Barack Obama Plays Alexander the Great

Wisely, the US leader has been upbeat about his journey to the east, but has not fueled expectations. The best politician America has produced in the Television Age is not one to tip his hand.
Barack Obama in the Levant
Wisely, the US leader has been upbeat about his journey to the east, but has not fueled expectations. The best politician America has produced in the Television Age is not one to tip his hand.
Having publicly demanded that Israel stop building settlements in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank, the President will also ask Arab nations collectively to recognize Israel's existence.
According to Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post, Abbas feels he is in a strong position to play a waiting game. Abbas acknowledged that Olmert had shown him a map proposing a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank -- though he complained that the Israeli leader refused to give him a copy of the plan. He confirmed that Olmert "accepted the principle" of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees -- something no previous Israeli prime minister had done -- and offered to resettle thousands in Israel. In all, Olmert's peace offer was more generous to the Palestinians than either that of Bush or Bill Clinton; it's almost impossible to imagine Obama, or any Israeli government, going further. Abbas turned it down. "The gaps were wide," he said.

Abbas says he will remain passive. "I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements," he said. "Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life." In the Obama administration, so far, it's easy being Palestinian.

Tying together all the elements of such a speech is no easy proposition, for his worldwide audience — Muslim and non-Muslim — has multiple competing priorities and concerns.
Consider: Lebanese go to the polls just three days after he speaks, Iranians will be preparing for pivotal elections June 12 and both contests pit moderate parties against radical forces. Afghans and Pakistanis are girding for increased U.S. military and political engagement. [McClatchy]
Palestinians and Israelis have irreconcilable differences. In the U.S., Republicans will be looking for any window of opportunity to paint the Democratic President as anti-American, anti-Israel and soft on terrorism.
"It's a very high bar to clear. The expectations are immense," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, the director of the Middle East Democracy and Development Project at the Washington-based Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. "No matter how broadly he speaks, what he says will be parsed through the lens of those disagreements."
Obama won't lay out a detailed vision for resolving the Arab-Israeli crisis. "I want to use the occasion to deliver a broader message about how the United States can change for the better its relationship with the Muslim world," the president said Thursday. "That will require, I think, recognition on both the part of the United States as well as many majority Muslim countries about each other, a better sense of understanding, and I think possibilities to achieve common ground."
Obama would like to rally Muslim countries to join in efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program. While many Arab governments also see Iran as a threat, however, the issue divides Muslims, in part because Israel is pressing for military action.
Obama Begins to Be Realistic
Why should Arabs undergo a negotiation process if the President alone can rip concessions from Israel? 74% of Israelis believe that Barack Obama won't gain anything for us. Iran's proxies have attacked us twice in three years. This is why 84% of us believe Iran's nuclear development is unlikely to be peaceful. Turkey and Saudi Arabia agree. Both nations have asked permission to begin nuclear programs. They held still when only Israel had WMD. As Iran approaches nuclear status, they want it too.
When Mr Obama was campaigning, he denounced Bush administration policies. After the Inauguration, we saw Obama carrying on with cosmetic changes to the old policies. Now, we see him shift to a wide range of the Bush agenda. With many of my countrymen, I welcome the awakening of realism in Obama.