An article titled a “Pillar of Problems: Eight questions about the Israel Gaza conflict we still don’t have a good handle on” published on ForeignMagazine.com (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/16/a_pillar_of_problems?page=0,0 ) reminded me of the conversation we had in class today about chapter 4 of the Indyk book we were reading. The article poses a series of questions that center around the facts of the situation that led the breakout of violence between Hamas in Gaza and Israel. Such as whether there was an Israeli intelligence failure, extent of the involvement of other nations (Turkey, Egypt, or Qatar) with known ties to Hamas in the recent violence which has sprung up in Gaza, whether Iran is involved in providing munitions for the attacks. Other questions posed are whether this move by the extremist group Hamas will weaken the popularity of efforts being undertaken by the Palestine Liberation Organization and increase domestic support for its own party. How long U.S. support of Israel in the situation will last and whether this conflict will have an effect on the upcoming Israeli election.
I think this is an excellent article to read in order to update yourself on the current Israeli/Palestinian conflict and to have an idea of the challenges Obama faces as he goes into his second term in office. The question is how Obama will react in the face of a very tumultuous social and political Arab world. Obama’s administration in this article and others I have read has been accused trying to find short term solutions for the very deep rooted problems in the middle east instead of focusing on nation building. I wonder what position Obama will take to forging peace in the middle east in this new setting and now that he has 4 more years in office for sure.
I think short term solutions are really the only way to go forward. Like our readings mentioned, Obama can’t even get these men in a room together. Long term solutions can’t be made without serious compromises. The problem is that everyone is so invested in past grievances that compromises can’t be made. So inch by inch, these leaders have to be dragged into a future where they can hopefully resolve their issues without wiping a nation or two off the map.
I think there is a great question, to what extent will Obama support Israel? Overall I think that the situation is improving, there is a history of violence between Israel and Palestine but in comparison to the past, huge steps have been taken. Sure, peace talks have fallen through several times, but an agreement to a ceasefire is one step in the right direction and the biggest step is Palestine being granted observer status in the UN. This has been historically controversial as Israel threatened to backlash if that did occur and the U.S. had threatened to withdraw funding from the UN if recognizing Palestine occurred. Seeing this happen with no backlash thus far is a huge step in the right direction.