Kowtowing to Abbas Won't Keep Talks Alive

Obama is quick to criticize Israel for imagined threats to the peace process, while the Palestinian plan to pull out of talks has received no reprimand at all.

Earlier this week, Palestinian officials announced that they would not return to the negotiating table even if Israel issued a 90-day freeze on settlements.  This comes on the heels of President Obama’s recent chastisement of Israel for building in East Jerusalem – land he apparently considers disputed territory.  Obama claimed that “this kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations.” Yet in regards to this latest Palestinian effort to derail the peace process, the President has stayed silent.

If Israel’s construction in East Jerusalem is a hindrance to negotiations, then surely the non-negotiable cessation of talks can similarly be classified as an obstacle to constructive negotiations?

The President’s statement on building in East Jerusalem marked him at odds with the majority of Americans (see this recent poll from The Emergency Committee of Israel), and in stark opposition with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who stated that “Jerusalem isn't a settlement — Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.”  While Obama isn’t the first American leader to take a disappointing stance on the status of Jerusalem (the U.S. Embassy is after all stationed in Tel Aviv), his handling of Palestinian missteps is damningly inconsistent.

You might reason that the Palestinian action just happened, and the President is currently marshaling his staff writers for a bitter denunciation of the Palestinian withdrawal.  If this happens, then I stand corrected.  But considering that the President found time to condemn Israel while in the middle of calling Indonesia a “model of tolerance,” it seems like he could have put something immediate together while here in Washington, D.C.

More likely, this series of events reflects the same double standard evinced by the President when he enthusiastically criticized Israel during Vice President Biden’s visit, but then turned a blind eye to an event that happened only days later: a Palestinian Authority sanctioned ceremony dedicating a square in Ramallah to a suicide terrorist who killed 38 Israelis.

If President Obama chooses to criticize Israel, then fine, so be it.  But he should at least have the same standard for all teams in the game.