Arab Ultimatum To Obama--Just In Time For The Midterm Elections

Must be another example of Arab generosity:

Arab countries will give the US one month to find a compromise which can save peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians after negotiations stalled over the issue of Israeli building in West Bank settlements, AFP reported a diplomat at the Arab League meeting in Libya as saying on Friday.


The unnamed diplomat said that a resolution to be approved later Friday by the Arab League Follow-up Committee on the peace process calls for the US administration to be given "a one month chance to seek the resumption of negotiations, including a halt to settlement [building]."

The ultimatum of course is given not to Israel, the peace partner, but to the US--and to Obama, who has his eye on the midterm elections, which are also only 1 month away.

This is consistent with the unwillingness of the Arab side to sit down at the peace talks to begin with.

It is also consistent with the attitude that Abbas has been taking from the beginning, assuming that with Obama as president, all that Abbas would have to do is go to Obama with his list of demands and Obama would just force Israel to supply the necessary concessions.

It's only natural that Abbas and his friends would come back to apply pressure on the US instead of dealing with Israel.

The Arabs never demanded a settlement freeze as a precondition to talks--until Obama did. Obama also made US participation in these talks more direct, instead of insisting on the 2 parties sitting together on their own and hammering out the issues.

We see the consequences of Obama's miscalculations.

Technorati Tag: Mideast Peace Talks and Obama.