Time for Obama to justify his Nobel Peace Prize
Once November’s elections for Congress are over, the Obama administration will begin its final governing quarter, which would be the last term for the president to pressure Israel and the Palestinians back into negotiations, and earn his Nobel Prize.
Operation Protective Edge will go down in the annals of the Arab-Israeli conflict as the first crisis in the 21st century in which there was almost no American involvement.
The focal point of the negotiations between Israel and Hamas has migrated to Cairo.
The hub of international pressure has moved to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Over three months ago (April 25), when the nine months that US Secretary of State John Kerry allotted to his own peace initiative were up, President Barack Obama said that, “There may come a point at which there just needs to be a pause and both sides need to look at the alternatives” to negotiations between them. The first alternative was the establishment of a Palestinian reconciliation government and Israel’s announcement that the diplomatic process had ground to a stop. The second alternative was the war in Gaza, which has claimed almost 2,000 casualties on the Palestinian side and 67 casualties on the Israeli side (including three civilians).
