President Obama: Reality Will Prevent Real Movement in the Peace Process
I guess its commendable that President Barack Obama refers to the Palestinian Authority President and the Prime Minister of Israel equally. The reality of the situation is Israel is the exceptionally stronger party (with U.S. support, military, and nuclear weapons).
The Palestinian Authority is fundamentally unable to form a state as it stands right now, regardless of the rhetoric. Moreover, expectations for the Palestinians to concede more is unreasonable.
The Palestinians:
- have no control over their air, land, borders, or water;
- have no military or means (weapons, etc.) to protect their territory or citizens from external invasion [the same could be said for Iraq and Afghanistan were the U.S. military to leave those territories completely];
- do not have a contiguous territory within the West Bank or with the Gaza Strip; and
- are located adjacent to a state that possesses nuclear weapons.
I’ll agree with the President that the time for the actual State of Palestine is indeed today (if at all).
