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People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Hillary Clinton will apply Irish lessons to Middle East peace talks

Posted on Monday, September 06, 2010 at 12:46 AM

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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.

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hectorfromTG4 | Sep 09, 2010, 02:19 AM EDT

Another chapter in the history of American imperialism.

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WatchingMedia | Sep 07, 2010, 05:04 AM EDT

Good article, except Hillary Clinton is a lightweight. She never gets anything done, and is doing a terrible job with the US State Dept.

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Monsoonman | Sep 06, 2010, 06:24 PM EDT

pssst...Hey roberts, the rumor you have been spreading among your kool aid drinkers, that hillary walks on water? Well its sort of true, but the ice skating rink she stepped out on was frozen.

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jimmy12003 | Sep 06, 2010, 05:30 PM EDT

your right peterson, there will never be peace there, ontil the unwanted terrorist occupiers have been nuked!

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maloney | Sep 06, 2010, 04:04 PM EDT

hillary/obummer don't care about Isreal in any way. It's election time. It also sets her up for a run at president down the road 2012 or 2016. Abbas has no control over hamas or hezbola. It's all for show. Isreal need to dump the US as long as obummer or hillary are in power.

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peterson | Sep 06, 2010, 02:39 PM EDT

There will never be a lasting peace in the middle East !

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killowen | Sep 06, 2010, 02:19 PM EDT

If she's right nothing will be achieved as in NI. Thanks for the charade that she, Obama and Blair engages in.

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Monsoonman | Sep 06, 2010, 12:36 PM EDT

Hillary will bring her prevarication prowess with her, I am sure both sides will be impressed. At least she has experience being under fire, according to her.

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JamesMurphy | Sep 06, 2010, 12:31 PM EDT

You are right, Mr. Roberts. There is no substitute for opposing factions communicating in good faith. Even an old war mongerer like Winsston Churchill understood that in calling for "Jaw Jaw" as opposed to "War War." I, too, believe that peace may now be possible between two old enemies in the Middle East. That is, if Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu can be trusted to carry through on his promises. He hasn't shown a faclity for this in the past. This time, though, there are more promising signs for success. One can only hope so.

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Advocate | Sep 06, 2010, 11:06 AM EDT

Your Bible says the Zionist Jews would ALWAYS be at war! (Not ALL Jews! Zionist's) They are the only one's in the evil land of Israel, not to be confused with Isreal, the People, His Chosen, of the Bible; who were to NEVER return! America is the New JerUSAelm. anti-American's such as Hillary, Dodd, Insane Hussein, Reid, Etc., should be tried for treason! I pray Yahweh might consider Blessing Ireland and what's left of, OUR America once again... He did that some time ago, but we silently allowed a tiny minority of enemies to all but banish Him. We became 'Morally Bankrupt.' Kick Him out, His Blessings go with! There will be no peace!

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jakeleg | Sep 06, 2010, 09:46 AM EDT

Will never be peace over there. They never forget the past happenings.

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Kinlough | Sep 06, 2010, 08:40 AM EDT

The peace process in Northern Ireland involved the release of convicted terrorists. Hundreds of them. The Americans encouraged this. This might be part of the process in the Middle East. The Americans might encourage this. Hold on! The Americans were highly critical of the Scottish Government when it released Megrahi. Is it okay to release the murderers of Irish, Israeli, and Palestinian people, but not the murderers of Americans?

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DennisQ | Sep 06, 2010, 05:16 AM EDT

One way for America to promote peace in the Middle East is to stop taking sides. Israel is a wealthy country and can get along without the lavish $3 billion annual surplus we give them every year, no strings attached. If they used the money for anything productive or positive, but they apparently use it for weapons to maintain apartheid.

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.

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