Mishandled Diplomacy - Lessons from the Past Never Learned

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), May 24, 2011 at 15:38

There was more than prestige lost when the meeting of the current office holder of the American presidency was held with the Israeli Prime Minister. Another measure of friendship was bruised as the world beheld the misguided America attempt of again trying to redefine the American-Israeli relationship by the outmoded 1967 lines. Once again, American foreign policy took another hit on creditability (weren't the positions on the Camp David, Oslo, et al, enough to shake some sense that trying to make peace in the Middle East come as Israel's expense is patently wrong?).

The diplomatic nudging and pushing is doing nothing more than to get the world all excited about giving the 'Palestinians' a piece of territory already promised to another, only to bring about, not peace, but the premise for the next major war. And here it has always been the thought that diplomacy was for averting war. But we have PM Chamberlin of the United Kingdom to brief us historically on that.

We have read in various places of the distinction shown on the media of the statesman versus the politician, of the vastly more Middle Eastern experienced PM Netanyahu and the American Chief Executive. But to further show the insipid nature of the media coverage, much more was devoted to the political loss measured to the American Chief Executive for his re-election than to the potential of America not being ready to exert the appropriate and necessary pressure in favor of Israel in September 2011 in the light of the efforts circling the United Nations regarding the 'Palestinians.' One could tell on the face of American Chief Executive he was not amused by the words of the Israeli Prime Minister.

No, more than face was lost in this last visit. How much lost is still to be determined. But it is likely that a significant demand for payment will be made in September, 2011. Guess whose checkbook is going to take the hit.

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