Israel: Never Mind the Palestinians,Talk to the Saudis

By Gene Schwimmer

Next month, President Obama will be making his first trip to Israel since becoming president -- a trip that "is almost certain to raise expectations for the type of peace initiative that eluded Obama and his foreign policy team during his first four years in office." ...And are guaranteed to elude him this time as well, for the simple reason that the two sides have mutually exclusive goals. Israel's goal is peace; the Palestinians' goal is to destroy Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has publicly declared, numerous times, his willingness to negotiate with the Palestinians anytime, anywhere, without preconditions and has even appointed moderate reach-out-to-the-Palestinians-pro-peace-process advocate Tzipi Livni to lead those negotiations. The Palestinians, on the other hand, will meet only with preconditions, including a moratorium on building new housing in areas where the Oslo Agreement allows the Israelis to build and which everyone, including the Palestinians, understand would remain part of Israel in any setting of borders. More important, Israel will only accept a 23rd Mideast Arab state that.... (Read Full Article)