Unfortunately for Israel as well as the United States, the past 10 years provide ample evidence that our core argument is still correct. ...
The clearest illustration of the lobby’s enduring power is the Obama administration’s failure to make any progress on settling the Israel-Palestinian conflict. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were strong supporters of Israel, and both believe a two-state solution is, as Obama put it, “in Israel’s interest, Palestine’s interest, America’s interest and the world’s interest.” But even with backing from pro-peace, pro-Israel organizations such as J Street, their efforts to achieve “two states for two peoples” were rebuffed by Israel, working hand in hand with AIPAC and other hard-line groups. So instead of seriously pursuing peace, Israel expanded its settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, making it more difficult than ever to create a viable Palestinian state.
Given AIPAC’s enduring influence in Congress and its unyielding opposition to any meaningful compromise with the Palestinians, Obama and Kerry ultimately could offer Israel only additional carrots (such as increased military aid) to try to win their cooperation. Like their predecessors, they could not put pressure on Israel to compromise by threatening to reduce U.S. support significantly. As a result, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had little incentive to make a deal. The result is that the two-state solution, which the United States has long sought and Netanyahu has long opposed, is now further away than ever. This outcome is bad for the United States and for Israel.
Haaretz reported last summer that the US proposed a peace plan in 2014 that Netanyahu accepted and that Abbas rejected. They then sweetened it and Abbas never responded.
Walt is, simply, a liar. It wasn't Israeli intransigence that impeded peace - it was Palestinian rejectionism. Netanyahu accepted it. AIPAC would have accepted it.
The facts are clear, but Walt doesn't want you to know the facts. He wants to pretend that J-Street is a powerful movement for peace that assisted Obama instead of an obscure group that Obama raised in order to counter AIPAC and the wishes of most American Jews and Zionists - including those of us who desperately want peace.
He doesn't want to mention Obama's allowing an anti-Israel resolution to pass in the UN Security Council, instead pretending that even Obama was forced to kneel before the all-powerful lobby that he ignored.
He doesn't want to mention that the Obama administration's coddling of Abbas and the PA, offering only carrots and no sticks, is what contributed to Abbas' intransigence - by Abbas' own words.
Later on, showing how Walt is lying when he pretends to want peace and is working in Israel's own interests, he refers to the rabidly anti-Israel "Jewish Voice for Peace" as a "progressive group".
The anti-Israel crowd has no arguments - so they must resort to lies. And The Forward is their medium of choice (along with Haaretz, which has not revisited its own scoop so as not to remind readers that the "extremist right-wing Likud" was the party that wants peace and the "moderate peace-loving Palestinians" are the ones who consistently reject any attempts.