American president, and Iran’s stronger position - will enable [Hamas] to enjoy the “fruits” of a cease-fire more than Israel.”
Posted in Hamas, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan | Comment »
A New Alliance
June 18th, 2008 by Sarah
Abbas Djavadi at Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty asks what will be the consequences of the Syria-Israel talks on the Syria-Iran relationship. “Turkish-mediated Israeli-Syrian talks have alarmed Tehran. The conservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan, which is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, argued that Syria should not give up a ‘strategic alliance’ for the sake of ‘an unimportant piece of land’ [the Golan Heights].”
Brain Ulrich at American Footprints agrees. “The only thing holding Syria and Iran together at this point is their enmity with the United States and Israel. In other words, it’s not just that making a deal with Syria would lead to a break between that country and Iran, but that the absence of such a deal is the only reason those two countries are together in the first place.”
Posted in Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Syria | Comment »
Myths of the Middle East
June 13th, 2008 by Adam
In a very intriguing article at the Middle East Strategy at Harvard, Martin Kramer questions the concept of linkage in the Middle East. Kramer states that we cannot look at the region as an interlocking system in which conflicts are all related to regional distributions of power. Our current views of the Middle East, according to Kramer, are projections of Europe onto the region, but he cautions that, “the Middle East is not analogous to Europe, it has multiple sources of conflict, and even as one conflict moves to resolution, another may be inflamed.”
Posted in Mideast Peace Plan | Comment »
2008: Obama at AIPAC
June 10th, 2008 by Matt
The speeches at AIPAC were probably the most important policy items that I missed while away, so I’ll address them briefly here, despite potential staleness (focusing only on Obama and McCain, as the general election so begins). Obama argued in his remarks that recent U.S. foreign policy has made Israel less secure by clumsily strengthening entities like Hamas, Hezbollah, the government of Iran, and other extremist organizations. For Obama, a solution is attained by: continuing large amounts of military aid to Israel ($30 billion over the next decade); a lasting two-state peace agreement with the Palestinians achieved in part by isolating Hamas (Obama opposed the 2006 elections that brought Hamas to power), championing Palestinian moderates (and asking other Arab states to do so as well), cutting off weapons smuggling through Egypt, and insisting that Israel live up to past agreements to improve freedom of movement, refrain from building new settlements, and aid economic conditions in the Palestinian territories.
All of these strategies would be accompanied by tough-minded engagement with Iran and Syria (which Obama elaborates on in more detail than I am aware of him doing previously) and a comprehensive energy policy that would help move us away from indirectly bankrolling many of the problems we are trying to fight.
At the Foreign Policy blog, Blake Hounshell wonders if Obama’s take on an “undivided” Jerusalem might come back to haunt him down the road.
Posted in Election 08, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine, US foreign policy, US politics, Uncategorized | Comment »
