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I’m always looking for an escape from pessimism and catch a ray of hope in a Middle-East peace settlement. The Arab spring and turmoil in the Middle-East must also create an opportunity for the bold and brave. Although no one can be sure whether a grand bargain is on the table, moving all the pieces on the chess board, the game may resolve in a checkmate. This synopsis from 2009, gives a foundation for such a grand bargain. Matter in some nations have taken its own course, different from the article, with some creative thinking the chess pieces nevertheless are moving towards the end game. With some outside help from US funded NGO’s, a fall of the Assad regime is imminent, loosening Syria from Iran and cutting their ties to Hezbollah and Hamas. With the backing of Saudi Arabia, the Arab Peace Plan could play out in a peace settlement for a Palestinian State. I’m confident Obama will convince Netanyahu after using adaquate political and financial pressure,  to participate. I’m watching how Netanyahu and his right-wing partners in government are making steps in this process. Overly optimistic? Guilty as charged.

OBAMA HOPES TO WOO SYRIA OUT OF IRAN’S ORBIT [pdf]
Author: Gidon D. Remba

(Jews4Change) June 8, 2009 — With economic and political incentives and a determination to broker a peace treaty between Israel and Syria as part of a grand rapprochement between Israel and the Arab and Muslim worlds. The U.S. will loosen Iranian bonds with Syria and Hamas – which has now offered a long-term truce with Israel – while depriving Hizballah and its Iranian backers of the tinder for their incendiary tactics. Contrary to pundits who cry that Israel will be sacrificed on the altar of American reconciliation with the Islamic world, Obama’s aim is the creation of a new regional political architecture in which Israel’s vital needs, and American national security, will be more firmly anchored than ever before.

For Obama, the Israel-Arab conflict, including the Israeli- Palestinian conundrum, can and must be moved towards resolution under American stewardship. Press reports suggest that the U.S. and Arab allies Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are working on revising the Arab Peace Initiative, making explicit key compromises on Jerusalem and the refugee problem. They would make Israel an offer it will be hard pressed to refuse: Palestinian refugees would return only to the new state of Palestine or be rehabilitated within the Arab states or other countries. This would insure that refugee repatriation could not undermine Israel’s Jewish majority or the principle of “two states for two peoples” affirmed in the original 1947 U.N. partition resolution calling for an Arab and a Jewish state in Palestine. Gaining Arab unanimity on this radioactive issue may prove impossible. But even engineering the sponsorship of a group of leading Arab states for so far-reaching a change to the historic Arab position would represent a coup for Obama.

Obama will no longer tolerate the slogans of American or Israeli obstructionists who claim that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not “ripe” for resolution – it never is by their lights – or that there is no Palestinian partner for peace. Nor will he countenance an Israeli strike on Iran, as he will make clear to Netanyahu. But Obama refuses to accept the status quo, which has proven far too dangerous for the U.S., Israel and our Arab allies. The risks of rejectionism now dramatically outweigh the risks of peace.

The story behind my letter in the NY Times on Israel, the Palestinians and the UN

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

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