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With the 2012 Elections in the Offing, Expending Any Effort on a Middle East Peace Process Is a Losing Battle

(Foreign Policy) Aaron David Miller - Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking isn't and shouldn't be Barack Obama's top priority. Despite all the kerfuffle at the UN this week, the last thing he needs to do is pick an unproductive fight with Israel on an Israeli-Palestinian peace process that has been dead for some time now. Nothing that will happen in New York this week or next will bring Palestinians any closer to realizing real statehood; it could, in fact, take them farther away. The gaps on the core issues, particularly Jerusalem and refugees, have been unbridgeable for more than a decade now. The current PA lacks a monopoly over the forces of violence, political strategy, resources, even people. And no Israeli government will be willing to make a deal with a partner that doesn't control and silence all of the guns of Palestine. There is no conflict-ending agreement now available to Israelis and Palestinians. The gaps are just too big, the regional environment too uncertain, and the capacity of an American (or any other mediator) to serve as an effective broker is just too implausible. The last thing we need right now is a cleverly worded French, American, or Quartet statement to launch a negotiation that will raise false hopes once again and lead to a collapse. The writer is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former U.S. Middle East negotiator.
2011-09-23 00:00:00
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