March 22, 2013

President Barack Obama’s trip to the Middle East this week may not be just another visit to the region; it could become the catalyst for restarting the peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis. Speaking yesterday to mostly young Israelis in Jerusalem, Obama urged them to demand peace from their political leaders.

He acknowledged the hardship in overcoming the impasse to peace between the Palestinians and Israelis but stressed to the youth a theme he used throughout his presidential campaign: you must create the change you want to see.

Whereas in 2009, Obama demanded that Israel halt settlements as a precondition to peace talks, in yesterday’s speech, “bold and courageous” as it was, he failed to mention his demand to freeze settlements. In December 2012 alone, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed for an additional 11,000 homes to be built beyond the 1967 borders. With these factors in mind, President Obama still presses on that peace is possible.

During his visit to the Middle East, Obama also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Despite the lack of agreement on settlement activity, Obama stressed the importance of moving forward with peace talks.

“If the expectation is that we can only have direct negotiations when everything is settled ahead of time, then there is no point for negotiations, so I think it is important to work through this process even if there are irritants on both sides,” Obama said, adding that the settlement issue is an important one, but working on the peace process will also solve the settlement problem.

His case for peace for both sides was a simple one: It’s a mutually beneficial outcome.

President Obama became the first president to tell an Israeli audience to envision their lives as Palestinians in vivid detail.

“Put yourself in their shoes – look at the world through their eyes,” he said. “It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents, every single day.

“It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their homes. Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer,” he said. “Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.”

Last week, President Obama met with Haris Tarin, MPAC's Director of the Washington, DC, office and a group of Muslim and Arab American leaders to share ideas on engaging with the Palestinians.

“This meeting is an important first step by the President and his administration in ensuring that reliable voices of Palestinians and other concerned groups and people in the region are heard,” said Tarin. 

We have yet to see the outcome of the President’s trip and the commencement of renewed peace talks. However, it was refreshing to hear Obama state that political leaders will not take risks unless there is pressure from the people.

Perhaps we were speaking to the wrong people in the past going through the traditional route of diplomacy. Maybe the President is on to something by speaking to the young people of the region – urging them to demand their right for peace in a just manner.

The President ended his impassioned speech with: “May God bless you. May God bless Israel. May God bless the United States of America.”

We look forward to the day when the state of Palestine will be included in this blessing.