Does Obama Really Support The Saudi Peace Plan? (Updated)

I suppose that depends on what you think of Uzi Mahnaimi's article in The Sunday Times. Mahnaimi writes:

Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, according to sources close to America’s president-elect.

Obama intends to throw his support behind a 2002 Saudi peace...

Uzi Mahnaimi has written a number of such newsbreaking articles--a number of which have had their accuracy questioned.

In May 2006, Mahnaimi wrote:

A HAMAS plot to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been thwarted after he was tipped off by Israeli intelligence.

Hamas’s military wing, the Izza Din Al-Qassem, had planned to kill Abbas at his office in Gaza, intelligence sources said.

A spokesman for the Al-Qassem Brigades denied the report and a representative of the Palestinian Legislative Council denied the report did as well.

Well, I guess you'd expect them to deny the plot.

But in July 2005 there was an article entitled "Finger points to British intelligence as al-Qaeda websites are wiped out" which quoted Mahnaimi as one of its sources. In response, Yigal Carmon, head of MEMRI, called Mahnaimi's part in it 'not credible.'

In another article for the Sunday Times, Mahnaimi wrote in July 2004 about Israel's impending attack on Iran:

Amid growing concern in the US government over Iran's apparent determination to build a nuclear bomb, the official said he believed Israel would attack the plant, on the Gulf coast, if it appeared fuel rods were about to be shipped there.

In December 2005, Mahnaimi wrote a similar article entitled Israel readies forces for strike on nuclear Iran:

Israel's armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.

Three years later, and so far--nothing.

In 1998, Mahnaimi wrote what may be his most controversial article (scroll down):

Israel Planning 'Ethnic' Bomb as Saddam Caves In

ISRAEL is working on a biological weapon that would harm Arabs but not Jews, according to Israeli military and western intelligence sources.

The weapon, targeting victims by ethnic origin, is seen as Israel's response to Iraq's threat of chemical and biological attacks. Yesterday Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader, backed away from the brink of war and agreed to resume co-operation with the inspection teams seeking his suspected chemical and biological weapons plants.

Winds of War discredited that report based on the fact that

a significant proportion of the Jews in Israel ARE ethnic Arabs. They fled there from Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and other countries where their families had lived for many hundreds of years.

All of which lead Noah Pollak to discount this latest piece by Mahnami, just as Meryl Yourish and Joe's Dartblog have discounted Mahnami's articles in the past.

That's all well and good...but just keep in mind that in September 1997, just a few weeks after Israel's enigmatic (at the time) bombing in Syria--it was Uzi Mahnaimi who correctly reported:

Israelis seized nuclear material in Syrian raid

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

As the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day--so the question is whether this is Mahnaimi's time again.

UPDATE: I guess either way this was expected:

A senior adviser to Barack Obama on Sunday denied reports that the U.S. president-elect plans to throw his weight behind the 2002 Arab peace plan, which calls for Israel to withdraw from all territories captured during the 1967 Six-Day War in exchange for normalized ties with the Arab world.

The British Sunday Times said Obama expressed this sentiment during his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories last July.

Dennis Ross, Obama's adviser on Middle East policy, issued a statement Sunday, saying "I was in the meeting in Ramallah. Then-senator Obama did not say this, the story is false."

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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