WORLD - Middle East Peace, Test of U.S. Principles

"Obama's Palestinian Statehood Talks Get 'Subdued' Response at U.N." (Part-1) PBS Newshour 9/21//2011

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): President Obama sought today to head off the Palestinians' bid for recognition as a state by the United Nations. He spoke to the U.N. General Assembly for the third time since taking office.

The president had made clear he would make Middle East peace the focus of today's address. He set the stage by recounting what he called a remarkable year that saw the killing of Osama bin Laden, as well as Arab spring uprisings that have brought down decades-old regimes in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.

U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Something's happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way that they will be. The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open.

The promise written down on paper, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights," is closer at hand.

JEFFREY BROWN: The president then turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, acknowledging that, for many in the hall, it stands as a key test of those principles.

"U.S. Standing in Mideast May Pivot on Palestinian Statehood Bid" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 9/21//2011

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN: And to a bigger-picture look at all this now with two men with extensive high-level diplomacy experience.

Zbigniew Brzezinski was national security adviser during the Carter administration and is now a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Richard Haass served at the State Department and National Security Council for Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush. He's now president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Additional excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN: What about -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, we have now -- several -- we have all raised this larger context. The president called it the remarkable year of the Arab spring, but that's clearly brought some new complications to all this, and also -- I mean, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the entire U.S. posture vis-a-vis the Middle East.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, Former U.S. National Security Adviser: Well, you're absolutely right.

I think what's happening in the Middle East is clearly a sea change in the direction of continued decline, accelerating decline, and eventually termination of the central role that the United States has been playing in that region since the end of World War II. We were welcomed into the Middle East by the Arabs because they saw in us a party that wasn't part of this imperial colonial tradition of the British and the French that were dominating the region.

But over the last 50 years or so, they have become increasingly dismayed by our unwillingness to address seriously the problems particularly arising out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I think this week may be decisive. If we don't recoup, I think we will really be witnessing in the near future the end of the American role in the Middle East. And that will be disastrous for the United States in the first place, in the longer run for Israel.

So, in fact, a lot of issues are at stake here.

My opinion, if we (the U.S.) veto recognition of the Palestinian State in the UN Security Counsel we would NOT be standing on principle. What we SHOULD do is abstain.