Daniel Levy writes:
On hearing the announcement of Senator George Mitchell’s resignation as special envoy for Middle East peace, I skype-messaged the news to a friend in Israel known for her biting sarcasm. Her response was quick in coming and did not disappoint: “Mitchell is still the envoy, who knew?”
There’s been quite a lot happening in the Middle East recently, and the Israeli-Palestinian equation has not been left untouched. Yet the special envoy for Middle East peace has not been to the Middle East since mid-December.
Sen. Mitchell was prone to remind audiences that in his last stint as a peace envoy, working on Northern Ireland, he had “700 days of failure and one day of success.” Resignation day marked Sen. Mitchell’s 842nd day on the Middle East peace beat, but this time around there were no “days of success.” Mitchell’s original appointment came on Obama’s second full day of office and was greeted in certain quarters with some enthusiasm and hope (including by this writer). In 2001, working with a strong back-office, he had produced the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee Report, noteworthy for its depth and sophistication of analysis. It is hard not to conclude that this time around, Sen. Mitchell has disappointed.
Not all of the blame belongs at Mitchell’s door, of course. Throwing an envoy at a problem, even one with a distinguished record, is no substitute for a smart, strategic policy. Apparently the first misstep of the Obama administration on Mideast peace was its failure to step back and conduct a thorough review of what had already been tried, why things were so stuck, and to look at the structural flaws in the peace process they had inherited.
I suspect that Mitchell decided to resign now because of Netanyahu’s upcoming “grand address” to the fawning, subservient US Congress. It would have ben awkward to have resigned afterwards.
Mitchell is not a stupid man…I imagine he realized fairly quickly that Obama was going to be no different than previous adms and no matter what he worked out no pressure or follow thru would come from the US to implement anything.
I think he slugged it out as long as he could.
And finally quit realizing it ain’t going to happen.
Renfro has a point. KABUKI, is just that, theatrical! So this week, the U.S. public will be treated to more of the same. Too bad that the “O” hadn’t sold out before he was sworn in as P.O.T.U.S. He had everything going for him, now, well, like the Bush, the truth will come out shortly after he leaves office. But one has to wonder why he did, when his children will have to face the truth that he avoids today.