The resignation of U.S. Middle East special envoy George Mitchell on Friday puts a punctuation mark on the end of two years of high-profile meetings and quiet stalemate in the Israel-Palestinian peace process, which has all but collapsed on the Obama administration’s watch.
But this year’s developments in the region – the Arab Spring, and a consequent surprise peace deal between rival Palestinian factions brokered by Egypt – cast the Obama administration’s role further to the margins. With the White House signaling that there will be no new push for Arab-Israeli peace in a major presidential speech on the Arab Spring tentatively scheduled for Thursday, there was little reason for Mitchell to stay. Mitchell’s departure ends what had seemed, at moments, like a window of opportunity for President Barack Obama but which now seems like a two-year exercise in pure futility.
“Twenty-plus months in, we’ve got no negotiations, no chance of an agreement, and an administration that’s been frustrated on what it thought might be its signature issue,” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department negotiator, who called Mitchell’s departure “sad.” “This is a guy with a brilliant career who succeeded at just about everything he’s done and was convinced that there’s no conflict that couldn’t be resolved with enough will. And now he finds himself having to leave without results,” he said.
The American efforts ground to a halt last fall, when Palestinian leaders insisted on – and the U.S. tried and failed to deliver – a continued Israeli moratorium on construction on contested land. The focus on a settlement was Obama’s choice and was seen by both sides as a mistake. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remarked to Newsweek recently that it was “Obama who suggested a full settlement freeze. I said, ‘OK, I accept.’ We both went up the tree. After that, he came down with a ladder and he removed the ladder and said to me; ‘Jump.’ ”
[T]he peace between Hamas and Fatah last month stunned both American and Israeli observers and deeply complicated negotiations between Israel and a partner now linked to militants who regularly fire rockets at Israel civilians. The revolt in Syria, meanwhile, scuttled peace talks between Syria and Israel that had been the subject of lengthy shuttle diplomacy by a top Mitchell deputy, Fred Hoff.
For an administration that already has its hands full in the Middle East, the Hamas-Fatah deal appears to have frozen U.S. attempts to capitalize on the Arab Spring for the purposes of Arab-Israeli peace. Now, Obama’s Middle East speech next week will not include a heavy focus on Israel and the Palestinians, White House officials say. And meetings next week with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely focus on broader regional questions.
