Month: June 2013
Why Israel needs a Palestinian state
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking at the McCain Institute Wednesday, tried to remain diplomatic about his opinions versus the policies of the current Israeli government. It was obvious however, that he held divergent views on the future of Israel.
Olmert’s opposition to the occupation of the Palestinian Territories is the basis of his label as “centrist” or “leftist” in Israeli politics. This surprised Olmert, who considered himself right wing at the beginning of his career. He fears that occupation of Palestinian territories has become the issue that determines left-wing or right-wing. This is one sign of increased polarization within Israeli politics. “I disagree with the occupation of the territories,” Olmert explained, “but I am not a socialist.”
The rest of the discussion was centered on leadership. Olmert explained how his belief regarding the territories came from his ten years as mayor of Jerusalem, when he built 100 Arab schools. But that did nothing to build sustainable peace. The Palestinians want their own state. The face of Israel must change if it is to remain both Jewish and democratic. Morbidly, Olmert explained that to save the life of a person, sometimes you have to cut off a part of the body. To save the Jewish and democratic character of Israel, it must cut off the Palestinian territories. Giving up the dream of greater Israel is heartbreaking. But stubbornly holding onto to that dream is a prescription for endless confrontation. Read more
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Shocked, shocked
I’m surprised so many are surprised that the National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting data on your use of the phone and the internet. What did you think all those folks out at Fort Meade (and around the country) were doing? Tapping individual phone lines? In fact, my guess–and it is only a guess–is that they are storing not only your phone records but also your phone calls, though they only listen to them when the super-secret (and therefore unaccountable to the public) court, created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, gives permission. “Collection” is a tricky word. Is the data collected when it goes into a computer, or only when it is examined?
The notion that they are discriminating in this data storage is not credible. The frequency and volume of material argue for capturing it all so that it can be mined in due course, depending on which bits seem to be most relevant to protecting national security, especially against terrorists. That there are abuses I have no doubt, but that should not blind us to the extraordinary power–I almost said virtue–of a system that can archive and later examine many billions of messages of all types. It would be surprising if a system of this sort had not produced material of value in preventing terrorist acts. Read more
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Energy interdependence is increasing
As the political and social dynamics in the Middle East continue to evolve as a result of the Arab Spring, attention has been devoted to China’s growing economic role in the region. China now imports nearly 1.5 million barrels of Iraqi oil each day. On Tuesday, NDN, a DC-based think tank, hosted a discussion with Dr. Gawdat Bahgat and I-wei Jennifer Chang to explore shifting energy realities and how they will affect the political landscape of the Middle East.
Bahgat, a professor at the National Defense University and an expert on Middle East energy policy, set out to debunk several prevalent myths concerning US policy in the Middle East. He rejected the “oil for security” tradeoff between the US and its Middle Eastern allies. As the argument goes, Middle Eastern exporters provide the US with oil at reasonable prices and in return the US provides military assistance and aids in those countries’ stability. Taking a more realist approach, Bahgat instead believes that each actor is simply acting in their own best interest. A decrease of Middle Eastern oil will not cause the US to recede from its other commitments in the region. Instead, the US presence in the Middle East will not significantly change in the foreseeable future. Read more
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Power, Power and Rice
While some are predicting (or hoping for) big changes in American foreign policy in the liberal interventionist/human rights first direction with the appointments of Susan Rice as national security adviser and Samantha Power as UN ambassador, I doubt it.
Both have already left marks on US foreign policy, Samantha through the Atrocities Prevention Board and Susan in the Libya intervention and many other efforts at the UN, including the successful use of its Human Rights Commission to report on atrocities in Syria. I wouldn’t suggest these are enormous departures from the past, but they certainly reflect the view that saving foreigners from mass atrocity has its place in US p0licy and needs to be given due consideration along with more traditional national interests of the military, political and economic varieties.
The main “to intervene or not” issue today is Syria. Susan and Samantha have both already been involved in internal debates on Syria, where President Obama ignored the advice of Hillary Clinton, David Petraeus and Leon Panetta. They all advised a more interventionist stance. It is the president, not the advisers, who is choosing not to try to stop the Syrian civil war, largely because of issues unrelated to Syria: Russian support on the withdrawal from Afghanistan and in the nuclear negotiations with Iran, not to mention the American public’s war weariness and the parlous budget situation. No doubt someone at the Pentagon is also telling him that allowing extremist Sunnis and Shia to continue killing each other in Syria is in the US interest. Read more
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Ituri: DRC’s forgotten conflict zone
Matthias Witt, who studied post-conflict reconstruction and humanitarian response at Georgetown University, currently works in public health and emergency programming for an international NGO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)’s Ituri district. He reports:
The DRC has been covered in the news extensively since fighting flared up again in November 2012, when the M23 rebel movement took over Goma. This was yet another reminder of the international community’s failed efforts to stabilize the region and keep the “peace.”
The events were not without consequences; they led to the Kampala peace negotiations between a variety of armed groups and the Congolese government, and they catalyzed an African Union summit paper aimed, as so often before, at supporting regional stability. It also led to the creation of yet another UN post – the Special Envoy of the Secretary General to the Great Lakes, a role now occupied by Ireland’s Mary Robinson – and the extension of the mandate of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). The Security Council added some extra firepower in the form of a “Special Intervention Brigade” authorized to seek out and eliminate armed rebel movements in the country’s troubled East. The almost comical international legalese of this particular resolution aside – the mandate of the Special Brigade is apparently “unprecedented, yet without setting a precedent” – the dynamics coming out of this decision could make for some dramatic developments in the region, for better or worse. Read more
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Comfortably numb
While Tzipi Livni was lifting spirits at the American Jewish Committee, the New America Foundation hosted Israeli journalists Linoy Bar-Geffen and Uri Misgav this week to discuss how Israeli media ignore the occupation of Palestine. Both are hoping to change this attitude and increase dialogue on Palestinian issues in the Middle East and in Washington.
Uri Misgav of Haaretz explained that coverage of the conflict and the occupation of Palestine has diminished significantly in the past decade. Positive coverage of relations between Israelis and Palestinians peaked during the period of the Oslo Accords of 1993. Young Israelis actively tried to meet and learn from Palestinians. The media attempted humanized stories about the conflict. Coverage wasn’t balanced, but at least it was widespread.
The current lull in violence between Israel and Palestine has failed to resuscitate positive stories and instead has halted all media coverage. News stories about Palestine don’t sell. The Israeli public does not welcome and is not interested. Sarah Wildman, foreign policy correspondent with PoliticsDaily.com noted that, just like in America, reports of suicide bombing and extremists sell papers, but more nuanced coverage of human interest stories does not. Read more
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