I’ve often fantasized about being elected President. (I suspect I’m not alone among political pundits in this regard. But I have a cunning master plan. <strokes white cat>Soon, my precious, soon!</strokes white cat>. One thing I’ve thought about is answering that question: “What will you do to facilitate the Middle East Peace Process?” To which I would reply: “Stay as far away from it as possible. It’s a scam and illusion and it only makes things worse.” Shock! Outrage! How dare you criticize our beloved emperor’s splendid new garments?
However, Thomas Friedman beat me to the punch:
“The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play. It is obvious that all the parties are just acting out the same old scenes, with the same old tired clichés — and that no one believes any of it anymore.”
I would be lying if I said I knew exactly where to place Friedman on the political map. Since (like everything else in the New York Times) I don’t read him on a regular basis, only when one of his columns gets linked to by someone else, my impression of him (a squishy moderate with a “globalization will solve everything” outlook, a healthy distaste for jihad, and an occasional a voice of reason on foreign policy) could be woefully mistaken. But to have someone who was previously a big peace-process backer in the heart of NYT-dom turn around and call it for the sham it is, that’s a huge turnaround.
The penultimate paragraph:
“If we are still begging Israel to stop building settlements, which is so manifestly idiotic, and the Palestinians to come to negotiations, which is so manifestly in their interest, and the Saudis to just give Israel a wink, which is so manifestly pathetic, we are in the wrong place. It’s time to call a halt to this dysfunctional ‘peace process,’ which is only damaging the Obama team’s credibility.”
Actually, I don’t think the Obama Administration has any credibility left to lose, especially on foreign policy, but that’s a quibble. Sadly, I also think there’s very little chance of Obama and his foreign policy team taking Friedman’s advice…