Alon Ben-Meir, professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs, New York University, says when President Obama meets PM Netanyahu, there will still not be any concrete proposals for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“64 per cent of the American public support Israel and, in an election, neither every campaigner nor president is going to ignore what the American public wants and wants to see happen. So he is not going to go into details about what is required. I think that he is going to speak in general terms about the need of a two-state solution and compromise,” supposes Ben-Meir.Thus, he believes a roadmap to achieve creation of Palestinian state is not on Obama’s agenda. But there is a different danger to Israel.Palestinians, looking at the riots in many countries of the Arab world against their own governments, might ask themselves “why shouldn’t we rise against our occupation?” believes Ben-Meir.“It is provided that the momentum gives the Palestinians the opportunity to demonstrate that they had enough of occupation and that they want to bring it to an end,” he says.Alon Ben-Meir warns that such developments are not altogether impossible, particularly if hundreds of Palestinian protestors are replaced with dozens of thousands from all territories surrounding Israel, from the West Bank and Gaza to Lebanon.“This is the major problem Israel has to be prepared [for],” he says, and had “better be willing to address sooner then later.”