“A new start with the Muslim world, as pledged by President Obama in his inaugural speech, has a sine qua non,” writes veteran political analyst Arnaud de Borchgrave: “a Palestinian settlement, a quest that has eluded the last five U.S. presidents. Following Israel’s invasion of Gaza and its 22-day campaign of airstrikes, tank and artillery bombardment that left 1,300 Palestinians killed for the loss of only 13 Israeli soldiers, a Palestinian state remains a diplomatic chimera.
“Peace Now activists to the contrary, the perennial Israeli-Palestinian crisis is one Obama can afford to leave in the hands of the diplomatic pros who have built careers on the “Mideast peace process.” Following the Feb. 10 elections, Israel’s next prime minister is likely to be Binyamin Netanyahu, the 59-year-old Likud leader who will spare no effort to prevent the emergence of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
“For Palestinians, even the most moderate ones, a Palestinian state must have as its capital Arab East Jerusalem, anathema to an overwhelming majority of Israelis. Obama, therefore, should resist being drawn into what will remain a quagmire as far as anyone can see into the future.
Read Arnaud de Borchgrave’s complete editorial at upi
Tags: Barack Obama, Envoy, Gaza, George Mitchell, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Middle East, Obama, Palestine, Palestinians, Policy
The Pentagon Brief 
January 25, 2009 at 12:14 pm
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