President Obama will be spending most of the day today meeting with world leaders in New York. Even the AP is writing that little will come out of these sessions. But of course, the focus will be on the trilateral talks between Obama, Bibi Netanyahu, and Mahmoud Abbas—who has already said he will not negotiate with Israel without a complete settlement freeze.
No one in the White House, the Israeli government or among Palestinian officials is publicly predicting a breakthrough out of the three-way Mideast meeting that President Barack Obama is hosting here. And yet the session Tuesday is seen as a crucial step for Obama.
Why it’s a crucial step, the AP says:
One reason to have the meeting is the need to get momentum going.
“The U.S. wants to and the U.S. needs to negotiate in public,” said Jon Alterman, a senior fellow in Middle East policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former State Department official in President George W. Bush’s first term. “There’s a perceived need for the U.S. to visibly be involved in making progress on Arab-Israeli issues.”
Ah. Appearances. Well, Obama is great at appearances. But not so great at getting results. In fact, the world has been essentially stiffing him on everything.
But eight months after his inauguration, all that good will so far has translated into limited tangible policy benefits for Mr. Obama. As much as they may prefer to deal with Mr. Obama instead of his predecessor, George W. Bush, foreign leaders have not gone out of their way to give him what he has sought.
European allies still refuse to send significantly more troops to Afghanistan. The Saudis basically ignored Mr. Obama’s request for concessions to Israel, while Israel rebuffed his demand to stop settlement expansion. North Korea defied him by testing a nuclear weapon. Japan elected a party less friendly to the United States. Cuba has done little to liberalize in response to modest relaxation of sanctions. India and China are resisting a climate change deal. And Russia rejected new sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program even as Mr. Obama heads into talks with Tehran.
But hey, the world likes our president again, and that’s the important thing, right? It’s much better to be popular than accomplished.
As for the trilateral meeting, well, nobody’s expecting anything in Israel, either.
Sources in the PM’s entourage said the meeting between Netanyahu, Abbas and Obama would likely be symbolic in nature, adding that they do not foresee any diplomatic achievements during the General Assembly’s session.
But don’t worry. Jimmy Carter, Stephen Walt, and their anti-Israel followers will all be happy to place the blame squarely on Israel’s shoulders. The fact that Hamas said only yesterday that they will not respect any deal made by Abbas during this summit is irrelevant. Hamas rejectionism isn’t a problem, you see. Only Israeli settlement building.
At least Pee-Wee Herman found his bike at the end of his great adventure. Barack Obama will be coming out of this with nothing.
I’d guess if you held most world leaders down and tickled their bare feet with a feather long enough most of them would say “We’d really rather deal with Dubya. You knew where he stood and he did what he said he would.” Obama is clearly waaay out of his depth (and not just on foreign and military affairs either) and none of his advisors looks like a life jacket for him.
Ironically he’d never think that he could behave so fecklessly or weakly with his political adversaries in Chicago. There he won a reputation as a master of dirty politics. Too bad we can’t convince him that Gorilla Boy is his personal enemy, he’d have Iran smoked by sundown.