ANALYSIS / Is Obama's Mideast peace platform coming into focus?

[IndianaGreen]

Bush has been AWOL from peacemaking in the Middle East. His neocon policies have brought untold deaths and destruction to a region already savaged by ancient disputes and conflicts. There is no way telling how things would have turned out had Al Gore been allowed to assume the Presidency he rightfully won. Surely a Gore Administration would have continued the efforts of the Clinton Administration to secure a peace in which Israel's security would have been preserved and the Palestinians would have enjoyed sovereignty over their own land. I hope and pray that President Obama will restore America's role as an honest broker for peace. A US brokered peace between Israel and Palestinian state would be a death blow to the religious radicals that have exploited the conflict to recruit terrorists to their cause.

The following article comes from the liberal Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz:

Last update - 14:59 22/11/2008

ANALYSIS / Is Obama's Mideast peace platform coming into focus?

By Amir Oren, Haaretz Correspondent

Eight weeks before Barack Obama is sworn into office, signs have emerged over the weekend that point to what is turning out to be the new administration's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is the conclusion that one reaches when considering the upcoming appointment of Hillary Clinton to the position of secretary of state; the reports that Obama could name retired general James Jones to the position of national security adviser; and the president-elect's reliance on the advice of Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser in the administrations of Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. Obama and Scowcroft are said to have spoken at least twice since the election.

Despite the attention being paid to Clinton, no less important is the move made two days ago by Scowcroft and the man who succeeded him in office as national security adviser to Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski. In an op-ed piece penned for the Washington Post, Scowcroft (whom John McCain considered naming as a special envoy to the Middle East) and Brzezinski (who was close to Obama during the initial stages of his candidacy for president) offered a kind of first draft of "The Obama Plan."

The former NSA chiefs - who represent a wide, bipartisan consensus by dint of their service to Democratic and Republican presidents - praise President Bush's peace efforts over the last year and call upon Obama to lend "priority attention" to the Israeli-Arab peace process. Even though they do not name names, one can clearly notice an effort to influence on the election results in Israel so as to favor moderate candidates - Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak - over Benjamin Netanyahu.

The crux of their plan to solve the conflict centers on four principles which they believe Obama ought to adopt and publicly declare as policy:

• An Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, with slight alterations that are to be mutually agreed upon.

• Compensation for Palestinian refugees in lieu of exercising the right of return to pre-1948 Israel.

• Jerusalem as a "real home" to two capitals.

• A demilitarized Palestinian state.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1039874.html