Next step for Obama, Netanyahu

The failure of the UN-led Syrian talks in Geneva last week between representatives of the Syrian regime led by Bashar Assad and a segment of the Syrian opposition was a fireball that scorched all parties, far and near, particularly the Obama administration, which is now intensely searching for the next step.

It has now been three years since the civil war was unleashed in Syria, taking the lives of 140,000 civilians and making millions homeless. Many took refuge in neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, and there is little hope that they will be going back to their homeland in the near future.

The headline in one opinion column in The Washington Post said “Don’t just sit there”, addressing President Barak Obama who is known to reject any military intervention overseas after the failure the Americans encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Three years into the war,” wrote Richard Cohen, a Washington Post columnist, “and the president wants a plan”.

He said that Washington’s dawdling has become the hallmark of Obama’s foreign policy.

“He can make all the speeches he wants, but his confusion and indecision is what other leaders notice and what history will remember. Now, so very late, he has asked for options. Here’s one: Do something!”

But The Washington Post columnist had no suggestions himself.

This reminded me of the president’s speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009, when he pledged to seek “a new beginning” between the United States and the Muslim world, assumedly the Middle East, which has been rocked by the Arab-Israeli conflict and, more particularly, the unyielding Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967.

Although Secretary of State John Kerry has committed a lot of his time in a difficult bid to find a satisfactory resolution to the Israeli-Arab problem, the failure of the Obama administration to twist Israel’s arms has been as disappointing as Israel’s failure to extend any gestures to the Palestinians.

Israeli policies and actions, including the possession of a nuclear arsenal and chemical weapons, the establishment of hundreds of illegal settlements on Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank and continued mistreatment of Palestinians are damning.

A shocking case this week has been Israel’s refusal to allow hundreds of Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip to cross into Israel or the West Bank for urgent medical treatment because their applications bore the logo “State of Palestine” rather than “Palestinian Authority”.

The logo has been used on all official Palestinian documents ever since the Palestinians won the status of non-member observer state for Palestine at the United Nations, on November 29, 2012, against vehement Israeli objections.

In another offensive episode this week, Israel’s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who is also in charge of Jerusalem and diaspora affairs, and head of the right-wing political party “The Jewish Home”, warned that the Israeli government may try to assume a greater degree of control over the highly contested Temple Mount, better known as the ancient Al Aqsa Mosque, a move Israeli has decided to forego for now.

On the other hand, a “conciliatory” tone was voiced this week by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who was, for the first time, addressing some 300 young Israeli activists at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.

He assured his audience that he has no intention of flooding Israel with Palestinian refugees, a step described by The Associated Press as “his most ambitious attempt yet to directly influence Israeli public opinion over the heads of a largely hardline Israeli leadership”.

 “I am not looking to drown Israel with millions of refugees to change its nature. We want to put the problem on the table and find a creative solution … you will be satisfied and we will be satisfied.”

In 1948, some 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes during the war that ended with the establishment of Israel.

Palestinians nowadays number over five million, mostly located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and within Israel.

The students applauded Abbas when he insisted that there was no alternative to making peace.

The Palestinian news media, reported The Washington Post, described the well-publicised event, which was “rare in its scope, as part of Mr Abbas’ outreach effort towards Israelis”.

Pamphlets detailing the Palestinian negotiating position in Hebrew were placed on chairs in the reception hall before the Israeli guests arrived.

The Post reported: “The student and youth leaders were said to represented all regions and political views in Israel, though many of them appeared sympathetic towards Mr Abbas’ remarks. There was no heckling.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit President Barack Obama next, and one wonders whether the two may consider revising their unpopular stances in the region. 

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.