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Who Made the "Hard Choices" on Peace?

(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - A day after President Obama's second speech in four days in which he asserted the 1967 lines must be the basis for future peace talks, the front-page headline of the New York Times says everything about the impact of his stands. It reads "Obama Presses Israel to Make Hard Choices." Not his lengthy description of U.S.-Israel security cooperation. Not his pledge to preserve the security of the Jewish state. Not his vow to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. What the world heard and what the world understood is that Obama believes Israel must be pressured hard if there is to be peace. Israel has already made "hard choices." Israel signed the Oslo Accords empowering terrorist Yasir Arafat in 1993; and handed over all of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in 2005. It offered Arafat in 2000 and 2001, and his successor Mahmoud Abbas in 2008, a Palestinian state in virtually all of the West Bank, a share of Jerusalem and Gaza, and was turned down every time.
2011-05-26 00:00:00
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