Obama and The Peace Process: A Salvage Operation

In the beginning, BHO promised to create a “Palestinian” state within two years of his ascendance to the Oval Office. We’ve already passed that point, and thanks to Obama’s Arabophilia the “peace process” is going in reverse. The Arabs no longer see the need to negotiate with Israel and dream of the Jewphobic UN doing all the work for them. Somewhere along the line, the Israelis must have delivered a loud message to the White House that two can play the same game, and the Arab end run, if not blocked, would mean the end of the Oslo process once and for all. I wish I was there to see the look of fright on Barack’s and Hillary’s faces after that meeting with the Israelis ended. But instead, we’ll have to look for their expressions of panic in the dead-end policies they pursue.

The items below are two sides of the same tarnished slug. Heads, Obama is trying to slow down the “international community’s” diplomatic offensive so as to keep Israel on the hook. Tails, Obama’s giving Assad a free pass. Though the Syrian is a butcher who makes Gadhafi look like Pee Wee Herman, Obama has a big investment in the regime, especially the idea that Assad is essential to another diplomatic cliché, a comprehensive solution. The real question is whether Obama can keep his benighted Middle East pipe dreams from collapsing before election day 2012. In truth, I don’t envy the man. The table he’s set for himself reminds me of Lucy and Ethel trying to keep up with the chocolate assembly line. And we all know how that ends.

Diplomats say Friday’s Quartet meeting on Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been postponed

By Associated Press, Monday, April 11

UNITED NATIONS — The United States blocked an initiative by Britain, France and Germany to restart stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks by proposing the outlines of a final settlement to their long conflict, U.N. diplomats and a U.S. official said Monday.

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NYT, 4/11/2011

Syrian University Protests Violently Suppressed

By Katherine Zoepf

Pro-democracy protests in Syria spread for the first time to a university campus and were violently suppressed on Monday, a day after the government of President Bashar al-Assad acknowledged that it was using force against protesters.

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