As I say in the piece, however, there's a caveat: I'm interested in attainable goals - difficult is fine, but attainable - not wish lists. Please don't tell me that the US must alter its entire attitude toward Israel and the Palestinians because that simply is not going to happen (one could further argue that with Netanyahu in power an about-face wouldn't do much good anyway - but that's a separate discussion). Let's think about things the Arab World can ask of America that America might - just might - be willing and politically able to do.
My latest column, which appears in today's print editions of Gulf News and is now available here at MideastAnalysis.com, takes President Obama's coming trip to the Middle East as a starting point and asks Arab readers (and readers who care about the US-Arab relationship) to think what, exactly, they would like to see from the US administration in the next few years.
As I say in the piece, however, there's a caveat: I'm interested in attainable goals - difficult is fine, but attainable - not wish lists. Please don't tell me that the US must alter its entire attitude toward Israel and the Palestinians because that simply is not going to happen (one could further argue that with Netanyahu in power an about-face wouldn't do much good anyway - but that's a separate discussion). Let's think about things the Arab World can ask of America that America might - just might - be willing and politically able to do. My latest column, which appears in tomorrow's print editions of Gulf News, looks at the quite extraordinary spectacle in Washington last week, in which Congressional Republicans lined up publicly behind a foreign leader in opposition to the President of the United States.
Differing loudly and publicly with the President on foreign policy is not the issue. That is a correct and time-honored feature of American politics. But what we saw last week was something very different, and it sets a very bad precedent. Click here to read the column. Please return here to the home page to leave comments. |
AuthorGordon Robison has more than 25 years of experience living in and writing about the Middle East. Archives
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