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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Obama should send Bill Clinton to Middle East to solve Israeli/Palestinian issue

Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2011 at 08:05 AM
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President Obama needs to send Clinton to the Middle East -- and no, I don't mean Hillary Clinton.

Following the failure of the George Mitchell intervention, Obama badly need to have a new Middle East policy in place otherwise he risks the US becoming irrelevant.

It has been clear for some time that neither the Israeli or Palestinian leadership was ever committed to what George Mitchell was doing.

The difference in Northern Ireland was that Mitchell had leaders like Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern utterly committed to his strategy as well as Sinn Fein and Ulster Unionist leaders.

Without that goodwill, George Mitchell might just as well have sacrificed a goat and hoped for more success.

Bill Clinton would be a different kettle of fish however.

No one carries more authority, including Obama in the Middle East.

He is regarded in both camps as the man who barely missed making an historic peace towards the end of his presidency, thwarted in the end by Yasser Arafat who would not make the final leap.

Clinton would likely relish another opportunity to settle the conflict for once and for all.

With Obama's stock rising domestically after the bin Laden killing it is time for him to really focus on Middle East peace, key to the whole region, as his next Mission Impossible.

And Bill Clinton is the only man who can achieve that impossible goal.



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18 comments

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colkelley | May 15, 2011, 09:21 AM EDT
Antoman, this is not the 18th Century. Isolationism and allowing the world to collapse around us is not "good politics."

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antoman | May 15, 2011, 08:55 AM EDT
America is at war.Its economy is based now on waging war for profit.The wise words of President Eisenhower come to mind.Warning the Government and the people not to give too much power to the merchants of death.Those for whom war is good business.So in saying that should'nt America withdraw its troops and secure its own border before trifling in the borders of foreign country's?

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GeorgeDillon | May 15, 2011, 08:20 AM EDT
More baloney from the Clintonista O'Dowd. Clinton already had eight years to bring about a just settlement of this issue. He didn't. Why would he do better now? How has his wife done? We are not one inch nearer to peace than we were years ago. And he shows his kneejerk bias by the demeaning reference to Arafat. What kind of racist thinks that weak nations must take the settlements thrust upon them by strong nations? Arafat made many mistakes, but at least he didn't accept a Palestinian bantustan or Indian reservation, which is what O'Dowd seems to favor.

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