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An Inauspicious Moment to Announce Changes to Longstanding U.S. Policy

(Foreign Policy) Michael Singh - The president is surely aware that there is little prospect at the moment for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, in part because of the resentments built up over the last two years, in part because of the Palestinians' focus on building support for a unilateral approach, and also because of the recently-announced Hamas-Fatah agreement. Yet he chose this inauspicious moment to announce changes to longstanding U.S. policy on both territorial and security issues, in ways which were widely interpreted as walking back assurances given to Israel by both President Clinton and President Bush. His latest foray into the issue will further fray U.S.-Israel relations, and encourage the Palestinians to believe that their strategy of unilateralism is paying dividends. If the objective, therefore, was to increase prospects for negotiations, the likely outcome is precisely the opposite. The writer is managing director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council.
2011-05-24 00:00:00
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