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The Boston Globe
Leaked documents show Netanyahu is the obstacle
February 6, 2011


YOUR EDITORIAL “Obama should use UN threat to revive Mideast peace talks’’ must be commended. The recently leaked documents known as the “Palestine Papers’’ show that the notion propagated widely over the years by self-commissioned voices of wisdom, that Israel cannot make peace because it has no Palestinian partner, is bogus. The same is true of the notion that the United States is an honest broker in the negotiations.
Indeed, the Palestine Papers show that it is the Palestinians who have not had an Israeli partner with whom to make peace. The current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had to be dragged kicking and screaming to force out of him the words “two-state solution.’’

Furthermore, the documents show that the United States has always been Israel’s facilitator. No matter how much the Palestinians have agreed to, it has never been enough for the Israelis.

Despite all that, peace is achievable by melding the Arab plan with the Olmert plan to create two states, and with the United States finally playing the real role of an honest broker leading the international community to help the Palestinians and Israelis implement such a plan.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle for the United States is the intransigence of the Israel-can-do-no-wrong crowd in this country. President Obama has a historic opportunity to change that. The national security interest of the United States demands no less.

Fariborz S. Fatemi
McLean, Va.
The writer is a former professional staff member with the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.