ADL: Israel struggles toward peace without a peace partner

Letters to the Editor Financial Times

March 29, 2010

To the Editor:
In the past few days the FT has published two op-eds that fundamentally distort the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In "A deaf and defiant Israel gambles with its future" (March 27), Max Hastings presents Israel as living in its own destructive world. His analysis strangely ignores Israel's efforts to move towards peace and the real obstacles to achieving that goal. Over the past 10 years, Israel has taken three bold initiatives for peace that could have led to a Palestinian state, the end of the settlement problem and the end of the conflict. On each occasion, at Camp David in 2000, the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, and the Annapolis process in 2008, the Palestinians said no and often turned thereafter to terror and violence.

Israelis are not living in a dream world. They are struggling about how to leave most of the West Bank without creating another zone for terrorism and rockets, as in Gaza. They are struggling about how to change the dynamic when there is no clear peace partner.

In "Refugees for settlers is the way forward for Israel" (March 29), Eugene Rogan plays with fire with his suggestion that Israel should admit the same number of Palestinian refugees as settlers living in the West Bank. If this is the direction that diplomacy would go, the more powerful argument is that if there are a million Arabs living in Israel, why can't an equivalent number of Jews live on the West Bank?

The truth is that the refugee problem must be solved through a Palestinian state and not through the subversive effort to undermine Israel. The settlement issue is resolvable in the context of a final agreement and reflecting where Israel's security fence is located: the settlement blocs would remain and the rest would disappear.
Painting Israel as the problem has become fashionable. Not only is this a mistaken approach but one which, by not focusing on Palestinian rejectionism, makes peace an even more remote objective.

Sincerely, Abraham H. Foxman National Director

ADL National Director rates Obama's First Year re: Middle East Diplomacy

Foxman:  White House Gets "A" for Effort, "F" for Results

ADL Issues Report Card On President Obama's First Year In Middle East Diplomacy

Palm Beach, FL, February 5, 2010 … Saying that "the one-year anniversary of a presidency is always an occasion to assess how a new president is doing," the head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today rated the Obama Administration's first year in Middle East diplomacy, with suggestions for areas of improvement and possible next steps.

In a speech to the League's National Executive Committee, meeting today in Palm Beach, Florida, Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, gave the following grades to President Obama and his foreign policy staff for their efforts thus far on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

• "A" for Effort, with good intentions and efforts to create the conditions necessary for bringing together the Palestinians and Israelis for negotiations;
• "C-minus" for Strategy, pointing to the administration's "unrealistic expectations" and heavy-handed focus on Israeli settlement policy;
• "F" for Failure to achieve results, with little movement achieved thus far, with few prospects for talks on the horizon, and for what was essentially, "…a wasted year without any negotiations."

"I believe that it's fair to say that the president fits nicely into a long tradition of American presidents on the Middle East and Israel, and he tried very hard in his first year to bring the parties together with good intentions," said Mr. Foxman in his address to ADL leaders from across the country. "So, I sincerely believe President Obama deserves a solid 'A' for his efforts."

However, "The administration … focused on trying to speed up the process toward peace, and is now questioning its own strategy," said Mr. Foxman. "So in my estimation, the Obama administration earned a 'C-minus' for strategy."

"Since there are no prospects of talks on the horizon, and in many ways what their efforts wrought was a wasted year without any negotiations, I believe the administration deserves an 'F' for its failure to deliver on results."
Mr. Foxman said that while the conditions for a comprehensive peace -- including issues of Jerusalem, refugees and a demilitarized Palestinian state -- are "not yet ripe," he holds out hope that improved economic and security cooperation between the sides could lead to an eventual return to negotiations.

"I'd like to see the president focus on what is truly achievable in a region where the Palestinians continue to be divided between Palestinian Authority control of the West Bank and Hamas control of Gaza and where it remains unclear if the Palestinians truly accept a Jewish state," said Mr. Foxman.

The National Executive Committee, the League's highest policymaking body, meets annually in Palm Beach.