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A Nobel Call for Mideast Peace

This year has been different. In picking up Martti Ahtisaari, former Finland president, the Nobel committee has honoured his eminent contribution to peace. There couldn’t have been a more deserving candidate, indeed.

Ahtisaari is widely respected for his work as a UN envoy and peacemaker in Asia, Africa and the Balkans. The former Finland president, who was deeply affected by the World War II, has worked hard to prevent another conflict in Europe.

However, it was his role in ending the ethnic cleansing of the Balkan Muslims by pushing the West to intervene in Kosovo that cannot be easily forgotten. As the Nobel Committee chief put it, no single UN official has worked for peace as much as Ahtisaari has.

This is why the world, especially the incoming US President Barack Obama, should pay attention to what he had to say in his Nobel acceptance speech in Oslo. Censuring the current US leadership for its failure to achieve for Middle East peace, Ahtisaari has urged Obama to move quickly on the Mideast front when he takes over from George W Bush. Asking the incoming US leader to give highest priority to the Middle East in his first year in office, the Nobel recipient said: “All crises, including the one in the Middle East, can be solved.” The Finland leader pointed out: “We cannot go on, year after year, simply pretending to do something to help the situation in the Middle East. We must also get results.”

We are not sure how many people watched the Nobel ceremony on Wednesday or listened to the acceptance speech. But it (speech) articulated the sentiments of peace-loving people in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The world has spent way too much time, resources and blood and tears on the Middle East conflict. It’s about time — way past time — it found a solution. The United States, thanks to its historical presence in the Middle East, its close ties to both Israel and Arabs and its superpower status, has to play a decisive role in finding such a solution.

Unfortunately, all US administrations have failed to take any meaningful steps on this front because they were either too close to Israel or lacked the necessary political will and courage to do so. However, the outgoing administration really takes the cake with its inept handling of the Middle East conflict and repeatedly squandering historic opportunities for peace.

Instead of reining in Israel and honouring his own commitment to a so-called viable, independent Palestinian state, Bush gave a carte blanche to Israel to do what it pleases with Palestinian land and people.

On the eve of the 2001 US invasion in Afghanistan, Bush promised an independent Palestine by 2005. But he readily accepted illegal Jewish settlements as “facts on the ground”. It’s no coincidence that the settlements have multiplied many times over the past few years.

Let’s hope Obama will learn from his predecessor and be a more just mediator. For as the Nobel laureate Ahtisaari says: “Peace is a question of will.” Does Obama have what it takes to make peace?