Down the Mideast peace process rabbit hole (yet again)
One of the more curious aspects of President Obama’s May 19 Middle East speech was his decision to devote so much attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The president’s main theme, of course, was supposed to be the Middle East upheavals of 2011 and the United States’ support for those seeking liberty after decades of tyranny. Indeed, in his speech, the president properly highlighted one of the region’s great unspoken truths: that for years on end, autocrats of every stripe have cynically manipulated the conflict with Israel to divert their people’s grievances outward. When provided half a chance to give voice to what’s really on their minds, the Arab masses since last December have repeatedly demonstrated that their thoughts turn not so much to far away Palestine, but to their own mistreatment and degradation at the hands of corrupt, unaccountable despots. Contrary to the myth indulged by generations of Western diplomats, the real driving force of Middle East politics has proven not to be Israel’s dispute with the Palestinians, but a freedom deficit that has left hundreds of millions of Arabs living lives of quiet desperation under the thumb of their own oppressive dictators.