Originally featured on The Washington Note

European High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy Baroness Catherine Ashton decided to head to China instead of participating in the Middle East stakeholders dinner hosted by President Obama in the Old Family Dining Room this week.

 Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel told his governing coalition that he did not promise an extension to the partial suspension in settlement construction when it expires in September (BTW, the suspension did not cover most of the settlement areas which are around Jerusalem and did not cover existing construction in other areas not infrastructure, schools, synagogue constructions etc.  In other words there was really no suspension.) Standing next to President Obama he simply emphasized that the topic to be discussed with Palestinians is how we can prevent attacks on illegal settlers in the West Bank.

 Six months ago, Abbas, encouraged by Obama, agreed to negotiations with Netanyahu only if Israel fulfill its obligations per the road map of a total settlement freeze including in East Jerusalem.  Abbas stated about his decision to renew direct negotiations without even a promise of partial settlement suspension: “Palestinians are not powerful to dictate preconditions of negotiations” later in a prime time speech to the people “we did not want the difference between us and the Israelis to come down to differences on modality of negotiations…we want to build a peace based on security for both people”. He did not once mention the right of refugees to return to their homes and lands. If Netanyahu can use the excuse of having a coalition that can break apart if he gave up an inch, then how can Abbas who is now ruling by Fiat and hjas already given up 78% of Palestine resist further pressure for further back-downs without rebuilding a representative PLO?

To President Obama's credit, he is going for the gold medal by working to finally end the Israeli-Arab conflict that has been at the heart of America's credibility issues in the Middle East. On Tuesday, the president announced to the world that combat operations in Iraq were over and showed the Arab world that the United States had no intention to continue occupying or colonizing Iraq. On the very next day, the president launched direct peace talks whose results will have to be an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. Coincidental or not, the two events highlight a new and positive narrative for the United States in the Middle East - IF the President can ultimately secure the ultimate goal of a comprehensive peace.

Pundits may argue that the president shouldn't put his prestige on the line, even for a goal defined as a vital national security interest by both the president and top military leaders, because it's too hard. But that is what presidents do. They defend American interests even when they are opposed by well organized lobby groups.

But the greatest risk to America's prestige, as opposed to the president's alone, will be failure that results from relying on the same parties that have been negotiating for 19 years in the same process to conclude an agreement without intervention from American, European, and Muslim-majority nations. For a host of reasons, not least the asymmetry in power, the Palestinians and the Israelis are structurally incapable of using the Oslo process to arrive at a mutually agreed upon end to the occupation on their own. The United States does want peace more than some of the parties - and the process we put in place to achieve it will have to reflect that central fact.

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Our Jewish holidays are almost here again. Our celebrations are different from those of other people and contribute to the separation we feel from the non-Jewish people around us. It is a time that I reflect on how we perceive people in other religions, and how they perceive us.

I received an email from a Christian who explained to me that Talmudic Judaism is supremacist teaching. How strange and misguided that view is! I studied Talmudic Judaism in Hebrew School, and the principles we learned were entirely consistent with American principles of equality of all people, Jewish and non-Jewish.

But I can understand how people in one religion often misunderstand the faith of another.

Judaism is not about Biblical stories of animal sacrifice, genocide or treatment of others as lesser. Our understanding of being the Chosen People is that we have the responsibility to act within the constraints of the highest moral principles (something we share with people of many other faiths).

Having grown up in an insular Jewish community, I could see how easy it is to misunderstand other people. I knew very little about the Christian faith. I knew from Jewish history that Christians had treated Jews horribly in the past, but little else. Only later did I learn that Christians share with Jews a profound commitment to peace and justice. 


I watch today as the misunderstanding of people of other faith continues rampant. The understanding I held of Christianity was horribly warped, and I've seen how warped the perception of Judaism can be from outside the Jewish community.

Today we see otherwise enlightened Americans who doubt that Islam is a religion or who, describing Islam as a satanic faith, call for burning of the Qur'an. Non-Muslim Americans purport to understand Islam and claim it violent, intolerant and repressive; these aren't how Muslims view their religion. The virulence of anti-Islamic sentiment expressed in comments over the proposal for a Ground Zero mosque is horrifying.

I hope we see the day when the mistaken view many American Jews and Christians hold of the Islamic faith is corrected. Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, teaches peace, tolerance, justice and charity and it is entirely consistent with American values.

I would hope when people form opinions about the Jewish faith, they would speak to Jews and not try to understand Judaism only from ancient documents, or the words of pastors and imams.

Similarly, I think we owe it to our Muslim brethren to speak to them about how they view their faith, and not depend on Quranic quotes selected by non-Muslims, rabbis or reverends who haven't sought to understand Islam as Muslims understand it.

I love to hear people of all religions describe their faiths to me; I'm not so keen on listening to people tell me how evil they think other peoples faiths are.

I am trying hard to be optimistic about the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that were kicked off at the White House on September 1st.

It's not that I believe that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wants to exchange the territories for peace (or even that he will ever really freeze settlements).  It's not that I believe that President Mahmoud Abbas can deliver the Palestinians either (he does not speak for Hamas or even for much of his own Fatah party).

My sole reason for optimism is that I cannot imagine that President Barack Obama would have initiated this effort if it was doomed to failure.  Why bother? 

Originally posted on the Washington Note

This is the roster of who is coming to dinner tonight: