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The End of the Peace Process

[World Affairs] Elliott Abrams and Michael Singh - Regional dynamics in the Middle East undermine the possibilities for compromise. The Palestinian cause remains a useful tool for regimes in the region concerned about the mood of their own populations; it has been used for decades to deflect attention from their own shortcomings. Further, Iran, which was not a factor ten years ago, is today a dominant factor in regional politics. With its calls for the elimination of the State of Israel, its support for Holocaust denial, and its assistance for terrorist groups fighting Israel, Iran provides ideological and military backing for a "rejectionist" front that many had thought died with Arafat. If Iran were to obtain a nuclear weapon or even be perceived to win significant concessions from the West in exchange for remaining at the nuclear threshold, this front would gain further power. Iran would seek to undermine any compromise peace agreement reached. A new approach would be to leave the negotiating to the two parties and focus U.S. and international efforts on improving the background for those negotiations, by helping build a constituency for peace and countering the designs of Iran and its client spoilers of the peace efforts. A decisive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is not possible without a comprehensive and effective effort to curtail Iran's nuclear and hegemonic ambitions. If Hizbullah and Hamas are to be neutralized as an obstacle to peace, these terror groups must be isolated diplomatically and financially, and the red carpets that have been rolled out for them in some Arab capitals must be rolled back up. Finally, the supply networks that bind Iran and its terrorist allies must be disrupted. Elliott Abrams, a former deputy national security adviser, is a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Michael Singh is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2009-11-18 06:00:00
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