America Has Her Head in the Gaza Sand

Ostrich-like, the Obama administration is ignoring the biggest issues in the current 'peace process' says JPost columnist Khaled Abu Toameh.

Have Obama and Clinton ever given a thought as to whether the Palestinian president has the power to enforce a peace agreement in the "southern part of Palestine" - the Gaza Strip?

Any peace agreement Abbas reaches with Israel will apply only to those areas in the West Bank that are under the jurisdiction or control of the Palestinian Authority.

By being forced out of the Gaza Strip, Abbas lost direct control over some 1.5 million Palestinians, roughly half the Palestinians living in the Palestinian territories.

There are also doubts as to whether Abbas would even be able to impose, or sell, a peace agreement to many of his constituents in the West Bank, particularly those living in refugee camps.

So if Abbas cannot go to the Gaza Strip and has limited control over the West Bank, where is he supposed to implement a peace agreement? In downtown Ramallah? In Tel Aviv?

The way matters seem to be these days, it is highly unlikely that Abbas and Fatah would be returning to the Gaza Strip, at least not in the foreseeable future.

In the title of his post, Abu Toameh asks, but does not answer, an important question: Why is Washington sticking its head in the sand? The answer is quite simple. The Obama administration sees a 'fierce moral urgency' to make peace, because it sees Israel as "an aggressive, Western imperialist power exploiting indigenous people of color who simply wish to be free." And like the Israelis from 1993-2009 who could not accept that their wanting peace didn't necessarily mean that the other side wanted it, so too the Obama administration, which so desperately wants peace that it cannot understand that one of the sides is not interested and the other has given up.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:41 PM