Tom Friedman got it right in today’s New York Times: The huge political changes going on in the Middle East make a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians more urgent than ever.
”I had given up on Netanyahu’s cabinet and urged the U.S. to walk away,” Friedman wrote. “But that was B.E. — Before Egypt. Today, I believe President Obama should put his own peace plan on the table, bridging the Israeli and Palestinian positions, and demand that the two sides negotiate on it without any preconditions.”
President Obama cannot return to more of the same, simply dispatching envoys and making speeches. It is time for decisive action. That means, for example, that President Obama lays down U.S. permanent status parameters or a U.S. peace plan.
We need your help to encourage President Barack Obama to do what it takes to launch a peace process that can quickly deliver results.
Click here to send your letter to President Obama.
Without American leadership to reinvigorate the peace process, Israelis and Palestinians will not get past the current stalemate. Meanwhile, settlement expansion will make a two-state solution increasingly difficult to implement and the political stability of Israel’s partners in peace may deteriorate.
A real peace process needs to be renewed now, before it’s too late.
Two weeks ago, Al Jazeera leaked a series of internal Palestinian documents. They show that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his negotiating team are willing to go far to meet Israel’s needs.
That’s one more reason why the time for action is now.
Click here to send your letter to President Obama.
Israelis are anxious about the future given the shifting sands in Egypt. That’s understandable. But it would be dangerous for us to allow this fear to feed paralysis.
When the dust settles, Egypt will still be Israel’s most important neighbor and almost certainly will have a government that will be more populist in its approach. Other moderate regimes, like in Jordan, are sure to similarly pay more attention to the public mood. In this context, as Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki told Tom Friedman, “if Israel remains paranoid and messianic and greedy it will lose all its Arab friends.”
Our role, as Americans who care about Israel, is to push President Obama to lead the way forward. A determined American effort can help Israel achieve peace, end the occupation, and preserve America’s standing in the region.
Noam Shelef
Director of Strategic Communications
Americans for Peace Now
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