The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to loom over President Obama’s foreign policy plans. Criticism followed recent meetings with regional leaders and a speech where he declared that a Palestinian state should be “be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”
But several key events over the last few weeks deter resolution in the region.
For one, there was the resignation of Special Middle East Envoy George Mitchell. Despite boosting the peace process in Northern Ireland, which led to the Good Friday Agreement, Mitchell was unable to change the stalemate shackling the Middle East conflict and effectively resigned.
Obama identified the Middle East peace process as a “national security priority” soon after his inauguration, but peace talks have been stagnant since 2008 and Mitchell had not been to the region since December.
More recently, there were the clashes on the Palestinian commemoration of the establishment of Israel, called “Nakba” or “the catastrophe”, which resulted in an exodus of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948. Though a yearly demonstration, this year saw Syrians and Egyptians protesting on Israel’s borders.
In addition, the recent surprise union between Fatah and Hamas has further deterred talks because both the U.S. and Israel do not negotiate with Hamas.
The lack of temperate Palestinian voices plagues negotiations and coverage of the conflict, despite the many moderate voices within the Palestinian Authority. Hamas remains uncompromising in its refusal to recognize Israel as a state, but is more often included in coverage reiterating that opposition.
It’s important to recognize, however, that Hamas, despite their union with Fatah, is “a minority partner in a coalition government,” said Stephen Zunes, a politics professor at the University of San Francisco.
Alan Elsner of The Israel Project pointed to this union and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent declaration of going to the UN in order to get recognition for a Palestinian state. However, Elsner said that is going in the wrong direction because a Palestinian state cannot be recognized without negotiations with Israel.
Obama spent a week meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, and then with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and delivering the speech which called for a return to the borders.
Zunes said that while Obama has been the first president to explicitly site going back to the 1967 borders, that’s something that has “been implied all along,” in negotiations.
Netanyahu called returning to the 1967 borders indefensible ,something Elsner said Netanyahu has believed all along.
The conflict has long been a dense subject, piled with double standards, unrelenting stances from both sides and deep rifts that are difficult to mend. All of this, however, does not begin to describe the emotional undertaking the citizens on both sides face everyday, something that is largely missing when leaders speak of the region.
In meeting with academics and government officials in the region regarding the conflict, Zunes said, “The expectations are pretty low at this point.”
Elsner echoed that statement saying, “I don’t expect there to be any negotiations anytime soon.”
“The problem is not that we don’t know what we’re doing,” Elsner said. “The problem is getting there. It’s very difficult.”
