Israel is the Issue

Recently, Egyptian officials, conferring with Secretary of State Rice, issued a "plea to promote Palestinian statehood to calm the Mideast." (New York Times 10/22/06) Similarly, world leaders, meeting in Turkey, announced an Alliance of Civilizations Initiative whose aim is to resolve the conflict between the Muslim world and the West. The New York Times reported that at the meeting, the "Israel-Palestinian conflict is seen as the key source of division." (New York Times 11/14/06) In London the same day, British Prime Minister Tony Blair delivered a major foreign policy address: "Mr. Blair called a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians 'the core' of the broader effort for peace." (New York Times 11/14/06) The following day, the Iraq Study Group interviewed Prime Minister Blair by video link. According to a British official, "The prime minister told the panel that the key to the region's problems was a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians." (New York Times 11/15/06) On ABC's "The Week with George Stephanopoulos" (11/26/06) , King Abdullah II of Jordan, echoing these sentiments, stated, "We do want to concentrate ourselves on the core issues which we believe are the Palestinians and the Palestinian peace process because that is a must today." "The issue is we have not been able to deal with the core problems of the Middle East." "For the majority of us living in this part of the world, it has always been the Israeli/Palestinian, Israeli/Arab problem." "the priority I believe today in the long term is the Israeli/Palestinian one because it resonates beyond the borders of the Arab and Muslim world." "it is still the emotional core issue for our part of the world." "the emotional impact that the Israeli/Palestinian problem has on the ground can be translated to the insecurity and the frustrations throughout the Middle East and Arab world. For me, that is the priority."