Pub Guide
Hillary Clinton will apply Irish lessons to Middle East peace talks
Larger Text
Print
E-mail
13 Comments
RSS 
Recent Posts
- Bobby Kennedy should be ashamed of himself over his dead wife -- Successful effort to keep her remains from her family was disgusting - VIDEO
- Liberal media slamming Mitt Romney unfairly for actions in high school -- What’s next a demand that he apologizes for passing gas?
- Why do Irish media lynch mob want Cardinal Sean Brady to resign?-- Brady acted in good faith at the time investigating a notorious pedophile priest
- A crazy mixed up world in American politics -- Who can really tell left from right these days?
- Can Christine Quinn keep Gays and Irish Catholics happy in her run for NY mayor?-- Her outreach to Catholics and holding on to her core gay vote is a major multitask
Archives
The prospects for the Middle East peace process seemed uniformly negative when President Obama announced their resumption a few weeks ago.
This is very typical of our media today, a tendency to admire a problem rather than see a way to solving it.
It was the very same with the Irish peace process for years, as a skeptical press highlighted every setback and disdained any chance at a successful outcome.
Much of the coverage was also skin deep as I suspect the Middle East process coverage is to date.
The fault lines underneath may be shifting but the media are often the last to know.
The presence of Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell in the U.S. delegation makes peace far more possible in my opinion.
Mitchell earned his spurs on the Northern Irish process and has performed miracles to get the sides to the table on this occasion.
Hillary also worked closely on the Northern process and cites it repeatedly when discussing the Middle East and the problems that they face there.
They both learned very important lessons from Northern Ireland.
Chief among them is that the human dynamic can often take over.
When leaders with opposite views finally engage it is vital to create a common bond of humanity among them.
Thus did Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein ended up discussing their families with leading unionists and realizing that many of the issues they faced day to day were the same.
Ian Paisley and Tony Blair discussed the role of religion in their lives. Paisley gave Blair a gift for his new born child.
Others on opposite sides discovered they were recent grandfathers and that they were terrified their grandchildren would grow up in a violent Northern Ireland
When you get opponents to move away from demonizing each other, that very particular human elements can bring about subtle and then real change.
I think there is a real possibility of that happening n the Middle East talks.
It is far too soon to write them off.
13 Comments
See all comments
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Report abuse
Israeli elections are decided on bases of who is more thuggish. Can we afford to align ourselves with people like that? Hillary Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, and refused to explain her rationale to her constituents. It's likely that that vote cost her the Democratic nomination for President, as well as Hillary's ongoing refusal to express regret. Any proposed "solution" to problems in the Middle East that includes Hillary Clinton playing any substantive role does not look promising for that reason alone.
Eventually the Israelis will get the message from other Jews that the Zionist experiment can't be sustained. Here's how this mess will resolve itself:
- America withdraws as Israel's political and financial guarantor;
- Zionist sympathizers, already somewhat isolated, will wander around trying to sell a narrative nobody's buying; and
- American Jews will become aware that their marriage of convenience with right wingers doesn't serve their purposes, and they will pull the plug on Israeli apartheid.
Report abuse
Most Popular News Stories
Most Popular Blog Posts
Report abuse