Obama's Mideast peace platform is coming into focus

According to Amir Oren, Obama's Mideast peace platform is coming into focus.

 

He might be right. According to Oren, citing the Op-Ed article by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, the essential features of the plan are this:

 

• An Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, with slight alterations that are to be mutually agreed upon.
• Compensation for Palestinian refugees in lieu of exercising the right of return to pre-1948 Israel.
• Jerusalem as a "real home" to two capitals.
• A demilitarized Palestinian state.

 

In order to allay Israel's security concerns over handing over territory to a Palestinian government that is incapable of combating terrorism, the two former national security advisers recommend stationing an international force, perhaps that of NATO, for peacekeeping purposes, securing Israel, and training Palestinian forces.

As I remarked previously (Keeping up with Jones in West Bank - An Idea Whose Time has Come?), a NATO force is a great proposition for Americans. If they liked Lebanon and Iraq, they'll LOVE Filasteen. Baghdad may be fun city, but Jenin is a blast.

Here's the real joke in Oren's article, and the Scowcroft-Brzezinsky-Jones initiative:

 

The former NSC chiefs - who represent a wide, bipartisan consensus by dint of their service to Democratic and Republican presidents - praise President Bush's peace efforts over the last year and call upon Obama to lend "priority attention" to the Israeli-Arab peace process. Even though they do not name names, one can clearly notice an effort to influence on the election results in Israel so as to favor moderate candidates - Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak - over Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is typical of people who do not understand the Middle East or any part of it. A proposal of American pressure to divide Jerusalem and create a Palestinian state to be policed by incompetents like UNIFIL in Lebanon, will guarantee the election of Benjamin Nethanyahu or anyone else who is outspoken in opposing it, because the whole idea is childish and dangerous. It shows that these people are not serious Middle East operators, but amateurs.

 

Ami Isseroff