Archive for the ‘Interview Given by David Makovsky’ Category
December 1st, 2009 | 
Author: David’s interview with BBC yesterday, commenting on PM Netanyahu’s announcement of a 10 month settlement freeze in the West Bank and the U.S. response to that announcement by George Mitchell, can be watched at:
http://mms.tveyes.com/MediaCenter/20230/390287.6233/BBC24_11-25-2009_20.33.44.wmv.
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Clinton’s Middle East message seems to misfire
by Laura Rozen
11/01/10
…another Washington Middle East hand said the Obama administration had no choice but to start backing itself out of its own corner in the form of a drawn-out fight with the Netanyahu government on a full settlement freeze to try to get to the main event. “It was the policy of the early months of the Obama administration that boxed in Abu Mazen,” said the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s David Makovsky, co-author with the National Security Council’s Dennis Ross of a new book, “Myths, Illusions, and Peace.”
“Once the U.S. said ‘freeze,’ it raised Arab expectations to such a point that Abu Mazen could not agree to less. He cannot be more of a Zionist than the U.S. There have been consequences for the early approach. If the Obama administration would have said no geographic expansion of settlements from the outset instead of saying freeze, we would not have lost eight months of time and wasted the political capital of the president. President Obama would not have been at single digits in Israeli polls, and Abu Mazen would not have been out on the limb. Critically, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations would have most likely already commenced.
“Now the dynamic will be driven by whether there is a Palestinian election or not,” Makovsky continued. “A law of Mideast peacemaking is that compromises do not occur during a Palestinian or Israeli election campaign. If Abu Mazen heads for elections, he will find it convenient not to budge so he can flex his nationalist muscles. If this is his intention, Obama administration peacemaking will be on hold until the Palestinian elections end in early 2010.”
Click here to read the article in full
An extensive article published in the Jerusalem Post this weekend examined David Makovsky’s thoughts on the Middle East and the peace process as it stands today. It also looks at the themes and impact of Myths, Illusions, & Peace. Here’s a quote from the article:
Seizing the moment
by Haviv Rettig Gur
Myths, Illusions and Peace is at its core an argument against the theory that has been popular for many years among Arabists and policy wonks in Washington, one repeated by too many Arab leaders to ignore: That the Middle East’s deep and abiding tensions draw much of their energy from the conflict with Israel, and specifically the unfair fight between Israel and the Palestinians.
This argument has profound ramifications for policymaking. Linkage can harm peace, as in the initial reluctance of the Carter administration to help launch the Israeli-Egyptian peace process because they were not convinced that Sadat’s idea to break with the Arab consensus could work.
KCBS News Interviews and Analysis
September 22nd, 2009
Middle East Peace Talks
David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy discusses President Obama’s meeting with Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president today.
To listen to the full audio interview click here
Obama Says Israel, Palestinians Must Act With Urgency
At the start of his first joint meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama said his special envoy, George Mitchell, will meet with Palestinian and Israeli negotiators next week. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will report on the status of those efforts next month, he said in New York.
By Kate Andersen Brower and Jonathan Ferziger
September 22nd, 2009
David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, said the three-way meeting is a “good first step.”
“You obviously cannot have negotiations unless you can get Netanyahu and Abbas in the same room. With the ice broken, hopefully the diplomatic thaw is now possible,” said Makovsky, co-author of a book on Middle East peacemaking with Obama’s senior adviser on the region, Dennis Ross.