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Unrequited Hope: Obama and Palestine
Abstract
The early hope that the two-state solution would be implemented during the Obama presidency faded as both the Mitchell and Kerry negotiations failed. Only during his final weeks in office did Obama agree to the US abstaining on a UN vote condemning the ongoing Israeli settlements in territory earmarked as part of a future Palestinian state. After he leaves the presidency, there is a slim chance that Obama might join Jimmy Cater in working to mobilize American voters and taxpayers around efforts by Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) and other movements to oppose pro-Zionist lobbies, especially American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and to force Congress and the President to pressure Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Territories and enable the creation of a de-militarized Palestinian state.
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Notes
“Remarks by the President at Cairo University, 6-04-09,” June 4, 2009. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-cairo-
For more on Obama's early years and international experiences, as well as his acknowledgment of Palestinian national rights, see: David Maraniss, Barack Obama: The Story (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012) and David Axelrod, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics (New York: Penguin, 2015).
Robert Farley, “One of Obama's First Calls Was to Palestinian Leader and Israeli Leader,” Polifact , May 8, 2009, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/may/08/chain-email/one-obamas-first-calls-was-palestinian-leader-and-/, accessed, February 8, 2017.
Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History with Documents , 9th ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2017) provides a solid, short overview of peace negotiations through 2015; Josh Ruebner, “Obama's Legacy on Israel/Palestine,” Journal of Palestine Studies XLVI: 1 (Autumn 2016) is a highly critical and well-researched discussion of Obama's presidency and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Raphael Ahren, “Why Is Israel So Afraid of the Arab Peace Initiative?” June 18, 2013, The Times of Israel, www.timesofisrael.com; http://timesofisrael.com/why-is-israel-so-afraid-of-the-arab-peac, accessed, December 2, 2017.
A detailed account of the negotiations during Obama's first years in office is found in: Carol Migdalovitz, “Israeli-Arab Negotiations: Background, Conflicts and U.S. Policy,” January 29, 2010, CRS Report for Congress, Congressional Research Service, 7-5700, www.crs.gov.
Mark Landler, “Obama and Abbas: From Speed Dial to Not Talking,” The New York Times , September 22, 2011.
Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict , 517.
Philip Weiss, “Dennis Ross Tells American Jews, ‘We Need to Be Advocates for Israel,’” June 17, 2016, http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/american-advocates-palestinians/, accessed, December 12, 2016.
Jennifer Rubin [“Right Turn” blogger], “Dennis Ross: Critics Were Right about Obama, Iran and Israel,” Opinion, The Washington Post , October 25, 2015.
Raphael Ahren, “Clinton Would Avoid Obama-Esque Spats with Israel, Ex-Diplomat Says,” The Times of Israel , June 26, 2016, http://www.timesofisrael.com/clinton-would-avoid-obama-esque-spats, accessed, December 2, 2016.
Aaron David Miller, “Israel's Lawyer.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200883.html, accessed, December 22, 2016.
Transcript of interview by Joe Klein, conducted January 15, 2010, accessible at https://www.time.com and Migdalovitz, “Israeli-Arab Negotiations: Background, Conflicts and U.S. Policy,” 4.
Bob Woodward, Obama's Wars (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010).
Richard Adams, “Binyamin Netanyahu's Congressional Love-In,” The Guardian , May 24, 2011; see also Andrew J. Bacevich, America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History (New York: Random House, 2016).
Ibid.
Mark Landler, “After Much Rancor, Obama and Netanyahu Meet, Probably for Last Time,” The New York Times , September 21, 2016; see also, Peter Baker, “For Obama and Netanyahu, a Final Clash in a Relationship That Never Clicked,” The New York Times , December 24, 2016. For a further analysis of the problems regarding Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, see Roger Cohen, “Why Israeli Still Refuses to Choose,” The New York Times , October 20, 2016.
“Why Obama Waited 8 Years to Take on Netanyahu,” MONDOWEISS , http://mondoweiss.net/2016/12/obama-waited-netanyahu/?utm_source…, accessed December 30, 2016.
Geoffrey Aronson, “Obama's Palestine Policy: Slogans and Throwaway Phrases,” Al-Jazeera , Opinion, January 29, 2016, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/01/obama-palestine-policy-slogans-throwaway-phrases-160128062948815.html, accessed December 2, 2016.
Christi Parsons and Michael A. Memoli, “Obama Raises Possibility of Allowing U.N. Vote on Palestinian Statehood,” http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-obama-israel-palestini., accessed November 19, 2016.
