Anyone who has ever struggled in search of the “right” words to denote the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea will appreciate Frederic Hof's plain-spoken approach:
“The Palestinian-Israeli track of the Arab-Israeli situation,” he says, “is, quite obviously, the main event” (Hof Mar 20 08)
Frederic C. Hof is a former member of the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee, aka the Mitchell Fact-Finding Committee, established by President Clinton in October 2000. He laments “...the absence of evidence of any American preparedness – much less planning – to help the parties implement the report’s confidence-building recommendations.”
In particular, he says, “the political calculus in Washington that produced a hands-off policy was bad for American interests, worse for Israelis and the absolute worst for Palestinians.”
About his own experience, he concludes, “Sadly, I can stand before you this evening and say, in all honesty, that the efforts [of the Mitchell Commission] were wasted.”
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Frederic C. Hof, "Thoughts on the American role in Paestinian-Israeli peacemaking," March 20, 2008.
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