It would appear that Obama has forsaken the advice of more balanced and knowledgeable Middle East advisers for the misleading advice of AIPAC man Dennis Ross to satisfy the Israel Lobby. As a result, we won't hear Obama complain, for example, about Israel's apartheid policies or the latest Israeli settlement to be built in the West Bank killing the peace efforts (assuming they are not already dead) http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331079273&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Ross served, sadly for America, as the US mediator between Israelis and Palestinians at Camp David! He has spent the past few years blaming the Palestinians for not accepting Israel's "generous" offers at Camp David! (what else can one expect from an AIPAC man).

As an aside, Ross was also involved in raising money for Scooter Libby's (another powerful Israel Lobby figure) Legal Defense Fund. Ross and Indyk are the last people Obama needs if he is to make a change for America in the Middle East.

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001226.php

Palestinian civil society institutions were (and some still are) quite strong. There is also an enduring tradition of community and family support structures. The problem is the vicious and constant Israeli attempts to destroy any real potential foundation of a Palestinian state. Take Bir Zeit University for example, a fine academic institution, where Hanan Ashrawi was Dean of Arts. It got devastated by the constant Israeli closures, checkpoints and attacks which prevent students and faculty from going to school.

The fact, Susan, is that the "one state" solution is not something that needs to be created. It already exists (Israel is in full control of the West Bank and has been for over 60 years). What is needed is to give the Palestinian residents their civil and democratic rights (the alternative being the Israeli apartheid system that is practiced today with "for-jews-only" roads and settlements). There is a powerful transformation taking place now where West Bank Palestinians are gradually coming to the realization that the "two-state" solution is no longer viable. More people are calling for recognition of the status quo (i.e. full Israeli control of the West Bank notwithstanding the illusion perpetuated by Israel of a Palestinian "authority") and drawing the conclusion that integration with Israel is the only realistic option.

As for Gaza, it probably can evolve as its own state, possibly under international protection (people would probably vote Hamas out of power once they are no longer threatened by Israel). There is no hope of this though while Israel continues its choke hold on 1.5 Palestinian civilians there. Perhaps the current ceasefire will eventually evolve into some kind of permanent agreement.

The so called peace process in the Middle East has turned into something that is more about process and less about peace. The Israelis created an environment of a make-belief Palestinian government ruling over tiny Bantustans that are fully surrounded by Israeli-controlled areas, and greatly accelerated the colonization of the West Bank (the number of Israeli colonists living the West Bank more than doubled during the first 10 years of the Oslo process).

I think the process has to be redefined to recognize the fact that a Palestinian state is no longer possible (you only have to look at a map of the Jewish colonies which are spread all over the West Bank and are connected by "for-Jews-only" roads to realize this is the case). West Bank Palestinians, who have been living under Israeli control for over 50 years, should simply ask for their democratic right to be part of the state that rules over them (and that doesn't seem to want to let go of their land).

As always, Israel apologists put the onus on the occupied Palestinians to bring about peace while Israel continues to occupy, murder and practice apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestinian lands.

Even Abbas, this most pro-US of Palestinian leaders, is about to give up when his US-trained and supported security forces are undermined by ceaseless incursions by the Israeli army into Palestinian cities http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004402.html

As is typical with Israel's apologists, bigdakine describes Israel's offer at Camp David, which was designed by AIPAC's Dennis Ross, as "generous". Professors Walt and Mearsheimer put the Camp David offer in the right context in their study about the Israel Lobby.

"David Ben-Gurion told Nahum Goldmann, the president of the World Jewish Congress:

If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country . . . We come from Israel, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?

Since then, Israeli leaders have repeatedly sought to deny the Palestinians’ national ambitions. When she was prime minister, Golda Meir famously remarked that ‘there is no such thing as a Palestinian.’ Pressure from extremist violence and Palestinian population growth has forced subsequent Israeli leaders to disengage from the Gaza Strip and consider other territorial compromises, but not even Yitzhak Rabin was willing to offer the Palestinians a viable state. Ehud Barak’s purportedly generous offer at Camp David would have given them only a disarmed set of Bantustans under de facto Israeli control. "

- http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html

What I find truly amazing is how the Israel Lobby - having succeeded in embroiling the US in a war of choice in Iraq through misinformation and deception - continues to push for an even more disastrous war of choice with Iran without any main stream politician having the guts to make the obvious link to Israel.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html

Just read that Obama was advised not to go to the West Bank due to "security reasons". I guess the Israelis don't want him to see the checkpoints and the "for Jews-only" apartheid roads they built there.