![]() More broadly, Obama’s rhetoric in Cairo strongly suggests that his Middle East diplomacy will extend America’s decades-long record of ineffectual efforts at Arab-Israeli peacemaking - a record that has its origins in the Reagan administration’s 1981 decision to abandon the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations’ characterization of Israeli settlements in occupied Arab territory as “illegal.” While the European Union and most of the rest of the world have consistently done so, the last four U.S. policy in the Arab-Israeli arena by describing Israeli settlement activity not merely as violating previous agreements and undermining efforts to achieve peace, but as “illegal,” because the settlement of Israeli civilians in occupied territory violates the Fourth Geneva Convention. In fact, the Cairo speech squandered Obama’s best opportunity to revitalize U.S. Obama’s statement has been heralded (and criticized) as a striking departure from the policy of George W. Israel’s continued settlement expansion has been at the top of America’s Middle East agenda since Obama’s Cairo speech in June, when he declared that “the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.” This week, Barack Obama’s Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell met in New York with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to begin discussing a potential “compromise” regarding the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |