According to Reports: Obama Gives Arabs a Convenient Excuse
Posted on: August 6, 2009

In his weekly Canadian Jewish News media analysis column “According to Reports,” Paul Michaels, CIC Director of Communications, reviews coverage of U.S. President Barack Obama’s ” settlement freeze” demand.

The recent visit to Israel by U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell put substantial media focus on Israel’s settlements – specifically, U.S. President Barack Obama’s insistence that Israel stop all settlement activity, be it in the West Bank or east Jerusalem.

A Reuters news brief in the National Post (“No settlement freeze agreed on, but good progress made in Middle East talks,” July 29) is typical of the coverage: “Mitchell and [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu…could not agree on a Jewish settlement freeze in talks yesterday but said negotiations were advancing. Mr. Mitchell… said he looked forward to continuing discussions with Mr. Netanyahu…and moving toward a ‘comprehensive peace’ envisioned by the U. S. President….Mr. Obama’s demand that Israel halt settlement building in the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem has met stiff resistance from Mr. Netanyahu, producing the most serious rift in U. S.-Israeli relations in a decade.”

Several Israeli analysts have said that by issuing such a categorical demand, Obama has backed himself into a corner and alienated many people, including those among the Israeli left. At the same time, Obama has given Palestinian and Arab leaders a convenient excuse to refuse negotiations until Israel complies with the settlement freeze.

In “Why Won’t Obama Talk to Israel?” (New York Times, July 28) Haaretz editor-at-large Aluf Benn wrote that Obama’s rigid demand has “been interpreted here as political arm-twisting meant to please the Arab street at Israel’s expense,” which “would seem counterproductive, given the importance the president has placed on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Benn noted that Obama “has failed to induce Israel to impose a freeze on settlements. In fact, he has failed even to stir debate about the merits of one…not even the Israeli left, desperate for a new agenda, has adopted Mr. Obama as its icon.”

Many Israelis who might favour compromise on settlements – including a freeze if conditions for genuine peace negotiations were at hand – resent having Obama tell them they can’t build apartments in certain parts of Jerusalem. The CJN’s July 30 editorial, “Jews, too, can live in undivided Jerusalem” eloquently placed Israeli expectations in context.

Israelis know that the issue of settlements, while important, is not the major impediment to peace. But the issue has now been given centre stage, distracting attention from the key barriers to a negotiated resolution: the Palestinian/Arab refusal to accept the legitimacy of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and the insistence that Palestinian refugees have a “right of return” to present-day Israel. Most Western journalists now focus only on settlements, ignoring these far more critical and seemingly intractable obstacles.

Perhaps coming to the belated recognition that putting pressure on Israel alone was not a productive move, Obama has tried to prod first the Palestinians and then, when that failed, the surrounding Arab countries to show some flexibility toward Israel as a goodwill gesture. As of this writing, Obama’s efforts have been rebuffed.

As Mitchell’s trip wound down, Herb Keinon wrote in the Jerusalem Post (“Jerusalem expects gestures from Arab world soon,” July 28) that a settlement freeze acceptable to Israel would “have to be met by reciprocal gestures from the Arab world, leading to speculation that the delay in reaching a compromise on the settlements has stemmed in part from difficulties Mitchell has been having in getting any Arab states to commit to any gesture toward Israel at this time.”

Not surprisingly, an AFP report (“Saudi rejects Israel recognition without withdrawal,” July 29) made it clear Saudi Arabia would make no diplomatic gestures toward Israel while any building activity continued in the areas in question. After all, Obama has demanded no less.