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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 3, January 16-January 29, 2009

George J. Mitchell, the New Middle East Envoy

US President Barack Obama’s administration named George J. Mitchell special envoy to the Middle East last week, prompting mixed reactions from Israeli and Palestinian supporters.

According to the New York Times, Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader and chairman of a Middle East peace commission in 2001, signals that "[President] Barack Obama was attaching a high priority to the Middle East and the current Gaza crisis from his first days in office."

Upon his appointment, Mitchell said, "The situation in the Middle East is volatile, complex and dangerous. But the president and the secretary of state [Hillary Clinton] have made it clear that danger and difficulty cannot cause the United States to turn away," writes CNN.

"The appointment of a high-level envoy like Mitchell may be intended to create the impression of intense administration activity when, in reality, the new president hopes to just keep the conflict from boiling over while focusing on more immediate problems like the tanking economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," some observers told Jewish Week.

Mitchell, who is of Irish and Lebanese descent, helped broker the "Good Friday" agreement in Northern Ireland and led an international commission to investigate the causes of violence in the Middle East. Its report, published in 2001, "called for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism," wrote the New York Times.

The appointment of Mr. Mitchell is a strong suggestion "that Obama is going to free himself of the exclusive relationship that we’ve had with the Israelis," said Aaron David Miller, a public policy analyst at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, to Jewish Week. "They’re trying to inject more balance into the Israeli-US relationship."

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told Jewish Week, "Sen. Mitchell is fair…but the fact is, American policy in the Middle East hasn’t been even handed – it has been supportive of Israel when it felt Israel needed critical US support."

According to David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, "Managing the current conflict and laying the groundwork for a more extensive peace process once conditions have improved" may confirm Mitchell as the appropriate, long term choice. "He has the respect of both sides, and he would have direct access to top administration officials, which is very important."

Mitchell’s lack of personal connections to Israel and a reputation for building relationships with all parties in negotiations is a change and could spark opposition from some pro-Israel groups who have grown accustomed to the hands-off approach of the former Bush administration.

"[Mitchell] made it clear he sympathized with the Palestinian position over the Israeli position, and blamed Israel more than the Palestinians for the lack of progress toward peace," Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told Jewish Week. "We will be expressing our strong concerns that this appointment would be a mistake. It would send an additional message that Obama is going to pressure Israel more than the Palestinians."

According to MJ Rosenberg, policy director for the Israel Policy Forum, pro-Israel groups "favor the kind of mediator with the least prospects of success. George Mitchell worries them because he was so successful in Northern Ireland, a success that was built on his persistence and his utterly impartiality ... and a deal means Israeli concessions which they have never favored. The stronger the candidate for envoy or mediator — the more of an honest broker he or she would be -- the more uncomfortable they are."

Yet, Diane Balser, executive director of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, believes that Jewish voters anticipated the change. "They knew they were voting for a candidate [Obama] who stresses diplomacy and not military solutions. They understood they were voting for a break with current policy," she told Jewish Week.

For his part, Mitchell believes in the possibility of coexisting Jewish and Palestinian states and an end to the conflict, says CNN. "From my experience [in Northern Ireland], I formed the conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended. Conflicts are created, conducted and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings," remarked Mitchell.

Arabic Media Shack remains cautious. "Simply appointing someone to be an envoy, in itself, will not be perceived by the Arab states as significant, unless it’s followed by a serious sustained campaign with the clear backing of the highest levels of the administration."