There are no more Israeli concessions available

Submitted by Ken Besig (Israel), May 17, 2009 at 12:46

Too bad for Obama that he came into this game a little too late. All the possible Israeli concessions, appeasements, unlateral withdrawals, and gestures to the Palestinians have already been made and there is almost nothing left for Israel to concede without some even small positive gesture of encouragement from the Arab side.

Indeed, Obama is beginning to view his campaign positions from the Presidency as opposed to the Candidacy and all the problems he was so blase and simple about, like closing Gitmo, ending the military tribunals, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and even abortion on demand now appear to Obama to be difficult, complicated, and perhaps even impossible.

Thus when and if our Prime Minister points out to Obama that not even Yassir Arafat in the Oslo Accords demanded an end to Israeli settlement activity, and not one single Israeli Palestinian understanding has ever included an Israeli settlement freeze, Mr. Obama may have to rethink the importance of this issue.

Keep in mind also, that when the Palestinians refer to "illegal Jewish settlements" they also include all the new Israeli Jewish neighborhoods built since 1967 in what they refer to as "Zionist occupied Jerusalem" including the Old City and no Israeli government of any stripe will ever stop building in these areas or ever attempt to remove their Jewish residents as was done by Ariel Sharon in the Gaza Strip and the Northern Shomron.

Moreover, it may even have become apparent to Obama's great and agile mind that beating up Israel has never and won't ever bring the Palestinians any closer to settling with Israel, but that putting real and immediate financial and diplomatic pressure on the Palestinians to publicly and in Arabic renounce forever all physical and verbal violence against Israel and to begin to negotiate in good faith could actually break the deadlock that the Palestinians have settled on.

But if Obama wants to fail utterly and destroy absolutely whatever credibility his adminstration has in the Middle East, then he can hammer Prime Minister Netanyahu and demand impossible concessions from Israel, methods that every other previous administration has tried and failed with.

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