22/02/2010 US President Barack Obama’s decision to re-appoint an ambassador to Syria was a “mistake,” US Congressman Eliot Engel (D-New York) told The Jerusalem Post. Engel was the sponsor of a 2003 bill calling for sanctions against Syria if it doesn’t end support for “terrorism” and “leave Lebanon”.
In reference to the brouhaha over the Foreign Ministry’s decision not to meet with “J Street” members accompanying a delegation of US congressman, Engel – who was in the occupied Palestinian territories last week – defended the officials’ right to meet with whom it saw fit. “It’s up to Israeli officials to decide who they will meet with, and who not to meet with,” he said.He pointed out that a number of the congressmen that J Street brought over vote against Israel on resolutions that generally carry massive support on the House floor. For instance, two of those congressman – California Democrats Lois Capps and Bob Filner – voted against House Resolution 867 that slammed the Goldstone Report and re-affirmed “Israel’s right to self-defense”.
Engel, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a staunch supporter of Israel in the House, said J Street takes “positions in Washington I have difficulty with.”
Regarding the appointment last week of Robert Ford as Washington’s first envoy to Syria in five years, Engel said he had “reservations” about the move, saying that Damascus has been “obstructionist” and is a huge supporter of Iran, which “right now is the worst player in the region.”
“Iran right now is attempting to develop a nuclear bomb, is a major financer of international terrorism, and Syria is right by their side,” Engel said. “Both Iran and Syria, in my opinion, play a destabilizing role in Lebanon, and I just haven’t seen a sign of any moderation on behalf of the Syrians. We have been down this road before.”
Engel said he viewed appointing an ambassador to Damascus as a mistake, “unless Syria has agreed to something I am not privy to behind the scenes, making themselves helpful, ready to take some steps away from Iran, ready to cooperate in the region for peace and stability. “If there was a wink and a nod and some quid pro quo, then there is some rationale for the move, but short of that, I don’t see any rationale in it at this time.”
Engel said it was pretty clear that a year of Obama’s engagement policy toward Iran has “pretty much failed, and that all the Iranians are doing are playing for time to get more time to build the bomb.” Engel said the Obama administration understood this now, which is why it was stepping up its call for sanctions against Tehran.
“Another way to pressure Iran is to isolate it,” which Engel assumed was one of the reasons for the reappointment of an ambassador to Syria, hoping that this would be a way to tear Syria out of the Iranian orbit.
Asked about Obama’s overall Middle East policy, Engel – one of the first Democratic congressmen who broke with Obama’s polices on “Israel” early on – said that the administration clearly “made some mistakes getting out of the box.” Engel said Obama erred in publicly pressing the settlement issue, something that made Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “dig in his heels.”
Likewise, he said, by publicly pressuring Israel, and not simultaneously pressing the Palestinians on any issues, “it just gives the wrong impression.” This, he said, turned Israeli public opinion against the president, “and it is very hard for the Israeli government to make concessions when the population is feeling beleaguered and kind of betrayed, in a way, by the US.”
However, he added, the administration has been “extremely helpful in terms of helping Israel maintain its qualitative military edge in the region.” Unwilling to go into details, Engel said that various arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf states that were approved during the last year of the Bush administration had significantly eroded Israel’s military edge.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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