by Richard Boudreaux
JERUSALEM -- To: Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain
From: The Holy Land
Re: Well, it's complicated. . .
-- So you're competing to become the umpteenth American president burdened by the conflict over this hallowed patch of ground.
Like nearly every other candidate in recent decades, you make a pilgrimage here to show voters back home how much you care about peace and Israel's security. Sen. McCain, your spring visit to Sderot, that rocket-battered Israeli town, was a striking gesture.
This week, Sen. Obama, the Holy Land awaits you. Israelis and Palestinians. Skeptical eyes and ears, tuned to every gesture and word. A verbal minefield for even the most adept campaigner.
You'll get a helicopter tour, a feel for the intimacy of the land in dispute: Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip crowd a space smaller than Maryland between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.
Yet the conflict here is but one element, if indeed the centerpiece, of a wider regional crisis. Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon all impinge, in ways that make Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking more complicated than ever.
Here are 10 realities to keep in mind about the Holy Land, previous American efforts to pacify it, and the broader conundrum and choices one of you will face when President Bush leaves office six months from now:
*1* It could be worse. At least some of the players are talking about peace.
*2* The conflicts Israel faces have become maddeningly intertwined.
*3* Israel, which has nuclear weapons, and Iran, which might develop them, are openly threatening each other.
*4* Diplomatic success here requires a mix of Arab or Israeli initiatives and American persistence.
*5* America's "special relationship" with Israel can hurt its credibility as a mediator ...
Richard Boudreaux writes for the Los Angeles Times. Read the full story about things a president should know about the Middle East at latimes.com.
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Comments
Why should the average U.S. taxpayer care what happens to Israel?
Posted by: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot | July 22, 2008 7:49 AM
Whiskey, that is a very controversial question. But as a Christian country, we are invested in Israel spiritually. As a world leader we have to be concerned with freedom and peace - for everyone, not just Israel. But make no bones about it, every God-fearing Christian in America is a Jew in their hearts and serve the same God. Richard Boudreaux is right about every point especially the last one. The person who brokers peace in the middle east is going to be a hero and a shoe in for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Posted by: Keith Lifetime Chicagoan and Southsider | July 22, 2008 8:47 AM
One risk: An opening to militant anti-Israel forces might give them prestige without moderating their behavior, and that would tarnish the authority of U.S.-backed Palestinian leaders. ~ R.B.
An understatement. This is the detail that Jimmy Carter persistently disregards or maybe just doesn't understand in his quest to upgrade his impotent legacy.
Posted by: Django Scott - Houston Tx | July 22, 2008 10:30 AM
But Keith, we're not a Christian country. And you left out one of the Peoples of Your Book.
Posted by: Cheryl Hussein | July 22, 2008 1:52 PM