Congratulations on your election to President of the United States. The awesome responsibilities to the citizens of the United States and to the rest of the world come with both possibilities and resolutions for some of the most difficult challenges facing humanity today.
The place of the US among nations is a major concern to many. The peace process in the Middle East affects not only regional stability, but also the economic wellbeing of many nations. Energy policy and foreign policy must go hand in hand, along with human rights and economic policy.
The Middle East is the melting pot of economic, social, and political issues and boiled by the intensity of religion.
Most important among the issues facing the peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians is the sincerity of Palestinian Chairman Yasir Arafat. Chairman Arafat has played a tremendous game of making the Israelis negotiate against themselves and their positions. However, he has not signaled his intentions as to what the Palestinian people would consider acceptable. Chairman Arafat has to show his own position to the Israelis. Without the Palestinian position to work from, no deal would be possible.
Camp David was possible, in part, because both Sadat and Begin came to the bargaining table with positions that could be worked from. Here, the lack of a tangible Palestinian position that could be debated in public and negotiated from is the Achilles Heel.
As for the other major regional dispute, Iraq must be forced into accepting renewed inspections for weapons of mass destruction. The last 10 years have seen the US and her allies arrayed against the Iraqi regime and maintained a low intensity conflict after Desert Storm. This has not seen any tangible result except the continued resilience of the Hussein government and his ability to turn a difficult situation into a personal achievement. Continuing the sanctions is only one part of a concerted effort to conclude the Iraqi situation.
This goes hand in hand with the energy policy here in the United States. Opening up new regions for oil exploration is a shortsighted policy that does not reach to the very heart of our dependence on petroleum. The United States must examine alternative energy resources. New oil exploration will not curb current prices, nor will it alleviate demand. The Middle East will continue tremendous amounts of oil for our consumption and reducing the tensions in the region will go a long way to reducing the costs of doing business.
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