US President Barack Obama has recently admitted that his efforts to solve the Palestinian problem have failed.

That much everybody knows already and is disappointed about, especially after the initial promises to the contrary.

Yet this statement is not complete, nor accurate, since he blames the two sides to the conflict — Palestinians and Israelis — equally for this failure.

Obama should have put the blame where it belongs: on Israelis’ intransigence to even discuss peace with the Palestinians.

To begin with, Obama failed because he did not follow through on his promise to make the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the centrepiece of his policy in the Middle East.

He was not resolute in the implementation of his declared policies on the region, instead wavering and succumbing to Israeli pressure and to the Jewish lobby in the US. That is why he failed.

The US president knows — or as a true statesman, should know — that it was Israel that thwarted his plan to bring peace to Palestinians and Israelis by continuing its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and by refusing to discuss the future of Jerusalem or the right of return of the Palestinian refugees.

It is utterly unfair to put the blame for the failure of the US policy in the region on the Palestinians who endorsed every peace plan or roadmap for peace, including the Quartet’s and the Arab Peace Initiative.

Understandably, Obama does not want to lock horns with Israel or its proxy entities in the US because this could harm his bid for reelection for another term in the White House.

But then, it would have been better if he had stayed silent on this issue instead of misrepresenting facts and reasons for which the region is still denied the promised peace and stability.

http://jordantimes.com/Misleading-50159