Send Bush as Middle East Envoy: Ami Eden notes that "Writing in Newsweek, Gregory Levey argues that President Obama should tap President George W. Bush to be his Middle East envoy..."
Levey writes: "During the Bush years, Israelis were consistently among the few foreign populations that gave the American president high approval marks -- often in far greater proportion than Americans themselves... Neither Obama nor his proxies enjoy anywhere near the same level of faith. ..."
How does this make any sense. Send someone who is a proxy for the Israelis and whose every proposal will be seen as an Israeli proposal and not as a third-party U.S. proposal? This makes no sense at all.
Obama is in a much stronger position to move the Palestinians towards the measures that they have to take to make negotiation acceptable - unfortunately, there is no Israeli partner anymore either. So, for the time being, Obama would best serve the interests of the Middle East by keeping an engaged mediator who will help to defuse tensions and keep low-level talks going until both parties are ready and able to move to more serious final stage talks.
