Palestinians Not Optimistic About Obama Visit
As US President Barack Obama prepares to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in their respective capitals, Palestinians do not expect any progress on the peace process, reports Hazem Balousha.
US President Barack Obama will make a historic visit to Tel Aviv and Ramallah in March, the first since he took office in 2009. The visit comes amid a suspended peace process, a weak performance by Netanyahu's political party in the recent Israeli elections, and continued Palestinian division through Hamas’ control on the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank.
Factions in the Gaza Strip exhibit traditional skepticism over the ability of the American administration to pressure Israel to achieve its vision of a two-state solution. They also criticize Washington’s failure to deter the Israeli government from continuing settlement activity, which is taking chunks out of territory on which a Palestinian state is supposed to be built and was the reason for stopping the negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.
Leading Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar expressed pessimism over the possibility that Obama's visit will succeed in achieving rapprochement between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to resume negotiations. He said that Iran's nuclear file will likely be a priority for dialogue between the two parties, adding that the visit does not aim to pressure the Israeli government to move the peace process along.
He said, "I do not think that anything will be achieved regarding the Palestinian-Israeli issue, because Obama will try to prevent Israel from declaring war on Iran due to the economic crisis and the inability of the US administration to wage new wars after its failure in the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq."
