US President Barack Obama is reportedly frustrated that the American public does not see his achievements the way he does, as he is looking forward to a positive legacy after spending more than seven years in the White House. And, of course, the international public is undoubtedly reacting very similarly despite some of his triumphs at home and abroad.
For example, The New York Times underlined his view that “his bailouts of the [US] economy and auto industry… prevented the Great Recession from haemorrhaging into a Great Depression,” and the paper added, “historians agree”. He also pointed out that he has “avoided the military misadventures of his predecessor, George W. Bush” who sent American troops to Iraq on a very unsuccessful mission.
But obviously he overlooks his major failures after his first visit to Cairo, and later Jerusalem, that raised hope in the Middle East and elsewhere that these gestures would usher an Arab-Israeli peace settlement and transform the entire region. His reluctance to press forward in reconciling the Israelis and Palestinians remains a baffling turnabout.
If there is anything that should motivate him nowadays in proceeding once again onwards are the sordid current reports concerning Palestinian youngsters, boys and girls, in resisting Israeli aggression and yearning for justice in the Holy Land.
A recent front-page news story in The New York Times, authored by Diaa Hadid from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, revealed that the number of Palestinian prisoners under 18 more than doubled to 430 from 170 before the stabbings and shooting and vehicular attacks began on October 1. “Of them, 103 were 16 or younger, up from 32.
She wrote: “The increase reflects the Israeli crackdown on Palestinians who throw stones or otherwise confront soldiers and civilians among an outbreak of attacks in which nearly half of the suspects are teenagers. It has renewed a debate over how Israel’s military justice system, which prosecutes Palestinians from the West Bank, differs from the courts that cover Israeli citizens and Palestinian resident of [occupied] Jerusalem, and especially how it handles very young offenders.
“Nobody doubts what she did,” Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli human rights group, B’tselem said of Dima [a 12-year-old girl], but if she was an Israeli child, it would be impossible under Israeli law to sentence a child this young for an actual jail term.” (Dima was sentenced to four-and-a-half-month term but served half the time).
Most West Bank suspects are interrogated alone and reportedly had faced some form of physical abuse and were not informed of their rights.
Last Thursday, another shameless act by Israeli forces was committed when they killed two Palestinian siblings — a young pregnant woman and her 16-year-old brother — at an Israeli military checkpoint in Ramallah where the Palestinian National Authority maintains its headquarters.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the silence of the international community after Israel shot the couple, following alleging that she threw a knife at an Israeli officer who was just 20 metres away. The recent violence has left more than 200 Palestinians dead.
More abuse of the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank was revealed last week with claims of a four-fold increase from last year in the rate of Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes and structures, which reportedly left a record-high 808 Palestinians displaced since the start of the year. According to UN documentation, the Israeli occupation authorities have destroyed some 585 Palestinian structures across the Occupied Palestinian Territories since January.
All eyes, meanwhile, are focused on the upcoming French sponsored international conference on a two-state solution process, which is set to start on May 30. This will be the first concrete step to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since the failed shuttle diplomacy launched by US Secretary of State John Kerry in 2013.
Interestingly, neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis are invited to the meeting, for fear that the Israelis will boycott the event. In fact they announced their boycott of the session, a development that they hope will backfire on whatever the event will propose. In most views, Israel is not seen as a serious negotiator since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shunned any face-to-face meeting with the Palestinian leadership. The participants include the so-called Middle East Quartet — the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — and the 22-member Arab League. But, if successful, an international peace conference will be launched later this summer.
But the focus of this international meeting is likely to be on Obama, who may still be hesitant to make any serious move because of the upcoming US election.
