© David Burton 2012

     In Israel, Republican presidential nominee-apparent “declared Jerusalem to be the capital of the Jewish state and said the United States has ‘a solemn duty and a moral imperative’ to block Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability.”

     "Obama has misunderstood the actual situation regarding the Israelis and Palestinians.”

     “The next administration will not be as foolishly idealistic as the Obama administration.” (Ref. 1)

     Finally, the right message is being sent to the Palestinians and their Arab backers. Romney is telling them that the days of waiting for a better deal, which is always being offered by the Obama administration, will be ended if Romney wins the presidential election. Gone will be the days when the U.S. pressures Israel to make more and more concessions and ended will be the days when the U.S. gives the Palestinians a free pass on doing their part to reach a settlement. “Even as the Palestinian Authority adamantly refuses to come to the negotiating table, the Obama administration prefers to point the finger at Israel, unabashedly threatening the Jewish state with economic sanctions. . . . If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the snickering and laughter in Ramallah and Gaza as the Palestinians rejoice at the free pass they are getting from the White House.” (Ref. 2)The Palestinians know a patsy when they see one.

     The Arabs of the Mideast are well known as experts in bargaining. It is part of their culture; it is part of their upbringing; it is in their blood; they understand that “everything is negotiable”. Americans, on the other hand, seem to have an abhorrence to negotiating – we hate to bargain at the auto dealer; we don’t bargain at the marketplace and we want to find fixed prices instead. In the market place of the Mideast everything can be negotiated. In many places in the Mideast, it is often taken as a discourtesy if one doesn’t haggle over the price. Consequently, many of us have no concept of the art of bargaining, especially how to bargain in the Mideast. The Obama administration seems to be the poster boy for ignorance in the art of Mideast bargaining. For example, “While the US has advocated that the Arabs accept and make peace with Israel, it has never insisted that recognition and acceptance of Israel’s right to exist be advanced as an independent demand, as it has done, for example with demands on Israel to freeze settlements in advance of the conclusion of an end to the conflict.” (Ref. 3) In another example of his Mideast negotiating naiveté, President Obama called for Israel’s pre-1967 indefensible borders to form the basis for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. “Apparently large numbers of Palestinians {took} President Barack Obama at his word when he said he want{ed} Israel to return to its 1967 borders.” (Ref. 4) What has President Obama done to make the Palestinians believe otherwise? “Obama’s dilation on the 1967 borders makes matters worse: Borders are what negotiations are supposed to be about, not what is to be stipulated before negotiations.” (Ref. 5) While Obama may be brain-dead when it comes to foreign policy skills in the Mideast, the Palestinians, on the other hand, are far from stupid. No wonder the Palestinians don’t want to return to the negotiating table. They quite understandably believe that the longer they wait, the more Obama will hand them on a silver platter. Today, their fondest wish and prayer can only be that Obama wins in 2012.

     President Obama and the liberal intellectuals snug in their ivory towers naively believe that Arabs and Palestinians engage in negotiations in the same manner as is done in the U.S. Obama and his liberal supporters are idealistic dreamers living in their own fantasy world. They have no concept of how politics and negotiations are conducted in the Arab world. Obama and his advisers don’t realize that they are bargaining according to the rules of a Middle Eastern Bazar. They do not understand the Middle Eastern culture and they go about dealing with their Arab counterparts in the same manner they would negotiate a business agreement in America. It just doesn’t work that way in the Arab world!

     In the Middle East, trying to make nice and being forthright is a sign of ignorance and weakness. Such a posture means that there is no reason to rush to an agreement since more concessions can be wrung out of the other party. In Middle Eastern politics, power is all that matters. Only when the Arab negotiator understands that his opponent has the power and the resolve to win and when the Arab comes to realize that if he doesn’t come to terms, he will end up losing in one or more ways, only then can an agreement finally be reached.

     What is worse, not know something or being so arrogant as to believe that one knows something when, in, fact, one really knows nothing? “Obama not only {doesn’t} understand what had happened under {former President George W.} Bush when the U.S. attempted to force the Palestinian Authority to eschew terror and embrace democracy, he {knows} nothing about the way the Arab world regards the U.S.-Israel relationship.

“Rather than interpreting his kicking Israel under the bus as an invitation to compromise and make peace, it merely convinced {the Palestinians} they could just sit back and let Obama hammer Israel. Even when {Israel} Prime Minister Netanyahu acceded to Obama’s demands for a settlement freeze in the West Bank, not only did he receive little thanks from Washington, the Palestinians continued to refuse to negotiate, secure in the belief the president would do the dirty work for them.” (Ref. 6)

     President Obama and his administration have repeatedly demonstrated that they have no clue to these facts of life in the bazar of the Middle East. Just see what their policy of appeasement and sucking up to the Arab regimes has achieved. Iran laughs at us; Syria ignores us; the Palestinians simply continue to wait for the U.S. to try and force more concessions form Israel. Our Ignorance of the Middle East way of life continues to encourage terror attacks, suicide bombings, the threat of a nuclear-armed mad-man, rocket and mortar attacks on Israel, the ongoing government murder of Syrians, along with a new generation of Arabs and Palestinians that are being government-taught to hate Israel, Jews, all non-Muslims, the U.S. and the West. They are being trained to be martyrs in the Jihad against all “infidels”, i.e., everyone else.

     What Romney has effectively told the Palestinians is that if he is elected, they will have to face the consequences of not being serious about recognizing the right of Israel to exist and of not seriously negotiating for a final peace settlement. Jerusalem and West Bank settlements will no longer be allowed to be presented as bones of contention. Their hope for the forcing of more concession from Israel will be dashed. Romney’s position, along with the just released Levy Report, may finally convince the Palestinians and their Arab colleagues that they may lose more by refusing to negotiate in good faith than in coming ot an agreement. Certainly, the Obama approach has not worked.

     The Levy Report is an 89 page report on West Bank settlements published by the Israeli government on 9 July 2012, authored by a three member committee headed by former Israeli Supreme Court justice Edmund Levy. This report states “that Israel’s presence in the West Bank was not occupation and recommended that the state grant approval for scores of unauthorized Jewish settlement outposts there. . . . The committee’s legal arguments, while nonbinding, could provide backup for the government should it decide to grant the outposts retroactive official status. . . . The {report} confirmed a position long held by Israel that those territories are not occupied, since Jordan’s previous hold over them was never internationally recognized, and that their fate must be determined in negotiations. {The report further states} that . . . according to international law, Israelis have the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria.” (Ref. 7)

     Demanding no concessions from the Palestinians has led to no peace settlement. It’s time to see what pressures on these Palestinians, like those of the Romney statement and the Levy report will accomplish!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:

1. Romney’s Israel trip a chance to shine, Chris Cassidy, Boston Herald, Page 5, 30 July 2012.
2. Obama Vs. Israel, Michael Freund, The Jewish Press, Pages 21 and 72, 15 January 2010.
3. Time for a change in US Mideast strategy, Kenneth J. Bialkin, The Jerusalem Post, Page 15, 17 February 2010.
4. Obama’s blunder haunts, Op-ed, Boston Herald, Page 16, 7 June 2011.
5. As peacemaker, all talk, George F. Will, Boston Herald, Page 17, 23 May 2011.
6. Let’s Not Overlook Hillary’s Role in Obama’s Approach to Israel, Jonathan S. Tobin, The Jewish Press, Page 4, 20 July 2012.
7. Validate Settlements, Israeli Panel Suggests, Isabel Kershner, The New York Times, 9 July 2012.