Israel shares concerns as peace talks advance

Jason Cannon
Unit 5
1/4/14

The initial article I read was from CNN, but I looked at a few other sources to try to understand the topic a little bit better.  On PBS there was a discussion by a few guys about the Palestine - Israel relations and the US trying to get a peace treaty between them.  They also discussed how Iran was playing into that peace proposal.  On the CNN link there is a video I would recommend that explains the article fairly well.  I also went on Wikipedia to try to find more information on Israel, Palestine, and Iran.  From that I understand that they are located close to each other, they disagree, and the statehood of Palestine is controversial.  Also, Iran promotes Palestine's statehood and thinks Israel land should belong to Palestine.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/03/politics/kerry-mideast-peace-plan/index.html?hpt=po_c2
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec13/mideast2_11-13.html
http://en.wikipedia.org

•     "Iran-Palestine relations"
•     "Israel"
•     "State of Palestine"

Synopsis:

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, traveled to Israel and met with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister in an effort to get Israel and Palestine to sign a peace treaty.  A State Department official said, "It is an effort to provide agreed guidelines for a permanent status agreement; that is to say, a full and final peace treaty between the parties."  Kerry had previously spoken multiple times with both Netanyahu and the Palestinian leader in his effort to bring peace to the two groups.  Just before Kerry spoke with Netanyahu, 3 US Republican Senators spoke with him.  Senator Graham from South Carolina said that Israel's concerns with signing a peace treaty are the nuclear danger of Iran and the actions of Palestine to become a state.  The article said, "The trio of Republicans said they support a lasting peace process, but not one that puts Israel at a disadvantage."

Comments:

I don't completely understand the relationship between Israel, Palestine, Iran, and the United States, but from what I got from the conversation on PBS, they are all interrelated.  The PBS article mentioned that the US is working with Iran right now on nuclear issues, and so I could see why Israel might be nervous about how the Iran issue works out.  I don't understand exactly how that fear relates to the peace treaty with Palestine, but I am sure there are connections there.  Kerry mentions in the video that both sides will need to compromise.  Also in the PBS video it mentions that the peace "framework" proposed by Kerry includes "borders, security, refugees, Jerusalem, mutual recognition, and end of conflict."  This seems like a very complicated issue that will be hard for Kerry to work out.

This article has to do with foreign policy which we just covered in unit 5.  The US is friends with Israel for various reasons, and so I can see why the Republican Senators don't want to give Israel the short side of the stick in this peace treaty.  I think that Kerry's actions to bring peace to the contentious Israelis and Palestinians are commendable, but I think that it will be very hard to do.  The US has great interest in the Middle East and so this issue is important, especially because of our friendship with Israel.  Hopefully something gets worked out.