Are Both Bush's AND Obama's Approach To The Middle East Wrong?

That's the position taken in this analysis from JCPA:

The Obama Administration and Implications for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East

Scott Carpenter

• The Obama administration marks the return of a so-called "realist" approach and an intentional downplaying of President Bush's vision of an America that would use its power actively to advance freedom around the world. Few will lament the demise of Bush's "Freedom Agenda," which came to be seen as dangerous naivete which risked the stability of the region and with it Israel's security.
  
  
• The height of folly was the Palestinian elections in January 2006 when, in contradiction to the Oslo Accords, Hamas was allowed to compete and ultimately win without laying down its weapons. Too late, the administration recognized it could no longer take the risk of bringing potentially hostile forces to power through democratic elections.
  
  
• Unfortunately, neither approach addresses the structural and demographic time bombs in the region. A youth "bulge" requires the creation of 100 million new jobs by 2010, according to the World Bank. Yet if economic reform is to be advanced and sustained, democratic development must also take place.
  
  
• The U.S. government can use Arab governments' insecurity regarding Iran as leverage to encourage real reform. This is particularly true for Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia - now engaged in the ideological fight of their lives with Iran and its reactionary allies. Only by establishing a new bargain with these regimes that stresses the need for them to respect internal civil and political rights, while forging a joint response to the reactionary threat, can the U.S. offer a true alternative to theocratic and minority rule.
  
  
• This is not to say that democratic and economic reform need be the priority for the West, but it must remain a priority, if otherwise intractable problems which pose a longer-term national security threat are to be addressed. Allowing autocrats to continue to get away with inaction will simply make the coming tidal wave of Iranian-style revolutions larger and more damaging, placing Israel's existence in even greater jeopardy than it is now.
  

Scott Carpenter, a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs from 2004 to 2007. He served in Baghdad as director of the governance group for the Coalition Provisional Authority, where he initiated a wide array of democracy initiatives. Prior to that, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, involved in democracy promotion and human rights policy.

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The analysis appears to undercut Obama's approach to singlemindedly pursuing and 2-state solution, while justifying Netanyahu's economic approach and his stated intent of addressing the threat of Iran. At the same time, the approach does not actually rule out a second Palestinian statee--it merely addresses the necessary underlying issues that must be resolved first.

Technorati Tag: Middle East and Iran.