Supporting George Mitchell
George Mitchell pissed some people off during his time as a mediator in Northern Ireland. But at the end of the day, he delivered an agreement. And when the agreement wound up in some choppy waters, heads were knocked together and the thing was made to work. And today, Protestants and Catholics alike are better off than they used to be. It’s an auspicious background for an envoy to deal with the Arab-Israeli conflict. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. Gary Bauer, for example, has joined Abe Foxman in warning that Mitchell might be too even-handed—shudder.
Rep. Bill Delahunt takes a different view, though, and has introduced a resolution into the House of Representatives in support of Mitchell. Thus far, he has 53 co-sponsors and J Street is trying to get some more.
31 Responses to “Supporting George Mitchell”
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February 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Jstreet…..
and Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism (the largest denomination of American Jews), Americans for Peace Now, Israel Policy Forum, Brit Tzedek v’ Shalom, Churches for Middle East Peace, and the Arab American Institute.
February 19th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
And I think it only fair to point up the important role, many thought crucial, that a very popular Bill Clinton played on the PR and personal front.
One of course hopes that Obama will have a similar salutary influence in Palestine though, for reasons of domestic politics, I’ll not be surprised to see him play a very minor public role.
February 19th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
George Mitchell probably is the wrong man for the job. He’s a great negotiator, but that won’t help if Israel refuses to negotiate. Given the Israeli election results, I think it’s safe to say that there will be no peace process until Israel holds elections again. So why waste Mitchell’s talents? Send him to Iran instead. They might be willing to negotiate.
February 19th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
J Street sounds like a bunch of losers. They ought to worry more about the status of Jews in this country. Here’s a friendly tip: Try to lower the profile of Jews in D.C. think tanks, media, etc. Given the extent that Jews have their fingerprints on the current financial crisis (from Barney Frank to Dick Fuld to Bernie Madoff, etc.), maybe the smart thing would be to lay low for a while. Besides, Israel ought to be about #114 on America’s to-do list right now.
February 19th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Props to my man Bill Delahunt and the Fightin’ Massachusetts 10th!
Also, Fred’s statement ought to be characterized, charitably, as eccentric. Charitably.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
If Mitchell and the administration take Aaron Millers’ advice and make it their goal to manage the situation, rather then try for a comprehensive settlement, which, given the ascendancy of the Hamas terrorist entity and their demand that the State of Israel agree to go out of business, is about as likely as the shrimps learning to whistle.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
SLC: keep your eye on the ball. What happened 76 years ago in a particular country when the economy went to shit, and Jews were disproportionately represented in visible positions in the media, government, business, etc.? Forget what Saul Bellow said; most German Jews never imagined it would happen there either.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
What the hell is Fred muttering darkly about? He and SLC deserve each other.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Yea, Matt, let’s be evenhanded between Israel and a terrorist group. That’ll get a lot done. Is Mitchell gonna negotiate that Hamas blast off only 789 rockets on a tuesday instead of 987?
February 19th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
“Yea, Matt, let’s be evenhanded between Britain and a terrorist group. That’ll get a lot done. Is Mitchell gonna negotiate that the IRA set off only 789 car bombs on a tuesday instead of 987?”
-ba in 1996
February 19th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I’m surprised with how tone-deaf the right is being on this. They usually pick their catchphrases better – nobody hears the word “evenhanded” and thinks, “Oh, that’s terrible!”
I don’t know how much Mitchell can achieve, with extremists in power on either side, but I wish him well.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Yikes, Fred is ON his ‘meds’ tonight.
SLC: I assume the latter part of comment 4 is quite offensive, although you didn’t reference it in your much-later comment.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
The American media often describes the Northern Ireland conflict as taking place between Catholics and Protestants. It’s a bit more accurate to say that it’s between nationalists and unionists. Yes, those divisions generally shake out along religious lines, but when you use the labels of the religious sects, it obscures the political issues and makes the whole thing sound like a religious war, which it isn’t. It’s true that in Ireland, religion and politics are historically intertwined (especially in nationalist circles). There’s also a cultural element to the conflict that’s related to the sectarian divide, but I think the American media has been doing everyone a disservice for decades with their sloppy terminology. Irish and British media outlets are a lot more careful about this, and their coverage is more detailed and goes into greater depth than the cursory “someone is destroying a cache of weapons/got murdered in a Belfast pub/is angry at the other side for obfuscating” story you see in the Times every so often.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
I don’t know how much Mitchell can achieve, with extremists in power on either side, but I wish him well.
How much does he want to achieve? Mitchell represents the global hegemon negotiating between a pissant, settler state in the Levant and it’s broke ass refugee problem it left in the wake. If he has the power of the government behind him, he can dictate terms.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
“Yea, Matt, let’s be evenhanded between Israel and a terrorist group.”
