Middle East -- Growing Frustration Over Lack Of Progress

October 14, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Matt Duss, and Zaid Jilani

MIDDLE EAST

Growing Frustration Over Lack Of Progress

In the latest eruption in an increasingly volatile situation in Jerusalem, "Israeli police and Arab protesters clashed in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras el-Amud" on Friday. Tensions have been running high since last month, "when crowds of young Palestinian men threw rocks at police," after apparently hearing rumors that a group of religious Jews was about to enter the Haram al-Sharif (also known as the Temple Mount to Jews), the third holiest site in Islam, in the heart of Jerusalem's Old City. Israeli police "fired teargas and rubber-coated bullets at the Palestinians and closed access to the holy site." The unrest comes as Israel increases settlement activity in the historic city. In July, the New York Times reported that Israel was "carrying out a $100 million, multiyear development plan...just outside the walled Old City" in East Jerusalem "as part of an effort to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as its capital." In August, Israeli authorities evicted two Palestinian families and moved Jewish settlers into their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, a move sharply criticized by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state. The Associated Press recently obtained a leaked internal memo from Fatah, the ruling political party in the West Bank, that said, "All hopes placed in the new U.S. administration and President Obama have evaporated" because of the failure to obtain a settlement freeze from the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made a prerequisite for restarting negotiations.

PEACE PROCESS AT AN IMPASSE: After promulgating the U.S. "road map" in 2003, President Bush attempted to get the peace process back on track with the 2007 Annapolis Conference. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations again "broke down late last year with no breakthroughs on the main issues dividing the two sides": final borders, the status of Jerusalem, and a solution for Palestinian refugees. The Palestinians "want talks to resume from the point they broke down last year," but Netanyahu "says he is not bound by any concessions [his predecessor Ehud] Olmert may have made." Shortly after the new Israeli government took office, the Obama administration made clear that it considered a complete settlement freeze an Israeli obligation under the road map. The Netanyahu government protested that it had secured special understandings from the Bush administration that would allow for "natural growth" of settlements, which the Obama administration does not recognize. Attempting to break the impasse, Obama summoned Abbas and Netanyahu to a three-way meeting in New York during last month's U.N. General Assembly, but was able to secure little more than a handshake from the two leaders.

GOLDSTONE'S CONTROVERSIAL REPORT: Adding to the already-tense situation was the release of the report of the U.N.'s Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict -- known as the Goldstone Report -- a mission led by South African judge Richard Goldstone. The report found that both Israeli forces and Hamas had "committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity" during the December 2008-January 2009 conflict. Netanyahu condemned the report for "falsely equating terrorists with those they targeted." U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice "rejected a U.N. proposal to compel Israel and Hamas...to conduct credible investigations" into the conflict, calling the Goldstone report "unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable." Under pressure from Israel and the U.S., the Palestinian delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva dropped its support for the report. However, after coming under heavy domestic criticism, the Palestinians have since reversed this decision, and "the U.N. Human Rights Council has announced that it will reopen discussion" on the report on Thursday.

REGIONAL CONCERNS: The lack of progress on negotiations, and the growing tension around East Jerusalem and the Haram al-Sharif is causing concern throughout the Middle East. On a recent trip to the region, George Washington University professor Marc Lynch reported that "Jordanians are growing increasingly frustrated with the Obama team's approach, alarmed at Netanyahu's unpunished intransigence, and downright frantic about the trend in Jerusalem. If we don't start seeing progress soon, with stronger American leadership, then the 'tinderbox' could explode." Back in September 2000, Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, accompanied by a group of Likud politicians and hundreds of Israeli police, visited the site -- which is built over the remains of the Jewish Temple and is the holiest site in Judaism -- resulting in Palestinian riots and an Israeli response which eventually exploded into the Second Intifada. Given the criticism they have recently endured over the Goldstone report, many Palestinian leaders are unfortunately willing to exploit concerns over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount to deflect attention from their inability to end the Israeli occupation, a situation which is ominously reminiscent of the atmosphere around the Second Intifada. Speaking at the Center for American Progress earlier this month, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) noted the serious challenges, but said Obama "has created a different construct. ... And that construct is: It's no longer just the Israelis and Palestinians. It's the Israelis and the Palestinians joined with the entire Arab world, which is charged with responsibilities." Wexler praised Obama for putting his full weight behind the Middle East peace process, and exhorted regional leaders to "break out of the box, do something bold."

