Obama and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Like a bizarre ritual, every few years or so, some allegedly fresh thinking and policy initiative for addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict is announced. The usual sound-bites are propped up by, well, the usual props and photo-opportunities. This time around, the claim has been that President Obama broke new ground by actually mentioning the pre-1967 borders. In actuality, what was new was Prime Minister Netanyahu’s public and very categorical dismissal of President Obama’s invocation of 1967 as the pivotal year. Never before has an Israeli Prime Minister summarily rejected an American president’s viewpoint without the usual diplomatic cushions. President Obama promptly backtracked and qualified what exactly he meant by his invocation of the pre-1967 borders and in turn, Prime Minister Netanyahu naturally affirmed his scripted support for “peace”. The much-touted alleged “breakthrough”, surprise, surprise, rapidly mutated to the enduring stalemate that all political leaders invariably promise to overcome. Needless to add, the realities of oil, gas and cynical global geo-politics will continue to ensure a seemingly endless repetition of the mirage of breakthroughs that are unlikely to materialize. Talking heads will continue to chatter about alleged "breakthroughs".
