"It's one of these strange situations where we know what the answer is and the idea is getting people to it."From The New York Sun:
Gregory Craig, senior foreign policy adviser to Obama
OBAMA ADVISER: 'LAST CHANCE' FOR PEACEShmuel Rosner points out this comment by Craig--and gives a list of other famous 'last chances' in the search for peace in the Middle East.
A senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama, Gregory Craig, is arguing that the next four years may offer a final opportunity to achieve peace in the Middle East. "This is, maybe, a last chance this next term," Mr. Craig said at a foreign policy forum in Denver yesterday morning. "Not only a last chance for a president of the United States to be relevant ... but for the people in the region to reach an accommodation. ... It's one of these strange situations where we know what the answer is and the idea is getting people to it." Mr. Craig's comments suggest that if the presumptive Democratic nominee, Mr. Obama, wins in November, he would press quickly for talks among Israel, the Palestinian Arabs, and others in the region, such as Syria and Lebanon.
But if Craig really thinks that everyone knows what the answer is, maybe he could explain just what the answer is--you know, for the sake of those of us who are playing at home.
Is the answer to let Palestinian Arabs back into Israel?
Is the answer to divide Jerusalem--if so, along what lines?
How is Hamas going to be prevented from taking over the West Bank as it has Gaza?
How is a PA-controlled state going to survive considering the corruption and incompetence?
Please, Mr. Craig, tell us!
We are not so much facing a last chance as possibly Final Jeopardy.
Technorati Tag: Israel and Obama.
4 comments:
Everyone knows the right answers to the complicated situation in the middle east BEFORE they win the election. They simply forget them AFTER they win...
It may be a corollary of the problem in Israel where while running for office they claim they will not be pushed into concessions--and then after they get into office...
1) The right answer is the one clearly spelled out in the Bible: Israel is not to give up any legitimately gained (i.e., self-defense) land within the God-given boundaries, period. It's not complex, it really is simple. Fear God, not man. Trust God, not man's own understanding.
2) But what Gregory Craig was referring to by his "everyone knows" comment, is the answer that darn near everyone agrees on (w/the greatest exception being Christian Zionists) -- Jerusalem must be shared, not under exclusive Israeli sovereignty. Of course this is exactly opposite the Bible, but Israel and the Jewish community at large have allowed it to get to the point that this seems to be a done deal (until of course, the Messiah intervenes some years after the upcoming deal is made). Everyone complicit in this will be divinely judged, harshly. (Zech 12)
That's the problem: the US politicians who take up the cause of Israel cannot--or have no need to--be more right wing about Israel's territory than Israel is.
If Israel signals a willingness to negotiate away half of Jerusalem, no US Congressman or Senator is going to take a stand that Jerusalem must remain united.
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