More Obama PR Will Not a Mideast Policy Make

Jonathan Tobin
Contentions
03 August 09

Barack Obama hasn’t gotten very far with his efforts to promote peace in the Middle East. But let it not be said that the White House is satisfied with what it has achieved so far. The administration has evaluated the situation and is prepared to correct the course, not with any concrete action, but with what our chief executive does best: more talk. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that:

In coming weeks, senior administration officials said, the White House will begin a public-relations campaign in Israel and Arab countries to better explain Mr. Obama’s plans for a comprehensive peace agreement involving Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world.

The campaign, which will include interviews with Mr. Obama on Israeli and Arab television, amounts to a reframing of a policy that people inside and outside the administration say has become overly defined by the American pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction on the West Bank.

For believing that the preceding administration was a collection of arrogant imperialists who didn’t understand the rest of the world, the Obama team surprises with this decision, which is reminiscent of how stereotypically “ugly American” tourists respond to foreigners who don’t understand English by merely speaking English louder.

It’s not as if Israelis don’t understand that Obama’s intentions toward them are good and his motives pure. The reason they think they have been singled out for rough treatment by Obama is that he has singled them out. The dispute about settlements was a calculated decision on the part of Washington to pick a fight with its ally and raise the stakes until Netanyahu gives in, handing Obama an easy triumph and a signal to the Arab world that friends of Israel no longer have a decisive say in American foreign policy.

Obama’s eloquence is a formidable diplomatic tool, but the idea that it can be used to convince Israelis to, as the president has said, “reflect” on their policies and change their tune is not only astoundingly arrogant; it’s also wrong. The Israelis already want peace and have shown time and again they are ready to make sacrifices to achieve it. What is lacking is a similar commitment from the Palestinians. No amount of patently insincere sweet talk from the president is going to convince Israelis that more bullying of Israel is the path to peace.