National Security -- Building Confidence For Arab-Israeli Peace

July 28, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Nate Carlile, and Matt Duss

NATIONAL SECURITY

Building Confidence For Arab-Israeli Peace

Key members of President Obama's national security team are in the Middle East this week to build regional support for the President's plan for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace. After visiting Abu Dhabi and Damascus, special envoy George Mitchell held meetings in Israel where he made clear that "Obama's personal objective vision" was of a comprehensive peace that "includes Israel and Palestine, Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon and normal relations with all countries in the region." Mitchell next stops were Egypt and Bahrain. Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates held meetings with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, mainly to discuss issues pertaining to Iran's nuclear program, and afterward he flew to Jordan. National Security Adviser James Jones will lead "a multi-agency delegation of around 10 U.S. officials to Israel Wednesday for talks with their Israeli counterparts about Iran."

FROM DAY ONE: During the presidential campaign, Obama referred to the Arab-Israeli conflict as "a constant sore," suffering from friction that impacts American interests in the region. He promised to engage the issue early in his presidency and has made good on that pledge, assembling a knowledgeable team of diplomats and Middle East experts. In his June speech in Cairo, Obama stressed the importance of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, but also acknowledged the Palestinian narrative of dispossession. Underlining his belief that greater engagement is in both the U.S. and Israeli interest, Obama stated that "the Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems." Foreign Policy's Laura Rozen reported that the President "sent letters to at least seven Arab and Gulf states seeking confidence-building measures toward Israel," even as the U.S. has requested that Israel build confidence by halting settlement growth in the occupied territories. Sources told Rozen that the President was disappointed with his June meeting with Saudi King Abdullah because he "got nothing out of it." On July 16, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the crown prince of Bahrain, wrote in the Washington Post that Arab governments "must do more, now, to achieve peace. ... This crisis is not a zero-sum game. For one side to win, the other does not have to lose."

CONTINUING TENSION: Though Mitchell has recognized that "Israel has taken meaningful steps in the West Bank," an allusion to the dismantling of 25 checkpoints and allowing Palestinians greater freedom of movement in the occupied territories, tensions remain after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to meet the U.S. request that Israelis keep their commitment to freeze settlement growth. In June, the New York Times reported that the government has been using a series of procedures to place areas of Jerusalem under the control of settlers in order to strengthen the Israeli hold on parts of the city that Palestinians hope to make their capital. Last week, the Israeli government raised the stakes by announcing that it would move forward with the building of new Jewish homes in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, defying the Obama administration's specific request to halt the project. Additionally, Obama's approach has angered some Israelis. On July 23, "thousands of Jewish settlers and their right-wing allies in the Knesset gathered in front of the American consulate in Jerusalem" to demonstrate against Obama, but Yossi Alpher, a former adviser to Barak, wrote in the Jerusalem Post that a settlement freeze "corresponds with our own legal obligations and...is calculated to save us from ourselves." Palestinian Authority President Abbas has said that peace negotiations with Israel won't be renewed "unless Israel clearly accepts the principle of the two-state solution and the complete freeze of settlement including the natural growth."

LIMITED TIME-FRAME: In his meeting with Barak, Gates said that "we're very mindful of the possibility that the Iranians would simply try to run out the clock." Downplaying disagreements between Israel and the U.S. over the Iranian nuclear program, Gates said, "I think we're in full agreement...on the negative consequences of Iran obtaining this kind of capability. ... I think we are also agreed that it is important to take every opportunity to try and persuade the Iranians to reconsider what is actually in their own security interest." Later in Amman, Jordan, Gates said "that if engagement with Iran did not work, the United States was prepared to press for tougher economic sanctions against it." Iran's continuing nuclear program, Israel's continuing construction of settlements in the occupied territories, and Palestinian and Arab hesitancy to fully re-engage in negotiations add up to a sense of urgency the Obama administration must contend with as it seeks to move the region toward a secure and lasting peace. Having recently returned from a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Brian Katulis wrote in his report that "the window of opportunity for achieving a viable two-state solution is rapidly closing." In addition to "a tightly focused strategic communications effort directed toward building support for a two-state solution among Palestinians and the broader Arab world," Katulis advocated better public diplomacy toward the Israeli public, writing that "Washington needs to reassure Israel that it will continue to support its security and work to maintain a close bilateral relationship while also pushing forcefully for a two-state solution which it sees as in the best interests of the region."