“Separation into Two States Is Essential for Israel's Security,” The New York Times , July 27, 2016.
Ibid.
“Jimmy Carter: Americans Must Recognize Palestine,” Op-Ed Contributor, The New York Times , November 28, 2016.
Ibid.
Eli Lake, “Israel Braces for Obama's Parting Gift to Palestinians,” October 7, 2016, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-07, accessed December 29, 2016; see also, Khaled Elgindy, “Obama's Record on Israeli-Palestinian Peace: The President's Disquieting Silence,” October 6, 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/israel/2016-10-05/obamas-record-israeli-palestinian-peace, accessed, December 2, 2016.
“Text of Egypt's UNSC Draft Resolution on Settlements,” UN Watch , December 22, 2016, https://www.unwatch.org/text-egypts-unsc-draft-resolution-settlements/, accessed December 29, 2016.
“Israel Lobbied Trump to Help Derail U.N. Resolution,” http://www.wsj.com/articles/Israel-urges-u-s-to-veto-u-n-resolution-on, accessed December 29, 2016. Peter Baker and Somini Sengupta, “President-Elect Moves to Shape Mideast Policy,” The New York Times , December 23, 2016.
Patrick Wintour, “UK's Key Role in Brokering UN Resolution on Israeli Settlements Confirmed,” December 28, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/28/uks-key-role-in-brokering-un-resolution-on-israeli-settlements-confirmed, accessed December 29, 2016.
Edith M. Lederer, “Proposed UN Resolution Demands End to Israeli Settlements,” The Washington Post , December 21, 2016, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/proposal-un-resol, accessed, December 24, 2016; Jay Solomon, Carol E. Lee and Farnaz Fasshihi, “A Frantic Path to U.N. Vote on Israeli Settlements,” http://www.wsj/com/articles/a-frantic-path-to-u-n-vote-on-israeli-sett., accessed December 29, 2016.
Wintour, “UK's Key Role in Brokering UN Resolution on Israeli Settlements Confirmed.”
Somini Sengupta and Rick Gladstone, “U.S. Abstains in U.N. Vote Against Israeli Settlements,” The New York Times , December 24, 2016.
Ruth Eglash, “Netanyahu Calls U.N. Resolution on Settlements ‘Shameful,’” The Washington Post , December 24, 2016; see also: The Wall Street Journal, “Israel's Netanyahu Calls White House Action on U.N. Resolution ‘Shameful,’” http://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-netanyahu-calls-white-house-acti, accessed December 28, 2016.
Peter Beaumont, “Israel Summons Ambassadors for Dressing Down over UN Resolution,” December 25, 2016, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/25/israel-summons-amb, accessed December 27, 2016.
Josh Siegel, “US Has Participated in Other UN Resolutions Chiding Israel,” December 27, 2016, http://dailysignal.com/2016/12/27/us-has-participated-in-other-un-resol, accessed January 12, 2017; Seth J. Frantzman, “Abstaining from History: Here's All the UN RESOLUTIONS on Israel the US Abstained on,” December 24, 2016, https://sethfrantzman.com/2016/12/24/abstaining-from-history-heres-all, accessed, January 12, 2017.
David E. Sanger, “Kerry to Outline Vision of Israeli-Palestinian Accord,” The New York Times , December 28, 2016.
U.S. Department of State: Diplomacy in Action, “Remarks on Middle East Peace,” John Kerry, December 28, 2016, https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/12/266119.htm, accessed December 29, 2016.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Jon Sharman, “Barack Obama Used Last Hours in Office to Send $221 Million to the Palestine Authority,” January 24, 2017, Independent, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barack-obama-palestinian-west-bank-gaza-donald-trump-embassy-a7542666.html, accessed February 8, 2017.
Bacevich, America's War for the Greater Middle East , 322–325.
Janice J. Terry, U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East: The Role of Lobbies and Special Interest Groups (London: Pluto Press, 2005), 94–95. Chapter 9, “A Major Production: The Arab Boycott Campaign,” provides a detailed discussion of the successful Zionist campaign against the Arab boycott. The boycott was established to prevent the import of products into Arab states from Israel, while a secondary boycott aimed to deter third parties from doing business in Israel. In the United States, Zionist campaigns against the boycott led to a number of laws and regulations condemning and making it illegal for American companies to comply with the boycott.
Nathan Thrall, “Obama & Palestine: The Last Chance,” http://nybooks.com/daily/2016/09/10/obama-israel-, accessed November 19, 2016; Jonathan Alter, The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), 195–198.