An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

Dear Secretary of State Clinton,
We know what you are trying to do and we appreciate it, but frankly, the act is getting a little tired.  We're talking 1980's power ballad tired where the only difference is substituting a hand shake for a guitar solo.  We understand that it is a part of your job and that peace between the Palestinians and Israel would be killer but seriously Mrs. Clinton, a sit-down?  I know, I know, Jimmy Carter landed some serious props at the time for the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. Heck, it even nabbed Anwar El Sadat and Menachem Begin a Nobel Peace Prize.  And sure, we remember hubby trying his luck in 2000 when he invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat to join him at Camp David.  In the end though, these sit-downs went the Lady Gaga route and provided style over substance.  There is no doubting the pub for any sitdown but I have to ask Mrs. Clinton: What makes this time any different?

Despite the media drawing power, these sit-downs have provided very little progress in the past in the way of Middle Eastern relations.  In fact, many Americans have become very disillusioned with the prospect of Middle Eastern peace.  In a Gallup poll dating back to earlier this year, 67 percent of Americans never believe there will come a time when the Middle East will live in peace.  This, of course, can mostly be put on the players in this divine comedy as well as the previous administration, which made your job much tougher with their backseat policies towards the Middle East.  However, our president did promise change and frankly Mrs. Clinton, this plan seems very stale.  The American people certainly don't expect you to be able to change the dynamic in the Middle East overnight.  After all, we are realists and we understand that the differences between the Palestinians and Israel are more complex than a James Joyce novel, but some new ideas would be nice.  Let's be honest, in the best case scenario a meeting will be held, some sort of deal about Israeli development on the West Bank and the future of a Palestinian state will be brokered, and then people will shake hands.  But even in the best case scenario, Benjamin Netanyahu will still be an Israeli and Mahmoud Abbas will still be a Palestinian, which means, Mrs. Clinton, you can expect broken promises and broken dreams.

About Me

Hi my name is Tyler Larson and I am a super senior at Illinois State University.  Despite what this previous sentence may imply, I do plan on graduating soon and will most likely be done by the end of the semester in December.

For this blog and POL 312, I have chosen to focus on America's foreign policy towards the Middle East and how it affects us as a nation.  Specifically, I would like to delve deeper into American foreign policy concerning the conflict between Iran and Israel because, along with China and the conflict between the Korean nations, it is one of the single most pressing foreign issues of our time.