Following appeared in the Jordan Times.

By Daoud Kuttab

This week, hundreds of Palestinians attempting to return home using the only crossing point allowed to them, the King Hussein Bridge, found themselves stuck for hours and hours at the bridge.

It appears that Israeli bridge officials were not ready to accept the Palestinians, which included many umra pilgrims.

On Sunday and Monday the bridge was closed at noon, causing travellers who made it before closure nearly 10 hours of delay, while others arriving after that time were asked to come back the following day. Some, choosing to pay as much as $108 per person to cross the bridge using the VIP service, had to wait for at least four hours.

This is not the first time that Palestinians suffer from long delays, which is routine in summer months. Ever since October 2000, the Israelis got rid of the Palestinian police that was stationed at the bridge, reduced bridge hours from the 24 to an 8am-10pm weekday schedule and a much more reduced schedule on Fridays, Saturdays and on Jewish holidays. The Israeli airport and other crossing points are open around the clock, even during Jewish holidays. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Following appeared in the Jordan Times and Huffington Post

also check out these other stories

http://forward.com/articles/175016/salam-fayyad-doomed-by-israel-and-palestinian-enem/?p=all

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/salam-fayyad-resignation-abbas-replacement.html

Israel may say that it wants peace, but the reality has become clear. Once U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry left the region, Israel felt protected by the charm handed to it for free by Obama and subsequently ignored his advice on how to work on ending the occupation.

If you are generous to a decent person, you own him, and if you are kind to a nasty person, he rebels, goes a famous Arab saying.

What we are witnessing now is Israel’s rebellion against its generous benefactor: the U.S.

Here are a few examples. Before Obama came to Israel, there was discussion about some confidence-building measures. Palestinians were asked to refrain from taking Israel to the International Court of Justice while Israel was asked to freeze settlement activities in order to facilitate a return to peace talks. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Something strange happened during the last Arab League summit meeting, held in March in the Qatari capital, Doha. The final announcement, which typically presents the points of agreement reached to by the participating heads of state, was possibly the longest communiqué drafted by an Arab summit. It went on and on, detailing the position of the leaders on almost every issue affecting Arab League members.

Squeezed in among the tens of thousands of words was a reiteration of support for the Arab Peace Initiative approved at the 2002 summit in Beirut. The plan has also been approved by the Organization of Islamic Countries. Thus, all in all, 57 Arab and Islamic states have been on the record for more than ten years in support of a peace plan that guarantees normalization with Israel in return for its withdrawal to the 1967 borders and an agreement to a just resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

My column in the NY Times Room for Debate

Without Addressing Settlements, There’s Little Hope

A charitable view of the Obama charm offensive in Israel requires that we assume the president is rewarding the Israeli occupiers in hopes they will somehow agree to do what is right.

In answering a question from Chuck Todd of NBC, the president conceded that he was unable to do what he wanted in the peace process in his first term but blamed his failure on the sheer difficulty of the problems. The truth is that the failure was because of domestic political pressures that have crippled his ability to conduct a fair and just foreign policy, especially in regard to Israel.

In his second term, electoral pressure is greatly reduced, but Obama has surprisingly continued to avoid confrontation. Instead he has elected to reward Israel’s stubborn refusal to stop its actions regarding settlements; the Obama administration is feeding into Israel’s endless appetite for weaponry, and giving the nation a free hand in Iran, Gaza and elsewhere. Continue Reading »

Following appeared in the Jordan Times

By Daoud Kuttab

The visit of US President Barack Obama to the Middle East is a welcome step. It has elevated interest in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at a time when other regional issues have taken over regional and world interest.

Having the presidential office interested in this conflict needs a totally different approach to the conflict. Without the presidential involvement, the powerful Israelis have no problem in oppressing the people under their occupation. And perhaps Israelis, who get away with murder when dealing independently with the Palestinians, might find themselves embarrassed when a US president looks over their shoulders.

In general, therefore, the Obama factor is a potentially good thing for peace. The problem is how to make this factor last. How to create mechanisms that will continue to work even when a US president or his secretary of state are not around?  Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Less than a week before the important visit that the US president will make to Israel, Palestine and Jordan, there are some mysteries as to the Palestinian leg of his visit. While the most repeated itinerary lists Ramallah as a city where the US president will be spending a few hours, some sources are giving a different story. More than one Palestinian news site has claimed that President Barack Obama will visit Bethlehem rather than the temporary Palestinian capital of Ramallah.

One of the reasons given for why the American president might want to skip Ramallah is the fact that if he visits the secured and natural offices of the Palestinian president he will have a political difficulty. Pundits (mostly western) are claiming that if Obama passes by the grave of Yasser Arafat which is centrally located within the Muqata’a presidential compound that the American leader will have a difficult choice. Not laying a wreath will be seen as an insult to Palestinians while doing so would be seen in negative terms by some Israelis. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

As Palestinian political strategists are in the process of preparing for the first visit ever of President Barack Obama to the state of Palestine, new thinking is emerging. Instead of routinely preparing for a set of demands and tactical gains to be accomplished, some are worried that the visit might slow down a paradigm shift that has been taking place in the direction of the Palestinian leadership.

One of the young rising stars in the Fatah movement, Husam Zomlot, explains to Al-Monitor the new thinking using a sports metaphor, “For 20 years, we have been playing on someone else’s playground, according to their rules, their fans and even their referee.” Zomlot  says that the playground is the peace process as it stands now, which treats both parties as equal, requires that they come to a compromise on their own with each side giving a little, with some possibilities of confidence-building measures in the process. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Just when it appeared that the United States was about to wash its hands from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, new information is emerging from Washington indicating the opposite.

Many observers of U.S. foreign policy understand that in an election year, the U.S. is unable to articulate a coherent (and possibly confrontational with the pro-Israel lobby) strategy in regards to the Palestinian conflict.  The day after President Barack Obama won a hard-fought electoral battle in which the Israeli prime minister clearly and publicly favored his opponent, many expected that the U.S. president would immediately shift to a more genuinely neutral policy towards the Middle East conflict. That may still happen, but foreign policy, like everything else, can’t be carried out without a well thought-out strategy, action plan and most importantly individuals who will carry the baton and implement it. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

During the past few decades, one can easily and accurately trace times in which world powers (especially the US) were able to influence a political process.

At least two Israeli elections come to mind: the victory of Labor’s Yitshaq Rabin replacing Yitshaq Shamir in the early 1990s and not long after that, the victory of Ehud Barak and the defeat of Benjamin Netanyahu. In both cases, the US was looking for a leader that could usher in a peace process and in both cases, they seem to have gotten what they want. This time around, the US seems to be interested in getting rid of Netanyahu but is unlikely to succeed.

There is no doubt that both Rabin and Barak, both decorated military leaders, are strong characters that don’t need the help of outsiders. Ironically, the current roster of contenders for the top position in the upcoming Israeli elections don’t have any army experience to speak of. Neither Netanyahu, Zipi Livni nor Shelly Yachimovich can compare militarily to either Rabin or Barak. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

A real possibility exists for a Middle East peace in President Obama’s second term. Palestinians and Arabs are ready to make major concessions and the Israelis know that time is not on their side if they still want a democratic state with a Jewish majority.

The world had an exaggerated expectation of America’s first African American president in terms of what he could do in his first term. Now a politically mature second term president, who has proven that he can take care of world terrorists, can also help deliver peace without having to worry about any new elections. Continue Reading »