Washington – McCain: Send Bill Clinton To Negotiate Mideast Peace

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     FILE - Former US President Bill Clinton, appears to be in a heated conversation with a Jewish man wearing a knitted 'kippa,' or 'yamulka', as he visits the Western Wall, Judiaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem on 15 November 2009.  EPA/YOSSI ZAMIR ISRAEL OUTWashington – The United States needs to deploy a high-level envoy, like former President Bill Clinton, to help negotiate a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, a top U.S. politician said on Sunday.

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    Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who lost his 2008 presidential bid to President Barack Obama, said Washington needed to show it was serious about wanting peace in the Middle East and sending someone as senior as Clinton would help.

    “The United States of America has got to push as hard as we can to resolve this Israeli-Palestinian issue,” McCain said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “So many events are hinged on making that process go forward.”

    “I’d find someone even as high ranking as former President Bill Clinton to go and be the negotiator,” McCain said. “I know he’d hate me for saying, that but we need a person of enormous prestige and influence to have these parties sit down together as an honest broker.”

    In 2000 during his second term as president, Bill Clinton made a high-stakes Middle East peace push that ultimately failed. But he is widely perceived to have credibility with both Israelis and Palestinians.

    Obama, traveling in Asia, said on Sunday he would prefer not to see an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza but put the onus on Egypt and Turkey to get Hamas to halt cross-border rocket fire.

    Obama also warned those in the Middle East who support Palestinian aspirations for statehood that any peace deal would be pushed off “way into the future” if the Gaza conflict escalated.

    Like other top U.S. Republicans, McCain said the United States needed to be “as heavily involved as it possibly can” in the latest conflict, which has been escalating in five days of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

    But he said he did not know how much influence the Obama administration would have, following failed efforts in 2009 to help bridge differences between Israelis and Palestinians.

    “We have a lot of work to do to regain some credibility because we’re crumbling all over the Middle East,” McCain said.


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    16 Comments
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    cool-3931
    cool-3931
    11 years ago

    There is nothing to negotiate… you know that Mr McCain. What’s it going to help sending Bill Clinton if Hamas are bent on one thing. It’s high time we finish the job…. and I think we are.

    11 years ago

    Sensible idea. I would of course like to see if Mr. Obama might visit there in his next week or so if he can make that work but if not, Clinton is a good alternative. I think that its definately time for Obama to visit Israel and likely before this year is out at the very least considering the conflaguration.

    Teddybear
    Teddybear
    11 years ago

    How could u rely on Morsi to make a truce ? He is one of de Hamas he is 1 sided

    11 years ago

    Its sad watching a once-great U.S. Senator and war hero deteriorate so quickly and make a fool of himself on issue after issue. He keeps ranting about anti-Obama conspiracy theories and starting new wars against Iran and spending hundreds of billions of dollars for weapons the military doesn’t want. The American people rejected him personally and his policies 4 years ago but since them he has slid downhill in his pathetic efforts to position himself as a right-wing neocon. Whether its dementia or simply bad policy, this man is dangerous and should be ignored.

    honestbroker
    honestbroker
    11 years ago

    Bill would be happy to go . Perhaps those muslim potentates will give him some pointers on building a harem!

    DRE53
    DRE53
    11 years ago

    I don’t think there’s any chance of negotiations while Bibi is at the helm. Many former top israeli military experts stated that bibi is obsessed with war be it Iran or Chamas.
    Being before elections, Bibi believes that this war will show him as a strong leader.
    I hope that at the end of the day israelies will realize that he’s only bringing more problems and bloodshed to the region.

    CommonSense
    CommonSense
    11 years ago

    Hey. Isn’t McCain the guy you wanted instead of Obama 4 years ago?

    username
    username
    11 years ago

    Why not, they’re digging up Arafat – these two couldn’t do any more damage than last time.

    11 years ago

    Let him start with talking to Hamas. He must be instructed that nothing other than total cessation of any and all forms of violence will be a starting point. There is a zero track record in trusting any Arab, let alone those whose career is terror and the goal destruction of Israel. Once he gets that, then, but not earlier, should he be given an audience with any Israeli leader. The discovery will be that there will no commitment from Hamas, and the world will see that they can never be a partner in diplomacy. I also would recommend that Israel not withhold its fire while he visits Gaza.

    MBYIsrael
    MBYIsrael
    11 years ago

    He can stay the He;; away from here along with his repulsive wife. We don’t need you to “negotiate” us into oblivion. We’re not your colony. We’re a SOVEREIGN NATION. Get over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!