In Israel, Obama has been regarded as the least
friendly U.S. president ever, and in the region the United States is perceived
as having lost both interest and clout. The result has been a power vacuum and,
with that, a dangerous escalation of tensions.
It
may be that Obama will have an unexpected triumph, comparable to President
Nixon's opening to China when he had been the vehement red-baiter. The chances
of the Palestinians achieving a state of their own look remote, but the
Israelis are in a mood to compromise if guaranteed the political, emotional,
and military support of the United States. And the Palestinian people, if not
the leadership, are more eager than ever to escape the confines of occupation
and rule by leaders who take huge sums of international aid and invest them in
bombs rather than books, in fear rather than food, and in elaborate mansions
for their own families.
The
United States is the only force capable of moving the parties to resolve their
differences. But that won't happen, yet again, unless the hard and brutal facts
on the ground are recognized. This first of two reports will describe the
arena, and next week's report will examine what it is that has so long
frustrated the best of plans.
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