Obama Gets Feisty in Addressing Israeli, Palestinian Leaders

As though his impatience will bring to an end the stalemate and ill will that has raged between Jews and Muslims for millennia, President Barack Obama called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to launch new Mideast peace negotiations in earnest yesterday. Obama terse tone and his comments in general are placing him squarely in the middle of the continued standoff. After the first meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, there was hope among many in the Obama administration that new peace negotiations would begin organically. In the absence of such a development, it appears that Obama is content to try to will the parties to the negotiating table.

Before there are to be talks on peace in the region, Palestinian leaders are demanding that construction of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories halt. Obama has tried to convey those sentiments to the Israelis, though he has used terms like "restrain," much to the consternation of the Palestinian leadership. Obama, his best mean voice booming and eyebrows furrowed, noted, "Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations – it is time to move forward. We cannot continue the same pattern of taking tentative steps forward and then stepping back."

What the president seems not to realize, of course, is that such tentative steps back and forth are actually a huge step forward when one considers the history of these two peoples. If the problem is solved by the year 3,000 A.D., it would be nothing short of a miracle. To expect any significant progress during the remainder of the president’s term in office is, shall we say…unlikely.