Well, Israel committed systematic ethnic cleansing and genocide during the late 1940’s. Since then, they have mostly stuck with the ethnic cleansing. And they just expanded their ethnic cleansing program last week. So we are talking about negotiations between a group that uses terrorism and a group that uses ethnic cleansing. Ever wonder why I have no hope for such negotiations? George Mitchell can do some good for us, so let’s send him to a place where he can do some good. Israel/Palestine is not such a place. For now, it is simply hopeless. We’d be better off arming the Palestinians to make it a fair fight and letting them kill each other until they are willing to agree to a more productive solution. But doing nothing is an even better solution. By doing nothing, I mean really doing nothing. Cut off all aid to Israel until three years after they abandon all settlements outside of the 1967 border. If they don’t stop the settlement activity, cut off all trade with Israel. Israel behaves irresponsibly because they are always held to the “Israel can do no wrong” standard. It’s time to hold them to the standards we would apply to any other country.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Nifty update graphic MY. That new?
I don’t know that I’d go as far as fostert suggests in #15, but we do need to put some pressure on Israel to bring them to the table. One danger is what will happen if the Israeli government goes really right-wing. I wonder if there’s a point where the crazies would gain power and tell the US to get bent and try to go it alone. Doubtful, but there’s no telling what the nutjobs will try.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Yea, Matt, let’s be evenhanded between Israel and a terrorist group.
What a maroon! Next he’ll be calling for the British to negotiate with the IRA. Dream on, hippie.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:07 am
damn you chris d!!!!
February 20th, 2009 at 1:52 am
Once again, the solution is known:
1) Force Israel to disarm its nuclear arsenal – that benefits us in negotiations with Iran, since Iran doesn’t even have a nuclear weapons program. We get to look serious to Iran and the rest of the world, such as ElBaradei who just pointed out how stupid it is to ignore Israel’s nuclear arsenal.
2) Force the UN to declare it’s 1947 partition illegal, null and void, and thus dissolve the Israeli state as an illegal state.
3) Get together some moderates from the Israelis and the Palestinians, and some outsiders from the international community and set up a Commission to establish a Constitution for the new state of Palestine.
4) Set up elections for the new state – nobody who was a member of Hamas, Fatah or the Israeli government is allowed to stand. Moderates only.
5) Establish the borders of the new state and guarantee their integrity by the international community and the US.
6) Resolve all land ownership issues in civil courts under civil law with due documentation.
7) All Palestinians have the right of return provided they can establish means and prior residence or property ownership. Otherwise they can apply for residence and citizenship like anybody else. The same applies for Jews or anybody else in the world like any other country.
Result: Jews and Arabs have to live together without calling on either the Jewish military or terrorists to sort out their problems with each other. Since most people are concerned with getting on with their lives, once the moron Zionists and Islamic fanatics are killed off, the trouble will die down – except for SLC’s head exploding.
February 20th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Re fostert
Well, Israel committed systematic ethnic cleansing and genocide during the late 1940’s. Since then, they have mostly stuck with the ethnic cleansing.
Boy, given that there are in excess of 1 million Arabs currently living in Israel, those Israelis are the worlds’ most incompetent ethnic cleansers. The Czechs/Slovaks were far more efficient at that endeavor relative to the Germans in the Sudetenland while the 19th Century US army was far more efficient at both ethnic cleansing and genocide against Native Americans.
Re Richard Steven Hack
It would appear that Mr. Hack is as incompetent at divining solutions to the Israel/Palestine problem as he was at armed bank robbery. However, nine years in Leavenworth getting his asshole reamed out several times a month seems to have at least cured him of his bank robbing activities.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:43 am
What K said in # 13. The American press sometimes talked about it as a holy war, but the Fenians were excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
And thanks to SLC. Without him, I never would have known that Israel never drove any Arabs off their land. Thanks, d00d!
February 20th, 2009 at 10:55 am
RSH: Doesn’t your plan require outsiders that are both sufficiently powerful and sufficiently trustworthy to enforce such a neutral solution? The UN has many other majority-Muslim states (some with religious-influenced governments) and no other majority-Jewish ones; majority-Christian states that have histories of backing Israel to the hilt are just as slanted in the other direction. And most other parts of the world have Jews, Muslims, or both exerting internal political pressures to favor one side or the other. That’s why we’re discussing the possibility of a fair US envoy like it’s a surprise – it is.
Who does that leave? China has a small enough Muslim minority that they might be neutral, but do you trust a country with that kind of political system? Japan is disinterested and democratic, but post-WWII treaties prevent it from projecting enough force outside its borders to enforce an arrangement like you describe. And why would either of the East Asian great powers agree to stick their hands into the Middle Eastern meatgrinder anyway? Anyone else is either too small, too weak, or has conflicts of interest. The remarkable spread of Abrahamic religions has left most of the countries in the world unable to think rationally about the “Holy Land”.
Substantively, your plan looks about as fair as can be expected with the possible exception of the election bans in (4) – I think a properly designed constitution might be a more effective check on something like Yisrael Beteinu or Hamas than simply blacklisting specific people, and banning Fatah or Kadima seems weird and pointless. But how do you expect to get there from here?
February 20th, 2009 at 11:07 am
I take it the upshot of this is ‘Hey Jews, stop being so visible or people might notice your horns’?
Taken with his other comment, it sounds like Fred is one Kevin Youkilis play he doesn’t like away from join the Christian Identity movement. Which is good information to know.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I can’t believe that Mitchell is going to sit down with terrorists. Are they all going speak in English or in Hebrew?
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