Krauthammer predictably (read the complete show transcript) accuses the President of undermining peace:
WALLACE: Charles, let me bring up another aspect of the policy of engagement, the Middle East.
The president has tried mightily since he took office to engage with the Palestinians and the Israelis to try to jump-start the peace talks. You can them shaking hands there this week up in New York. So far, nothing.
KRAUTHAMMER: Well, that’s because he undermined the idea of negotiations when he came in and decided he would reinvent the world as he does in this issue.
He imposed a demand on the Israelis of a settlement freeze. And the Israelis left, right and center will not accept a freeze, which involves Jerusalem. The president insisted.
And the Palestinians and the Arab states looked at this and said if the Americans are putting these unilateral demands on the Israelis, we are not going to negotiate. Abbas himself, the leader of the Palestinians, was in Washington a few months ago and he said, “We will not lift a finger until Israel complies.”
And the reason it’s a -- it’s a policy that makes no sense is because for 16 years, the Israelis and the Palestinians had negotiated without any preconditions. All of a sudden Obama imposes this, and negotiations have stopped.
What happened in New York this week is that the Obama administration caved in and has now abandoned this precondition. The Israelis are ready to negotiate and the Palestinians are still holding out wanting the freeze on settlements, which is not going to happen.
WALLACE: Yeah, and let me talk about that, because Charles is exactly right, Juan. Now the president says, “All right, enough with the preconditions because they’re not getting us anywhere. Let’s go immediately, directly, to final status talks.” What are the chances that’s going to work?
WILLIAMS: Well, the chances, if you look at it now, are pretty minimal, but the -- but that doesn’t negate the idea that something needs to be done. You’ve got to have some progress in this area.
We’ve been talking about Iran. We’ve been talking about engagement, about getting the world together, to say, “You know what, it’s not just up to the U.S., you can’t just wait for the lone superpower to take action.”
Much of the world’s grievances, especially the Iranian grievance coming from Ahmadinejad, has to do with what’s taking place between the Palestinians and Israel. Doesn’t seem unreasonable to me to say to Israel, “Settlements are a bad thing. We can’t -- you can’t be an occupying power if you are truly serious about negotiation.”
WALLACE: Do you really think if there were Middle East peace, the Iranians wouldn’t be pursuing nuclear weapons?
WILLIAMS: No. I think the Iranians are acting like outlaws. I don’t have any question in my mind about that. But I think they use this as a pretext. And so many others use it as a pretext, including Osama bin Laden. So it’s time to remove it. It’s time to settle the issue.
And Charles argues for simply maintaining the status quo. “Oh, they’ve always -- they’ve been negotiating. No need for the -- any change. Why is the Obama administration going on to this arid ground?” It seems to me to the credit of any American administration to say, “Time to end this farce.”
WALLACE: Ten seconds for Mr. Krauthammer to respond to that personal attack. KRAUTHAMMER: Well, I’m in favor -- I’m in favor of negotiations. The Israelis and Palestinians were talking up until Obama came into office. He’s the one who undermined it by imposing a precondition. It makes no sense at all.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, I see we have peace in the Middle East, huh?
WALLACE: All right.
KRAUTHAMMER: We don’t even have talks.
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