The negotiations between Palestinians and Israel have survived for nine months due to Obama’s pressure on Israel.  Netanyahu was wise to go along with the US demand to do the negotiations, knowing full well they were futile. Obama wanted at any cost that Israel accept to negotiate, first to show that he is better than previous presidents, and second, according to my analysis, in order to please the Arabs, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf countries, except for Qatar. We should not forget that his Cairo Speech has brought almost no results at all, since Obama made the great mistake of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Thus Tunisia suffered in order to get rid of the Ennahda, an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt, thanks to General Al Sissi, a friend of Mubarak and of the Saudis, deposed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. As for Libya, Obama was completely incompetent in his strategy, leaving it to France to take care of it and leading from behind, which resulted in a catastrophe after the demise of Kaddafi, because no one was in charge of all the arms and ammunition left behind by his army. Qatar stepped in and sold these arms to Syria, to terrorist groups who paid them more and to Hamas, an affiliate of Morsi.

Having said that, Obama has never made any move against the terrorists, although he knew what was going on in the world and he knew full well that Abbas was only playing his role, but had no power. Proof of this is that now he sided with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority became a part of it. Alas, it’s just a waste of time and resources to have sent Kerry, who knows neither the Arab nor the Jewish world. How could they have forced Israel to release criminals and let Abbas honor them and celebrate them?

In my view, this is not the right moment for real peace, as the Palestinians are neither ripe nor educated for this purpose. The proof is that the Arabs who live in Israel can enjoy all democratic rights. Many of them are volunteers to serve in the Israeli Army. Time for peace will come when the Arabs will understand that it cannot be imposed upon a party by force and stop terrorist actions. Since the Oslo accord, the Palestinian elite were not ripe to prepare their people for any peace process and to educate them towards peace and civil liberty. The Palestinians know very well that for them the Israelis are a source of income to help them survive the misery and even the settlements provided them with work and gave them the opportunity to enhance their quality of life.

I believe that Obama’s philosophy, by wanting to push the peace process forward by force, was not reasonable and it failed, just as Obama’s intervention in the Arab World – Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Iraq, etc. The wave of terrorism in the Arab World can only inflict damage to the Arab people. To bring peace about, a lot of wisdom is needed from both sides.

Copyright 2014 Emile Tubiana