clipped from: Along with the neocon personnel, their dogmas should be tossed too. I'd start with the ridiculous idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not thwart America's goals and interests in the Middle East.
But hopefully the neocon moment has passed forever. Neoconservative fantasy mongers--having led the country to a failed war in Iraq--have no credibility. On the other hand, the foreign policy realists, who opposed the Iraq war from the get-go, have been vindicated.
"A vigorously renewed effort to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict could fundamentally change both the dynamics in the region and the strategic calculus of key leaders. Real progress would push Iran into a more defensive posture. Hezbollah and Hamas would lose their rallying principle. American allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States would be liberated to assist in stabilizing Iraq. And Iraq would finally be seen by all as a key country that had to be set right in the pursuit of regional security.
"Arab leaders are now keen to resolve the 50-year-old dispute....Resuming the Arab-Israeli peace process is not a matter of forcing concessions from Israel or dragooning the Palestinians into surrender. Most of the elements of a settlement are already agreed upon. What is required is to summon the will of Arab and Israeli leaders, led by a determined American president, to forge the various elements into a conclusion that all parties have already publicly accepted in principle."
In fact, the only issue about which all Muslims are in virtual agreement is the Israeli-Palestinian issue and the need to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
- Otherwise moderate Arabs will continue to live under constant threat from the Islamist radicals.
- Al Qaeda and the Taliban will flourish. And
- America's enemies in Iraq will continue to have a banner behind which to rally.
- In the end, pro-American regimes--like those in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan--could conceivably be consumed in a conflict fueled, in part, by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The shameful right-wing smear machine that brought us outright lies and half-truths about President-elect Barack Obama during the presidential campaign is back again. Although it seems like it never left.
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