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A Foolish Plan from "Wise Men" on the Middle East

(Weekly Standard) Elliott Abrams - Another Middle East peace plan was proposed on June 23 in the New York Review of Books by a set of Washington luminaries. It proposes that the U.S. give up on the "peace process" and impose conditions of our own, and threaten dire consequences should Israel balk. The proposals reveal that many of America's most experienced former senior officials now blame Israel alone for the freeze in Middle East peace negotiations. And they believe that Israel should be forced into compromises and sacrifices under enormous American pressure, even if the vast majority of Israelis oppose them and view them as dangerous. As we all celebrate the demands for democracy in Arab lands, we can be thankful that American democracy remains strong. This fact ensures that neither the president nor Congress would ever accept the demands made here: to blame Israel alone for the failure to reach a peace agreement, threaten her, adopt positions that undermine her security, and abandon pledges made by American presidents of both parties. The writer, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, was a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration.
2011-06-27 00:00:00
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