ENVIRONMENT -- EPA RELEASES EMAIL BUSH ADMINISTRATION BURIED ARGUING IN FAVOR OF REGULATING GREENHOUSE GASES: Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a controversial e-mail message that the Bush administration buried and refused to open because of its conclusions on climate change. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the EPA released the e-mail and its 28-page attached report, which show the agency concluded in 2007 that "six gases linked to global warming pose dangers to public welfare, and wanted to take steps to regulate their release from automobiles and the burning of gasoline." According to an EPA official, when the e-mail was originally sent, the White House called the EPA shortly after receiving it and demanded that it be immediately recalled. The e-mail and the attached report were the EPA's response to the Supreme Court decision that mandated the agency address the threat posed by greenhouse gases. The White House refused to open the e-mail and instead had the EPA issue a request for a new round of input on whether climate change was actually a threat. The Obama administration agreed with the report's original conclusion that greenhouse gases endanger public health. The EPA subsequently announced plans to draft "the first greenhouse gas standards for automobiles, and recently signaled it would attempt to reduce climate-altering pollution from refineries, factories and other large industrial sources." Adora Andy, a spokeswoman for EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, argued that the science behind climate change was as true then as it is now, saying, "The conclusions reached then by the EPA scientists should have been made public and should have been considered."

Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to spend a record-high $140 billion in compensation this year, the Wall Street Journal reports. "This year, employees at the companies will earn an estimated $143,400 on average, up almost $2,000 from 2007 levels."

The Treasury Department is pressing bailed-out insurance giant AIG "to reduce a $198 million bonus pool," according to a report by TARP inspector general Neil Barofsky. According to Barofsky, "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg "has recommended to AIG that the full $198 million not be paid out in full," but "has not yet made a specific recommendation to AIG about how much the insurer should reduce the payments."

Twenty-seven labor unions announced their opposition to the Senate Finance Committee's health reform bill because they oppose a tax on Cadillac health care plans. Health insurers are also opposing this bill because they want a stronger individual mandate penalty. The drug industry, however, is backing the bill.

"For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals," largely driven by young people facing the "economic downturn and rising joblessness." Overall, the "Defense Department brought in 168,900 active-duty troops, or 103 percent of the goal for the fiscal year," along with "104 percent of the goal for recruitment of National Guard and reserve forces."

"Between New Year's Day and next November, as many as five Bush administration officials -- including the former president himself -- will rehash history in hardback," which may be bad news for "Republicans looking forward to the first Bush-free election in a decade." But former Bush campaign aide Mark McKinnon thinks it will be good for the GOP, saying that "Republican candidates in 2010 are going to consider asking for [Bush's] help."

Following a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said his country opposes placing additional sanctions on Iran. Lavrov told the press that Russia is convinced that "threats, sanctions and threats of pressure in the current situation...would be counterproductive."

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) will announce today that he is resigning from his congressional seat to become the head of the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation. Wexler is expected to make a statement from his Boca Raton office at 10 a.m. ET.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman -- and Medal of Honor veteran of World War II -- Daniel Inouye (D-HI) yesterday embraced Gen. Stanley McChrystal's call for more troops in Afghanistan. Inouye said McChrystal's assessment and conclusions are "correct" and "what is needed if we are to achieve security and stability in Afghanistan."

And finally: "Tom DeLay may be a wild thing on the dance floor, but when it comes to boosting ratings, he seems to have two left feet," reported the Los Angeles Times yesterday. Although the former congressman was supposed to "spice up" this season's "Dancing with the Stars," the television show is going through "its worst season since it first premiered in the summer of 2005."

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) still wants a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan.

We need a robust cap on out-of-pocket costs in health care.

The Wall Street Journal publishes a weak argument against congestion pricing.

Conservatives want to send rock salt to Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

Glenn Beck is more worried about his war on ACORN than the war in Afghanistan.

Charles Krauthammer is wrong, decline isn't really a choice.

The AP is worried that President Obama is too "articulate." Really.

The NFL is not interested in Rush Limbaugh.

"I don't see [Obama] as black. I see him as president of the United States."
-- Radio host Rush Limbaugh, 10/12/09

VERSUS

"[Obama is] an angry black guy."
-- Limbaugh, 7/27/09

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Growing Frustration Over Lack Of Progress

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