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Don't Expect an Obama-Netanyahu Blowup

(CNN) Aaron David Miller - The notion that a second-term president freed from the constraints of re-election will now hammer an Israeli prime minister with a big peace initiative just doesn't add up. First, there's no precedent for such a thing in American policy toward the Arab-Israeli negotiations. Bill Clinton's push at Camp David in July 2000 - the precedent most often cited - came not from Clinton, but at then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak's urging. Second, it's the presence of opportunity, not the absence of political constraints, that leads a U.S. president to act. Any sentient human being would see that a grand deal between Israelis and Palestinians isn't possible now. The focus of Yair Lapid's centrist party, which became the second largest party in the Knesset, was on economic issues and national service, not on negotiations with the Palestinians. The writer is a vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
2013-01-23 00:00:00
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