ETHICS -- SPECIAL INTERESTS RAMP UP EFFORTS TO DELAY AND THEN 'OUTRIGHT KILL' OBAMA'S REFORM AGENDA: With congressional leaders confirming that the House and the Senate will fail to meet President Obama's deadline to pass health care bills before the August recess, special interest lobbyists are celebrating their success in delaying some of Obama's key health care initiatives. Following "the right's delay and kill strategy," one influential lobbyist told The Hill that they hope that "creating delays" will allow opponents of reform to seize the "opportunity to outright kill a proposal" if negotiations were to then lose momentum, echoing a memo by GOP strategist Alex Castellanos that urged Republicans to "slow down" the health reform debate. In addition to health care delays, lobbyists for the financial industry have also succeeded in forcing House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) to stall financial regulatory reform legislation. Incredibly, many of the financial institutions spending millions on lobbying are "major recipients of cash form the Troubled Asset Relief Program." Having succeeded in slowing down health care and regulatory reform in Congress, special interests are now transitioning to "go for the kill," with a multi-million dollar campaign to sink the legislation as members of Congress return home for the August recess. A key component of the lobbyists' plan is to generously dole out campaign contributions to moderate Democrats who are best positioned to block reform.

A bipartisan group of the Senate Finance Committee is "closing in on a health care compromise." The tentative agreement would create "a network of nonprofit cooperatives," instead of establishing a new public health plan as favored by senior House Democrats. Also, Senate "moderates" won't back a mandate employer coverage.

In a letter to Rep. David Camp (R-MI), the Congressional Budget Office said a "preliminary analysis" found that a health care bill with a public option "would result in 3 million more people enrolled in employer-sponsored coverage by 2016, compared with what would happen under current laws." "The CBO has...disputed claims made by the Republicans about what our legislation will do," declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in response to the letter.

The Republican National Committee intends to "spend nearly $1 million on campaign activities over the next month in an effort to cast doubt on President Obama's proposal to reform health care." The campaign will include television commercials in Arkansas, Nevada and North Dakota and radio ads in 33 states.

After raising concerns yesterday about whether President Obama is a citizen of the U.S. and qualified to be president, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) provided a clarifying statement to the Tulsa World newspaper. "If there are legal experts who have concerns, I would encourage them to continue looking into it," the statement read. Greg Sargent reports that Inhofe's staff is slowly backing down.

U.S. Middle East special envoy George Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not reach a deal today on a Jewish settlement freeze, but Mitchell said the two made "good progress" on the issue. Netanyahu said their efforts to promote peace in the region "will eventually succeed."

Top Iranian leaders are calling for "greater protection" for demonstrators arrested during recent election protests, reflecting concern that some "are being mistreated by officials and groups operating under the authority of the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps." Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also ordered the closure of a prison where detained protesters have died in custody.

Politico reports that the House GOP "has yet to reveal its own alternative legislation" to reform health care. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) "released a four-page outline of a bill a little more than a month ago, but he has yet to release a full-fledged alternative Republican bill -- as he said he would do when he unveiled the plan in June."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) announced that the Senate Armed Service Committee will hold a hearing this fall to review the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning gays from serving openly in the military. In a statement released yesterday, Gillibrand called the policy "wrong for our national security and wrong for the moral foundation upon which our country was founded."

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission "plans to issue a report next month suggesting speculators played a significant role in driving wild swings in oil prices -- a reversal of an earlier CFTC position that augurs intensifying scrutiny on investors." A CFTC commissioner said the group's earlier report blaming supply and demand for oil-price swings was based on "deeply flawed data."

And finally: Basketball star Shaquille O'Neal was in Washington, DC yesterday, as the host of the WWE Raw show. Before the show, he tried to stop by the White House -- and was turned away. "The white house wouldn't let me in, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," Shaq wrote on Twitter. The effort started as a bet with one of his handlers, and Shaq now owes him 1,000 push-ups. Shaq told the Washington Post that he didn't try to use any of his "political connections," and everyone at the White House gate was very nice to him.

The real "teachable moment" from the Gates controversy.

Salon's Glenn Greenwald on the Washington Post endorsing Abu Ghraib-style scapegoating for torture.

Wall Street Journal editor attacks non-existent "public option" for health care in Massachusetts.

The return of Iceland.

You can't blame this one on undocumented immigrants.

Is the public option a victim of bipartisanship?

A Fox News poll shows that the Republican Party is at an all-time low in popularity -- even if Fox failed to mention it.

Bill O'Reilly explains higher life expectancy in Canada: The U.S. has "10 times as many people."

"Democracy depends on you [the media], and that is why, that's why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how 'bout in honor of the American soldier, ya quit makin' things up."
-- Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, 7/26/09

VERSUS

"Palin said she told the federal government, 'Thanks but no thanks [on that bridge to nowhere].' But she does not mention that she endorsed the bridge when she was a candidate for governor."
-- The Washington Post, 9/02/08

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Building Confidence For Arab-Israeli Peace

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