In his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, President Obama said the following:
“If there is a linkage between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, I personally believe it actually runs the other way, to the extent that we can make peace… between the Palestinians and the Israelis then I actually think it strengthens our hand in the international community in dealing with the potential Iranian threat.”
Netanyahu, naturally, stressed the primacy and immediacy of the Iranian threat, especially the mullahs’ march towards nuclear arms. Obama, however, sees the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” as a chip that can potentially be used to force Tehran to make concessions. But, here’s the problem. Hamas, the only entity that has the power at this point to make concessions on the Palestinians’ behalf, is not only a terrorist organization that does not believe in Israel’s right to exist, but also an Iranian proxy (despite being a Sunni terrorist group). So, in order for President Obama’s vision of Israeli-Palestinian peace to come to fruition, the following would have to be accomplished:
– Hamas would have to accept Israel’s right to exist – unless you are Jimmy Carter and believe that Hamas already does, or you believe that a real peace can be reached without Hamas accepting Israel’s basic existential rights. And, just for the record, Hamas just recently rejected Israel’s right to exist yet again. – Hamas would have to renounce anti-Israeli terrorism, its chief reason for existence. – Hamas would have to stop taking substantial aid from Iran – unless you think that the Iranians would allow Hamas to reach a peace deal that could be used, as President Obama has suggested, to put pressure on the mullahs while at the same time Hamas accepted the mullahs’ arms, training, and cash. Also, Hezbollah, Iran’s chief terrorist proxy, would have to stop giving Hamas “every type of support.” Hamas would have to renounce this support from the Iranians and Hezbollah even though it is vital for its survival, in both the fight against the Israelis and in the intra-Palestinian rivalry for power. – In addition to those three steps, the Israelis and Hamas would have to sit down and come to terms that were acceptable to both parties – without any additional interference from Iran, which has no incentive to see peace achieved and has historically sponsored any party that opposes it.
President Obama, like so many others in Washington, doesn’t seem to realize that the Iranians have already gamed this all out and are using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to achieve its own ends in the region and beyond. Bibi, on the other hand, led with his concerns about stopping a nuclear-armed Iran from becoming a reality – for good reasons.
