Monday, October 04, 2010
"...Why Obama's diplomacy is flailing"
It seems that the United States always comes up short when it comes to understanding the ingrained cultural aspects of foreign countries.
We seem to base our diplomacy on American culture, and act as if every other culture thinks and has the same values as we do...
We seem to base our diplomacy on American culture, and act as if every other culture thinks and has the same values as we do...
This is from Richard Cohen in the N.Y. Daily News. He does not think highly of of current Middle-East diplomacy:
"Given the highly emotional nature of the settlement issue, it made no sense for the administration - actually, President Obama himself - to promote an absolute moratorium on construction as the prerequisite for peace talks. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu complied, under extreme pressure, but only to a 10-month moratorium. For Netanyahu, this in itself was a major concession. He heads a right-wing coalition that takes settlements very seriously. Netanyahu had a choice: accede to Obama's terms and have his government collapse, or end the moratorium. On Sunday, with the 10 months being up, he chose the latter. We will see if the end of the moratorium means the end of peace talks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not yet ended negotiations. He's going to confer with his fellow Arab leaders. Obama ought to also confer with someone who knows the region.
Trouble is, many experts have told him that his emphasis on settlements was the wrong way to go."
